It seems as though many R owners have moved on to STi's and EVOs, or are considering it.
Many of you have expressed your desire for the EVO because its handling reminds you of your ITR, but are afraid because you think it will break all the time.
Well, i recently had a discussion with the service manager at my local SUBARU dealership about this very issue, and i think many of you will find it interesting what he had to say.

He said that both the EVO and STi are designed to be driven hard. And with most owners in the 18-25 yr age group, they do just that. But why can't the EVO stand up to the abuse? Because that's exactly what it is........abuse, and the Subarus are absolutely no different. (believe me my WRX is no exception).
Believe it or not, the EVO was built to be beaten on the autox course and around the race track, BUT it seems owners are "misusing" the car if you will. Just because the car is AWD does NOT mean you are supposed to do 5k clutch drops or even clutch slips to "launch" the car! A lot of people get in the car first thing in the morning and launch and redline it before it has a proper chance to warm up. NO CARS are meant to stand up to this kind of abuse. (Yes, he said that he is willing to bet that if you did that with your Honda, it would break too).

He said a lot of people that buy these cars simply don't know how to drive them. You can do burnouts and clutch drops in your fwd cars even frequently and it isn't terrible, but you CANT DO THAT WITH AWD!! He said that these cars are taken beyond driven hard (typical autoxing and HPDEs), and just plain beaten to hell and back (as described above).

So why the EVO more than the STi? Well, to tell the truth, he said, he gets tons of STis in that are clearly abused and have stuff broken on them as a direct result of this abuse. He believes that the STi is just as prone to "reliability issues" as the EVO..............Suprised?
He went on to say that since the EVO does preform better (or what a lot of ITR owners would consider performance, mainly at an autox or track day), he would own one before he would own an STi. I couldn't believe it!

Sorry for the length, but the point of this thread is to tell you that if you like the EVO better, by all means GET IT. Don't make the performance sacrifice and get the STi just because you think it will hold up better..........it won't. (or so seems to be the opinion of a Subaru service manager).

And i don't want to start a discussion/argument about the voiding warrantys issue.....that's not the idea of this thread. BOTH companies do it in some cases. (i autox regularly with plenty of both STis and EVOs both of which still have intact warranties). So no, neither company goes out on a warranty-voiding rampage, but it does happen......unfortunately to the SCCA folk who actually use the cars for what they're supposed to be used for, and not the dumb ricers who just race them on the street.

 

Good read.

 

I think thats a sales pitch, i know numerous subaru WRX/STi and EVO owners and the majority of them baby their cars and do not abuse them, but they have had countless reliability issues with various parst failing etc etc. In my opinion because of the high state of tune of the engines (250-280bhp- 100% of EVOs in my country are JDM imports and approx 90% of WRXs/STi's) these engines are prone to failures of some sort at some stage or other. Saying that i do know owners who have also never had anything go wrong with engines/gearboxes in their cars but these are a small minority compared to those who have had problems

 

the evo is still mitsu quality. i think that is all that needs to be said.

 

My boy from Clackamas is right on. Mitsubishi has a reputation for **** quality in Japan and world wide for a reason.

Why else do you think the Japanese govt won't buy Mitsu's ****?
-Chris (from Gladstone)

 

gladstone

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by chris1866 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">A lot of people get in the car first thing in the morning and launch and redline it before it has a proper chance to warm up. NO CARS are meant to stand up to this kind of abuse. (Yes, he said that he is willing to bet that if you did that with your Honda, it would break too).
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Not possible with a honda

Only Honda that may have enough torque is a Type R

 

I would buy an EVO but I cant afford the payments and I will still keep my R. I like the idea of when I drive my R that their aint a lot of people with them. We are rare one of a kind and a dying breed all at the same time.

 

Wow! Thank you sir for such an enlightening point. Im sure no one here has even ever had the thought that abusing a car is bad cross their mind. Thanks Captain Obvious.