About the tranny thing. STi trannies are pretty good. The WRX ones are the ones that sucks. Most of the tranny issues you will see is because people abuse them and dump the clutch on them. I just wanted to clear that up.

 

I have owned both. 05 MR new for 11 months; 06 STI for 7 months. Here is my experience:

1) Stock power, the STI felt faster & funner than the Evo. That was an 05 Evo 8, the IXs of course are a whole 'nother case.

2) Modded power. I had full exhaust on both, Xede (non-smart) on the Evo and Cobb stage II. The STI "felt" like it was a bigger improvement than my Shiv-tuned Xede. Plus I had a cold start problem with the Xede that I never fixed. Sadly, I didn't buy my G-Tech until I had the STI, so I couldn't definitively nail down which one was truly faster. The STI always felt better, because the usable powerband was so much wider. Evo pulled harder from 3500-5500 RPMS, but was relatively flat everywhere else. Had to work on keeping it spooled.

3) Handling. Evo hands-down. I put tanabe GF210s on the STI, and it actually improved the ****ty stock bouncy ride. My wife actually would not ride in the STI cause it was so bouncing. I was constantly oversteering in the STI when getting on the gas. Only did that once in the Evo, in the rain.

4) Shifting. STI was way cleaner. I was constantly missing shifts/limpwristing the evo, never did in the STI. However STI ratios are waaay shorter, it'll redline before 60Mph in 2nd. Have to shift to 5th in 1/4 blech.

5) Modding. STI FTL. Once you do an exhaust and off the shelf tune, you are done until you consider a turbo upgrade. Then you'll blow out the ****ty cast pistons. The guy at PDX tuning told me to upgrade the pistons and rods to cast when I had only 300 miles on it because then they wouldn't have to rehone the cylinder walls. I said why and he says "they all blow eventually if you run a few PSI over stock". The STI can make good power, but it is probably going to break, even on the stock turbo. Co-worker's STI has a crapload of lead and stuff in the used oil analysis, it's worn out with 30,000 miles with a custom tune ran hard.

6) Seats. STI seats suck bad.

7) Sound. The boxer rumble is stupid. Yeah, it sounds different and is distinctive, it robs power. The way it works is that the two exhaust sides are different length, so the pulse from the opposing cylinders actually collides on the way out, and thus sounds twice as loud yet half as often. Creates serious backpressure and robs performance. Put on an equal-length manifold on it, nets a minimum 30 HP, maybe more tuned. Then it sounds like an Evo. Crappy tradeoff if you ask me.

9) If you put a bigger exhaust on it, you'll have boost creep. Basically the ECU will cut fuel and throw a code if it detects more than about 17psi for more than a few seconds. It naturally boosts that much higher simply by freeing up the exhaust and the crappy hotside doesn't let the wastegate do its job without a porting. I did so myself (it was acutally pretty fun) but it car was basically screwed up without the porting job.

10) Back seat in the STI is pathetically smaller.

11) The cruise and appearance of the guages in the STI is vastly superior.

12) STI got a lot worse mileage. I got about 14 in it, and maybe 18 in my Evo.

So while I have a lot of negatives, I actually enjoyed the STI more. If you aren't into modding, nor timed events, I think the STI is a little better setup for street use. I modded the STI more, and had a better experience with Cobb than my Xede. Am glad to have experienced both, but have moved on to other pursuits.

 

I never knew that the exhaust sides were different lengths. So, I guess Sti's aren't necessarily supposed to sound like that.

Either way, all of the possible comparisons have been made above. Evo>Sti. Now, is your Evo IX tuned with the mods that you have? If so, then you know first hand that the Evo is much better. It would be one thing to put an exhaust, mbc, intake, and tune on the car and call it day. If you were only going as far as those basic mods, then choose either of the two cars (knowing that the Evo will still be faster). We don't know your plans for the car or if you plan drag racing or auto-x/road racing with the car.

I will say this though, everyone on these boards know that the Evo overall is better than the Sti; however, the exhaust note of the Sti is absolutely to die for. Listening to an Sti with a full TBE w/test pipe is orgasmic. An Sti with an exhaust is probably one of the (if not best) best sounding cars you can buy for under $100,000. I love my Evo with my exhaust and everything, but the sound of the Sti is so much better. The way a car sounds is very important to me.

 

Good choice on keeping the Evo, Evo>>>>>>STi... But the STi isn't as bad as people make it out to be, its probably only a fraction different than the Evo with equal tires. But the Evo is by far more fun to drive, which is all that really matters.

You mean the sound of a boxer engine? I fully disagree with your under 100k statement, at least the (if not best) part. But I am a little biased.

 

Well the reason I was saying that is because there are only a few cars that sound like that. An Sti with TBE has a great lope to it and sounds like a cammed V8. The only other cars that sound better are porsche 911 carreras with a great exhaust from ruf or something. Other than that, you would need to go up to a GT3 which cost's $99,999. Then, the 911 Turbo which cost's $130,000.

I'm just saying that there isn't many cars that can have a more freely flowing exhaust on them and sound better the Sti.

 

I've read that the 07's are breaking ring lands with a simple exhaust. Apparently they run VERY lean from the factory.

My opinion on this matter is simple. Keep your EVO. The EVO looks better, the wing is better, shifter placement is in a better position, and the 9's interior looks better. I'm not talking about quality, just looks. The STI's interior does seem better made. People complaining on missing gears in the EVO need to learn to shift the car correctly. Possibly changing you hand position on each gear change will help with that.

Like one previous poster said, once you've added a few mods to the STI your pretty much done until you bite the bullet and do a turbo upgrade. If thats the case, keep the EVO and make more power with the stocker or even upgrade the turbo and make even better power with being more reliable.

The STI's and Subaru's in general sound like garbage IMO. They sound like they are running with one dead cylinder. Put some equal length headers on them and they sound good. I like the way the STI's look and the newer front end has grown on me, but I don't think I would ever get rid of my EVO for a STI........ever.

 

Its not all wrx trannys its just the 02-03's. The big valley sti is running 700 hp on the stock 6 speed. Im not an sti lover by any means, but if the MR had that tranny i would have bought one.

 

I drove a lot of STI's in my time from stock to 700hp, an I would still prefer a evo!

 

 

stop doing drugs.

 

i had an sti ,,,,,hatedddd it