I agree with all these statements with the exception of the STI transmission which in my opinion is stronger than the Evo's. The regular WRX transmission though that is much weaker.

 

I have an 06 IX MR - Clutch, Timing belt, Turbo Kit, Various bolt ons.

Brother - 05 WRX STI - Clutch, Turbo Kit, Boltons... hard inlet etc.

All of the mods have been done by us, in a garage with no lift.


Evo -
-To me the evo always seems to be mechanically harder to work on. (with exception of plugs) - even though we didnt find them that hard to do on the sti
-WAY more help, professional write ups ect.
-Robust - You can instally any number of parts on and evo and it will always fire up.
-Selection of parts also seems to be higher.

STI
-Seems easier to work on.., I have not replaced pistons in one though.
-The suby world seems to be so secret, specially here in salt lake where cobb is. Not many write ups (compared to the evo).
-Picky, the sti is the most pickey car ive ever seen, you cant do anything without th ecu freaking out, after injectors you need a seperate map to even start the car.
-Parts selection is much less, on the same note the quality of STI parts seems to be better, not nearly as much knock off garbage out there.

As to specific questions -
EVO Tranny - Is strong but not bulletproof. - But if you spend the money it can be solid rock. Its easy to get out of the car, minus the throw out bearing retainer. -- Most of the hard core guys use the 5speed. (the suby is way easier but you need to rent a storage shed to store it, that thing is danm near as big as the sti itself). You will see a few threads with the ACD being trashed, in most cases its 7k rpm launches on a stock tranny, with 500hp to the wheels.

EVO cam swap - As my car sits in the garage with a new timing belt, cams, springs, retainers (all done while the motor is in the car) - If you go with 272s, youre right its easy. - If your cams require springs and retainers, and you choose not to take the head off, its quite the job. If you actually do take the head off, its even more of a job. - The IX has a few small differences when it comes to the write ups, because most of them are based upon the VIII.

 

So the big question is...

which one is faster?

 

With the exact bolt ons - I was a touch faster up to around 100mph. After 100mph the sti was a touch faster.

Im not sure at the moment - because his is down for meth install, and I have to put mine back together.

BUT....

So this does not go off topic. -

The sti has cruise, auto dimming mirror, power transfer front/rear and is much more quiet while in the cab.

The evo has, recaros, rear wiper, momo wheel and just plain and simply looks better imo. Oh and locally the evo ranks about 1evo to every 5stis and every 10wrxs.

 

Well from reading all your posts, it seems that each has equal pros as they do cons which would leave me one factor in decision making and that would be the looks. I think the EVO looks much better hands down, which is one of the things I like about it. The only thing I would change is the wheels, and then the rest would be increasing the engine/transmission performance. I think I may just demod the WRX and trade her in for an EVO. Thanks for all the help guys. You guys are alright. Not to mention, the nasioc community is just jam packed with kids who seem to enjoy e-thugging and posting alot of false information. I've actually grown tired of it.

 

After the uppipe install I swore to never work on a suby.

 

Evo all the way man.

 

I HEARRRRRRD THAT!

 

I just said that about springs/retainers.... while in the car.

 

I'm glad you found the answers you were looking for.

 

I own both and the Evo and my old 02 WRX and the Evo is easier to work on. The inline 4 engine is easier for maintenance and bolt ons. Those who have tried to get all those rusted heat shields off of the WRX turbo and exhaust know what I mean. I real PITA. I would also argue that the WRX trans is more of a PITA to remove as well. On the Evo just pull the whole engine/trans as one and the job is cleaner with not as much work. Also a modded Stage 2 WRX is not even close to a stock Evo. The Evo IX has far less turbo lag and the chassis/suspension is just an order of magnitude better. The Evo is a true "tuners" car where as the WRX is not and I would even say that Subaru seams to have done things in the design of the engine and trans to make the car hard to work on.

 

that goes for every car manufacturer including mitsubishis bro
its the engineers, any mechanic regardless of car manufacturer will tell you how they feel about the engineers design.

your statement is pretty biased btw.

i think both vehicles are great cars and very capable of getting the job done. if you love working on cars who gives a **** about their design differences any true car greasemonkey will agree

 

try working on a mr2 then u can have a real reason to *****

 

I used to own a Supercharged MR2. It was easier to pull the motor to just do the timing belt and yeah I b****ed about that one too.

The point that I was making in the above post is that some cars are just easier to work on than others and it seems that the engineers give packaging and other concerns more priority than ease of maintenance and repair. An AWD car with a turbo is going to much more complex than a civic. However that being said Subaru sort of screwed the pooch with the flat four engine which makes the engine bay more crowded and "less compact" a lump than the inline 4.

 

what do you mean when you say "how to drive an AWD car?" are there precautions i should be taking? this is my first AWD car, so i dont really know what you are talking about.