Hey guys. I'm on the fence and I would love some advice. First some background info. I currently own a 2014 Subaru WRX and love the car. I've thrown on KW v1 coilovers, sway bars, 4/2 pot subaru brakes, some rpf1's, and a downpipe with Stage 2 AP. The car runs great and it's a lot of fun, but I think i'm just getting bored. My friends and I plan a trip every few months where we'll go driving for a few days and tear up some canyon roads. Last time we drove from LA to SF and hit every road we could and my Suby was fantastic through all of it. I have a few issues here and there like steering slop, the chassis still feels a bit mushy, and it just doesn't feel as sharp as i'd like it to be. I've owned and driven modified cars all my life. FD RX7, S14, E36 M3, 06 WRX modified to all hell, and now a '14 WRX.

Now here are my questions that I hope some of you can help me with! And bear with me as i've lurked the forums and done searches but never from ex Subaru owners and not many unbiased opinions.

How is the Evo X MR or GSR as a daily?
Is the Evo X more satisfying out of the box or lightly modded than a WRX/STi?
How is the build quality vs WRX/STi?
Are you happy with the switch from Subaru to Mitsubishi?
How reliable has the car been compared to your last Suby?

I apologize ahead of time if this is a stupid post! Since my car is still worth about $27-28k, I figure i'd do it now before it depreciates anymore. I'm looking at 2012-2014 Evo X MR or GSR that I can leave mainly stock and just drive the **** out of. I'm too tired of having to mod cars to my liking and want something I can just throw some good brake pads and tires on and drive day in and day out. Thanks for reading my post and hopefully this doesn't annoy or offend anybody!

 

I haven't owned a subbie, but may be able to offer some insight

I've owned both a X MR and GSR. Compared to the STi (that I have driven), out of the box, the steering and handling is like using a surgical knife compared to kitchen knife. It's just more precise. IMO, that is the strongest point on the X, the steering and handling. The difference is even greater than the WRX. Watch the Top Gear episode if you don't believe me

You may be a bit underwhelmed with the torque out of the box. The Evo X comes detuned / rich from the factory. I'm not sure what your WRX is putting down, but 2.5 compared to the 2.0, you get some umph for free with the scubbies. A tune and some simple bolt-ons liven it up pretty quickly though.

For what it's worth, I usually threw a catback on, an upper intercooler pipe, a tune, some pads and brake fluid and called it a day. The car is more than capable of turning fantastic lap times out of the box. My biggest ***** is the factory brake fluid can boil on 20 min sessions.

I think your real question should be if you want a X MR / GSR or a 2015 STi. From what I have gathered, their handling has been greatly improved.

As far as reliability, it is really good, especially engine comparison. The 4B11T is built stout and can take some abuse. Though find a tuner that KNOWS the 4B11T platform, it is a different engine than the 4G63 and requires different treatments. The biggest complaint on the newer Xs is the ACD going out, but this is almost always in cold / salty areas. You shouldn't have any issues in CA.

If you're going to do it, now is the time, these cars won't be around forever.

 

migs said it right. the handling on the x off the lot is amazing. easily its strongest point. he was also right when he said the factory tune is rich as hell. but a simple tune fixes that easily. i havent owned a subaru, but i have enjoyed my evo so so sooo much. it does things other cars just simply cannot do without heavy modification. I daily my x, and the only issue i have had is my clutch going out(i am modded and do drag racing though) i am not heavily modded, just intercooler piping exhaust intake and tune and im making basically 100 more whp than stock. a lot of evo 8 and 9 guys that switch over to the x love the handling, they say they needed to put thousands into their cars suspension to feel comfortble but with the x they felt comfortable right away. Your suby will depreciate a lot more than an evo, especially given the fact that evos are done being made.

 

I feel that I can provide some good insight here. Before I picked up my '14 GSR I drove a VF34 swapped '05 WRX that I absolutely loved. While the power was a bit of a step down when I switched, everything else more than made up for it. All the performance issues that I had on my to do list for my Subie were immediately resolved(brakes, suspension, chassis rigidity, etc...). As I had springs on my WRX, the ride was actually an improvement switching to the Evo, so it kind of goes in one ear and out the other when I hear people complain about the ride quality. I just picked up an Accesport and flashed stage 1. While not quite back up to the power level of the Subie, its certainly getting closer, picking up a tbe should put me over the top of where I was previously in the WRX. So while you said you would want to stay stock, you do have the option of simple bolt ons that will put you far ahead of where the WRX would be, even a fairly modified one. So while I still love the WRX/STi platform, Im beyond happy that I made the decision to go this route. Hope that helps, feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions, OP.

 

I driven sti.they drive good.the evo x is the best car i ever own and driven as dd coming from a evo 8 gsr.it handle excellent on ice roads.turbo spools fast from a stop.this was only on sport mode.i have'nt really driven on "SS" mode yet..lol gl on your next car.

 

I owned an 02 bugeye and I'm glad I made the switch. My 02 was nothing compared to your 14 but the handling is much better (I would fish tail on some tight turns on my 02) and the power is just instant on the Evo.

 

Thanks for all the input guys! I'm pretty much sold. I found a '14 MR with 10 miles on it for $31k at a local mitsubishi dealership. Going to check it out tomorrow. Anybody have any input on MR vs GSR? Do the SST tranny's have any issues? I go a lot of extended canyon driving on occasion and only thing that worries me is the transmission overheating issue.

 

I own both evo x and 2015 cvt bought it for my missus.

i got the evo brand new way back in 08 it now has full bolt ons efr ewg 7670 gsc s2 all that crap..

Brakes in wrx are ****ing shocking.
Handling is not at evo level not as precise. Wrx is much stiffer ride it annoys me when she drives it i feel every ***ing bump, I run eibach pro kit on mine.

On another note i do like driving the wrx, but i dont like to be seen CVT feelss goooood feels very punchy down low. Almost reminded me when my car was stock and i had it retuned.

Im not up todate with latest evo x maps but back in day just retune on stock one made fair bit of difference.
In short wrx is catching up to evo finally but.. arent there yet. Sad considering X came out in 08?

 

I personally came from a 2010 wrx that had full bolt ons and a e tune. Traded it last year for 14 evo gsr and have zero regrets. The honest only thing I slightly miss is the low end torque of the 2.5 engine but that thing up top couldn't breathe for ****.
Now I have a an ef3 running 400 hp on my evo and see guys pumping so much money into subarus to not get near that on stock engine.
Handling, steering, and braking doesn't even compare slightly evo is by far much better. Also I knew the time came to trade that car in when it took me 3 hours to swap spark plugs due to the horrible way that engine is designed and mounted so close to the frame.

 

Again, owned both a GSR and an MR, so I can give some input on the SST vs 5-speed Manual.

Personally, I couldn't stand the 5-speed in the X. Mine wasn't as notchy as others, it's something to look out for. I added underhood shifter bushings to my set up, with a weighted JDM Ralliart shift knob. That seemed to help out a bit. The problem is the gearing. They changed it a bit to compensate for the weight gain, but really, it just revs out too quickly.

The SST is my favorite transmission of all time, though the IX MR 6-speed is very close in that regard. The SST kills it at the track, shifts quick, fun to drive (left foot braking ftw), and lets the driver concentrate on the track. I always kept it in sport / manual mode. Super Sport Manual mode at the track was insane. The early versions had some issues though I never had any with mine. More so the Ralliart SSTs that were having clutch issues. The SST is now fully rebuildable by third parties. I sold my car because I was afraid I'd have to replace a $10k transmission in the future without a warranty. Now that they're rebuildable, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Not to mention, you'll have a 5 year / 60k mile warranty on it.

Learning how to balance the brake input vs the throttle input to have the transmission engaged for take-off was a bit tricky, but once you get the hang of it, 0 lag in taking off.

 

Had both you can't go wrong with the MR. It's a fantastic car. A bit more cost wise for maintenance but it's well worth it after I've had it for a year.

Previous 08 STi owner, don't miss it at all.

 

Welcome to our forum! I had a 2013 STi sedan so hopefully I can accurately answer your questions.

w/ regards to steering slop and mushy chassis - unfortunately, no amount of reasonable money can get rid of that. it is what it is. My STi had KW Clubsports, sway bars & endlinks, every poly bushing you could change, lateral links, group N strut tops (easily $4-5k) and the stock Evo handles and feels much better. if you continue to spend money to stiffen things up to get less slop, you'll just make the car feel worse. it's a losing battle.

1. Both are fine, I have the MR and yes I miss the 6-spd in the STi every once in a while but as you know, the Evo X only comes with a 5 spd MT. The #1 reason I went with MR is because I didn't want to go from a 6 spd to a 5 spd. Both MR and GSR are pretty annoying on the highway, probably equal to the WRX.
2. the Evo X is 100% more satisfying than the WRX and STi. It feels firmer, handles better, and feels more planted. Now GSR vs MR, the MR comes with bilstein struts (keep in mind how much bilstein struts cost for the wrx/sti from RCE/GT worx) and a lot of people complain that they are too stiff for the street.
3. I am extremely happy I made the switch but miss a few things.. 1. the evo community is much smaller than the subaru (at least in the tri state area) 2. nobody in an evo waves to me (every wrx/sti regardless of generation would wave to me in my STi)
4. as you know, the reliability of the EJ is not well regarded. I am very happy I don't have to deal with the glass EJ motor - my piston 2 lost compression at 18k even though I took literally every possible precaution (3k oil changes, oil samples, AOS, went to "best" tuner, etc). issues with the Evo X I've heard of: GSR - the clutch master cylinder in the evo x is plastic and should be replaced, the transfer case sometimes breaks under hard driving. MR - the stock SST is not meant to deal with torque higher than 350 wtq so keep that in mind when modding. My solution? Keep the mods simple. you mentioned your WRX to be stage 2 so I don't think you'll have any problem here in that regard.

drive both, MR & GSR. decide if you can live with auto. only you can decide. either way, DEF get a 2014, the seats in the 2015 are terrible.

I wouldn't worry about SST issues when canyon carving, it's mostly when you launch the car repeatedly that you get problems. Some things you can do to avoid issues though are to get an aftermarket SST cooler and/or get fog light deletes so more air hits the stock trans cooler. I drive the car pretty hard and don't have problems besides launching the car when it's cold or back to back to back launches.

hope this helps

 

^-- Glad you mentioned the foglight deletes. I'm 80% convinced that was the reason I never had issues with my SST

Also, the transfer case breaking... there were two reasons. In 2010 was overfilling the transfer cases, which led to damage. And the diff pins on the 08 and 2010 were weak. They beefed them up for 2011 and newer.

 

Best reply EVER. Thanks for all the info! I hate to mention this but i'm actually contemplating a 2015 VW GTI with PP package now too lol. I made the mistake of letting the sales guy at carmax talk me into driving a 2015 GTI with DSG they had on the lot and I have to admit the car is a lot of fun. I'm definitely going with SST if I go the evo route. I think i've just gotten lazy over the years driving manual day in and day out. I hate it for daily but love it in the canyons and on the track. I might just flip a coin and see how it lands to decide between the two now.

 

Go evo.it use getrag sst gearbox like ferrari 458