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On my morning commute I had a white Audi RS4 in front of me stopped at a red light. A white Subaru WRX STI pulled up next to him in the right lane revving its engine.
The Audi pretty much ignored him. But I was wondering, who do you think would win this race? It was an older STI with the big wing.
Both cars sounded delicious.
Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor
Would I buy one? It's a question I ask myself whenever I slide behind the wheel of a car. Would I drop my hard earned money on one of these? Would I want to own it? Drive it for years? Look at it in my driveway? Tell people it's mine?
It's also the question you the reader ask me the most. So I've decided to go through all the cars we now have in our fleet and decide whether or not I would buy one. I also included a few recently departed vehicles. Seems appropriate since they just left us.
As you've no doubt seen on the IL homepage (you do refresh it hourly, right?), our time with the 2008 Subaru WRX STI has come to an end. You're also aware of The Board we use to dole out cars daily. A solid black line through a long-term car's row is usually how editors first find out a car has departed. (It's impossible to track via looking in our garage.) Here's how it goes: Mike (one of them), "A car, sir/madam?" Editor1, "Oh man, the XXX's gone? When did that happen?" Mike: "This afternoon." Editor2, "Did I just hear the XXX's left?!" Editor3 "Good, I hated it." Editor4 "No way, it was great! Moron." And then everyone gets in on the action for a good refresher on why a long term car rocked or sucked. It's a shame you can't be there to see it.
So in order to give you another peek behind the curtain here at Inside Line, we've started a new segment, "Parting Shots" where we'll gather, record and report to you the final--unedited-- word of our staff each time a long term car leaves our stable.
Follow the jump for our Parting Shots.
What's it like working at Inside Line?
I get this question almost daily from somebody, and my answer usually blows their mind. I say, "Well, everyday this guy Mike walks up to me with a clipboard that contains a list of 15 to 30 cars ranging from a Smart to a GT-R and he says, 'Scott, what do you want to drive home tonight.'"
It's true.
Ever lose a bill in the couch cushions, or your homework in a pile or random notes? Well that's the sort of thing I've done with the track test information for our 2008 Subaru WRX STI.
Sorry, folks. We tested this thing almost as soon as the break-in process was completed and it never made it onto the net.
Follow the jump for the full results of our track testing done some 19,000-miles ago.
That last STI blog entry reminded me of the hatchback versus sedan debate that some of us car geeks have had. Most compact hatches tend to give off an "econobox" vibe, even when they're a high-performance car that lists for $35,000. Yes, a hatchback body style provides more cargo capacity than an equivalently-sized sedan and thus more useful. It's amazing what you can take home from Ikea in a compact hatch. But let's face it, most of the time the sedan version is better looking.
I submit that is the case with the Impreza. Oddly, the STI is only available as a hatchback, while the "lesser", standard WRX is offered in both hatch and sedan body styles. And it also stickers for 10 grand less.
Some of you have been hating on the STI's looks. I don't think it's particularly ugly, despite having a hood scoop the size of Julia Roberts mouth.
But it's not supposed to be a pretty boy car. It's functional, not feng shui.
The kid's all right.
Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor
...so I'm not going to spend this blog post comparing our 2008 Impreza WRX STI to either our Evo MR or our crack infused Evo GSR. I didn't drive it at some race track, nor did I risk life, limb and career driving it at 11/10ths on one of the widely available, nearby curvy mountain roads. Instead, I slogged it to work in traffic. I cruised it to the donut store and I raced it home to make it to the bathroom in time. Normal. Everyday. Driving.
Right, on to my impressions.
This just in: the ride quality, as sampled from the back seat of the WRX STI, borders on nausiating. I discovered this when three of us went to pick up the two short-term Genesis Coupes last week and only now has my stomach settled. While the rebound damping wasn't quite as shallow as it was on our departed BMW X5, the STI's ride obviously was optimized for front-seat occupants. Glurg.
Chris Walton, Chief Road Test Editor @ 20,220 miles
More than once you've accused us of abusing our long-term test cars. To which we plead not guilty. There's a difference between testing and abusing.
Take our long-term Subaru WRX STI. It's been tested. More than once. But abused? Not from where we sit. And we're the guys that included it in a six-car week long flog that included our normal testing, a day at a racetrack and a day of racing up a closed mountain road. We called it the Ultimate Performance Car Test: 2009 Nissan GT-R vs. The World, and the STI was put up against its all-wheel drive rival the Mitsubishi Evo X, as well as the GT-R, the Audi R8, the Lotus Elise and the Porsche 911.
Some say the competition was stacked against it (that is quite a gathering of great machines), but the STI held its own. Well, sorta, it finished in the 6th spot.
I've been meaning to fire off a screed about our long-term STI's unacceptable footrest for awhile now, but other things got in the way. Like the steering, and the body roll, and the road noise, and the stereo that's so bad I've stopped using it for anything other than talk radio, and...yeah. Suffice it to say I'm not the STI's biggest fan. But now, at long last, its dumbfounding dead pedal's day in the sun has arrived.
First of all, it's too short, as you can see in the picture. Way too short. That's my size-12 sneaker; what's the dead pedal, size 6? But this wouldn't necessarily be an issue if the area above the pedal were flat. It's not. Instead, it's all lumpy and obtrusive, especially underneath the left half of my forefoot. Which prevents me from resting my foot flat on the pedal. Which is, you know, kind of why they invented these pedals in the first place.
The STI isn't alone here. A Legacy GT I drove recently had the same issue, and as I mentioned on Monday, so does our long-term Hyundai Genesis [clarification: the Hyundai's footrest is similarly disappointing, but for different reasons -- JS]. Hey, at least these guys are trying; American cars frequently don't have dead pedals at all. Like I said in that Genesis post, the Germans usually nail the dead pedal, and Honda's pretty reliable as well. Everyone else, please, contact BMW or Porsche/Audi/VW or Honda or Benz and ask 'em how to do a dead pedal right. Much obliged.
Josh Sadlier, Associate Editor, Edmunds.com @ 20,176 miles
The guesses were almost unanimous in the last STI post. Loose, or completely separated, TPMS sensor.
Not to spoil the results which are posted after the jump, but you did well. Next time we do a guessing game, just to make it harder, you're getting a lot less real information and a lot more vague onomatopoeias and illogical trigger events. (Like the guy I saw at the Ford dealer last week, said his car was "doing a BZZZZ thing when the wheel goes like this" -- at this point he made a gesture with his hand that looked like a salmon jumping up a waterfall. I really want to know what was going on with that Stang).
Follow the jump for pictures, a slightly more detailed explanation and a surprise failure with the STI!
I know there are a lot of Subaru owners that read this blog. Here's your chance to write your own review. Have at it in the comments section.
What else do you want us to discuss about the STI?
Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor
We swapped tires on the STI at a local Subaru dealer two weeks ago. Days later the tire pressure warning lit up. A check of tire pressures confirmed they were to spec. We checked the tires regularly for several days. No change. TPMS light still on. Meanwhile, we made arrangements to get it back to the dealer.
Today, while driving around town with the windows down, we heard a noise. Clap-clap. We could not reproduce the sound consistently. It seemed to originate near the rear wheel and was most common from 5-15 mph. We heard it in a straight line. We heard it while turning.
There were never more than three claps at a time, but the silence between them ranged from seconds to minutes. One editor described the noise as dropping a marble on concrete. Another thought it sounded like a valve stem cap falling on the driveway. Then we realized what was happening.
We understand its not easy to diagnose from words alone, but can you figure out our problem? Conclusion to follow....
Mike Schmidt, Vehicle Testing Manager @ 20,045 miles
I parked our 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI at the airport for two days this week while I flew to Miami to attend a Kia Soul event. Just after landing back at LAX, I got a call from Editor in Chief Scott Oldham, asking what the mileage was on the STI. Getting on the 405 freeway, I looked at the odometer and reported, "19,988."
"Good," he said. "It's a milestone. Take a photo."
When the time was right, I jumped off the freeway and snapped a close-up of the IP. Crawling back onto the 405, I realized that the STI had been with us for nearly 12 months, and yet I hadn't spent much time in it. I've driven it, but I never really sought it out.
I've spent much more time behind the wheel of our long-term Mitsubishi Evo X, and I've come to prefer it over the STI.
That's a big thing for me to admit, having worked for Subaru years ago.
Kelly Toepke, News Editor @ 20,044 miles
In the past couple of weeks we've had a lot of turnover in our long-term fleet. Some cars have gone bye-bye and we've gotten a couple of newbies. I thought you'd want an update.
Gone are the BMW X5, Audi R8 and Dodge Grand Caravan. There will be no more blogs on these cars, but look for an in depth wrap-up on each in the next few weeks, just like the one we published on our Mercedes C300 today. All three are already missed. The X5 and R8 were staff favorites, and the minivan proved to be great at moving people and things, even if we didn't always shower it with praise.
New to the fleet is a bitchin' black 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T we purchased about a week ago. Look for its full introduction to this blog next week and a flood of posts soon after. We also recently acquired a Hyundai Genesis sedan and a Nissan 370Z, both of which we introduced to you and this blog recently.
Soon to finish up their time in our fleet will be the Cadillac CTS, Pontiac G8, the 2002 BMW E46 M3, our Subaru WRX STI and our BMW 135i. Any suggestions on replacements?
Scott Oldham, Inside Line Editor in Chief
Our Subie has a lot going for it -- tons of power, excellent mid-corner grip and lots of interior space. But what bugged me (and my passenger) all weekend was the whip-snap caused by too much driveline lash. I've always thought of myself as a pretty decent stick-shifter but the STI had me struggling to execute smooth launches and upshifts. My compardres have blogged about this in previous posts, and they chock it up to a finicky clutch uptake. I however, have a different take...
Steering feel is one of those character traits that separate great cars from good ones. It's hard to define, but when you drive a car with dialed-in steering, you know it. By the same token, when you drive a car with subpar steering, it's painfully obvious. You, Mr. STI, have subpar steering.
To be fair, many AWD cars have relatively numb steering feel, at least until you get up into the GT-R/R8 price brackets (wonderful steering both). But numbness isn't the only thing wrong with the STI's rack. I do what I call the "wiggle test" at speed (cue obscene wisecracks from the peanut gallery) with the steering wheel of each car I drive, and the STI disappoints me every time with the amount of dead-zone wiggle room it allows before responding. Same goes for the "gooey steering" Legacy GT that stopped by a couple weeks ago. If I wiggled the 135i's or Evo's wheel to the same degree, I'd sideswipe everything within ten feet.
A glance through the logbook reveals similar complaints. "Less reactive to steering inputs [than the Evo MR]" -- Riches. "Our Evo MR...has a lighter, more precise steering feel" -- Pardilla. "Overly isolated steering" -- Riches again.
Subaru certainly makes some entertaining engines and chassis, but the steering needs improvement.
Josh Sadlier, Associate Editor, Edmunds.com @ 19,677 miles
Here is a list of most of our long-term vehicles with their best, worst and average fuel economy numbers over the life of the vehicle.
This list is missing a few that were not available at the time I was compiling this list.
| Car | Best | Worst | Average |
| 2008 Audi R8 | 20.3 | 11.7 | 15.3 |
| 2009 Audi A4 Avant | 26.0 | 17.5 | 19.9 |
| 2008 BMW 135i | 27.7 | 13.9 | 20.5 |
| 2002 BMW M3 | 23.5 | 12.3 | 17.5 |
| 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan | 30.8 | 12.0 | 18.6 |
| 2009 Ford Flex | 26.7 | 13.7 | 19.8 |
| 2008 Ford Focus | 37.4 | 16.6 | 26.4 |
| 2007 Honda Civic GX | 47.3 | 16.6 | 31.4 |
| 2009 Honda Fit Sport | 37.1 | 28.0 | 32.1 |
| 2009 Hyundai Genesis | 24.8 | 15.7 | 20.9 |
| 2009 Infiniti FX50 | 21.8 | 10.7 | 17.4 |
| 2009 Mazda 6 | 29.1 | 19.5 | 23.6 |
| 2008 Mitsubishi Evo X GSR | 22.6 | 11.0 | 17.0 |
| 2008 Mitsubishi Evo X MR | 24.7 | 11.7 | 16.8 |
| 2009 Nissan GT-R | 21.8 | 11.5 | 16.6 |
| 2008 Pontiac G8 GT | 24.0 | 12.0 | 17.4 |
| 2008 Smart Fortwo | 43.2 | 29.7 | 33.7 |
| 2008 Subaru WRX STI | 24.4 | 12.3 | 18.9 |
| 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI | 40.4 | 30.0 | 35.7 |
| 2005 Volkswagen Jetta Biodiesel | 50.4 | 30.3 | 39.3 |
Follow the jump to see the list organized by average so you can see how they stack up against each other.
Donna DeRosa, Managing Editor
I've never cared much for the new STI's styling -- in spite of the flared fenders and scooped hood, it strikes me as generic and kind of awkward. Specifically, the stock grille looks like it could be any econo-car's, and the "tinfoil under glass" taillights strike me as too juvenile. So I did a little research and saw a couple of nice aftermarket pieces that I'd get, were our LT STI my own car...
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