- Today, we're taking a look at one of the most
notorious cars in the aftermarket car scene,
a car where people modify it to no end,
or maybe there is an end.
It's never good to be starting off
with a piston in your hand.
Now this one might not be from Zach's STI
that we're taking a look at today,
but it's from our good friend, Trey's,
who keeps it as a paperweight on his desk
as a reminder on why you need to watch
the "Ultimate Buyer's Guide to the Subaru STI."
Let's take a look.
(upbeat music)
(engine roaring)
- Looks good, I think, I don't know.
It doesn't have tires on it.
(car revving)
- Hey Mike, how come your wheels aren't on yet?
- Well, you see, I ordered them off of Fitment Industries,
but then I got my tires elsewhere
and I'm still waiting on my tires to come in.
- Mike you should've packaged your wheels with tires.
Not only would you have saved a lot of money,
but they mount, balance and ship them
right to your door for free.
You could have put them right on your car.
- Yeah. I probably should have done that, obviously.
I'm guessing that's what you did.
- I mean, yeah. Of course.
- Are you kidding me?
They just said my tires
are gonna be delayed another two days.
- Ha, that sucks.
- [Mike] I should have packaged.
- So, if you're watching this video,
you probably recently picked up an STI
or maybe you're considering it.
Again, this is probably one
of the ultimate platforms for tuner cars,
getting into modifying,
because the aftermarket scene is insane.
And Fitment Industries, wheel-side suspension,
let's get into that right away.
So coming down to the beautiful wheels,
we have the Advan Racing TC4's.
In my opinion, these look absolutely phenomenal on the car.
They're 18 by 9.5 plus 35 square set up.
'Cause you're running all wheel drive on this baby.
(engine revving)
As you should already know.
But these wheels really complement the car,
fill out the wheels wells nice.
One thing to note, Zach has his fenders rolled.
- Yeah, some people go for the baseball bat
but I went for the home improvement.
- So that way it makes some room
for these Toyo R888s.
Now this is a very expensive tire,
but if you're looking for traction,
this is the name of the game.
These are gonna do it, very high-end.
A little bit of road noise.
- I wanna try bologna and cheese on wheat!
- But that's not what the point of these is.
It's to get some sticky boys planted to the ground.
That's 255/35R18 on the tires.
Again, I think this is a really solid setup for the STI.
And you have that 5 by 114.3 bolt pattern.
So if you're looking at different wheels,
the world is your option.
That's the most common bolt pattern out there.
I'm telling you, if you want to modify these cars,
these are the ones to do it.
Or are they?
So speaking about modding, we get over to the engine bay.
Now this is Zach's daily driver,
but he sure does love to do some spirited driving.
So he wanted to make sure that it was fun.
We have an AEM intake paired with a MAPerformance downpipe
and cat-back exhaust,
which gives that beautiful Suvy-rumble,
If you're into that type of thing.
Another thing to note as long as we're here,
'cause you can see the top hats,
he's running Fortune Auto Coil-overs, which are fantastic.
They're great for daily driving yet having that spirited
driving too on the weekends, if you're down for that.
Phenomenal coil-overs,
they ride super well and they're completely adjustable.
Now one big thing with Subarus
is the reliability while modifying them.
Something you have to watch out for
is those off-the-shelf tunes or modding the engine all up,
and then not getting the car tuned.
That can blow these things.
Like we talked about earlier with Trey's piston
that I started off the video with,
these things can be finicky.
The good news with the STI models is your transmission's
going to hold up unlike the WRX.
- How's the trans holding up?
(low pitched rumbling)
- Literally coined the glass transmission.
You're getting that upgraded from the factory with that.
But again, you're gonna be kind of finicky with the mods.
However, Zach's been daily driving this.
Has these tasteful, subtle mods done,
a good tune and it's been running pretty damn good for him.
And Zach has a few tasteful cosmetic mods done.
As you can see is the airflow rear diffuser
that's the V2 one,
He has air flow, side skirts, a Suby speed F1 brake light,
and OLM rear-wing gurney flap,
a no-name front lip.
And all this stuff is just very subtle that makes the car's
standard features kind of pop
and stand out a little bit more.
Again, this is his daily driver,
so he didn't want to go with anything too crazy,
but it allows the car to have a little bit more
aggressiveness to it.
And it looks a little more sharp.
You know what I'm saying? It's aggressive.
It doesn't look stock. Kind of personalizes the car.
All right.
So let's take this thing for a little bit of a beat.
Start her up here.
(car chimes)
Get that Suby rumble, that JDM chime.
Get her all clicked in here.
I'm gonna roll down the windows a little bit,
see if you can pick this up. I want to hear.
(engine revs loudly)
It's actually pretty damn loud.
Now, I don't know about you,
I think the Suby rumble is a specific taste,
kind of like sushi or something like that.
Like not everyone likes it,
but the people that do like it, love it
and are obsessed with it.
I feel that's similar to the Suby rumble.
(car revs)
Now again, like we were talking about MA performance,
Cat-Back exhaust with downpipe
really opened this thing up and like,
we're not even in the higher RPMs,
but you can hear that thing.
(mimicking car noises)
Woo!
All right, I'm gonna roll up the windows
so we don't get any of that wind noise,
but I wanted you guys to appreciate that a little bit.
The 2017 Subaru WRX STI, AKA the newest generation,
has some pros and cons.
When I talked to Zach about it,
because he's on this car for a while,
and he drives it every day, when he's not driving his Evo10,
he uses the Subaru as the daily,
the Evo as the fun car.
I don't know if that tells you something right there,
but he says the Subaru has been a phenomenal daily.
It's really fun for him,
especially in the winter.
Subaru's all wheel drive system is really good.
He has a blast driving in the snow,
really good stuff like that.
So yeah, all wheel drive and turbocharged in a tuner,
there's not like an absolute buttload of options out there.
That's why the STI is one of the main ones,
because it does do it well for the most part.
Obviously you hear a lot
about the reliability issues with these cars,
which when you go for big power on a lot of cars,
you're going to run into reliability issues,
but it seems the STI's just have more issues than most.
So something to keep in mind when you're going,
if you're considering a big turbo build
and stuff like that,
you might have to have some deep pockets
and be willing to have a backup engine on stand by,
or be willing to work on this one once it goes,
it's just kind of inevitable.
Now, if you're keeping this more of just a daily driver,
something with a little bit of power to still have fun,
but not blow the doors off of everything you race,
you're gonna get a lot more reliability out of it.
Interiors are kind of lackluster, a lot of plastics,
a lot of basic touch screen stuff,
but the newest generation STI at the moment has,
Oh Jesus Christ, (chuckles).
The newest generation STI at the moment,
it's not bad, it's not great.
It's nothing phenomenal, but it gets the job done.
If you're not too worried about the interior,
having all the latest up-to-date stuff,
you're not gonna mind, I mean, it has Bluetooth.
You got AC, you got cup holders.
You can change it from sport to sport sharp,
all that kinds of stuff.
You can change the diff even in the STI's,
which is interesting.
Another con to bring up is,
and especially if you're thinking about it
from a daily driver aspect, your MPG.
This is an all wheel drive turbocharged car,
that, because it makes fun noises,
you're gonna be the end of the pedal
more than your Ford Taurus.
Zach right now is averaging 19 miles per gallon.
And that's pretty much
what you're going to expect out of these.
They're going to sound good.
It's going to be fun.
You're gonna want to do some pulls
because it's just fun enough,
but that's going to bring your gas mileage down
and especially with the all wheel drive system.
So if that's something you're worried about or into,
or you have a long commute,
You might want to think about it.
Now although I think these new Subarus
are pretty sharp looking and good,
they are heavier than the previous generations.
Nothing that's going to be absolutely insane.
But I mean, if you're going full race car mode,
that's something to consider.
Another con that Zach said specifically
when I asked him was most of the compliments that he gets
are from young children with flat brimmed hats and vapes
that say, "Nice Suby bro."
So that's something to look forward to,
or maybe not look forward to if you're picking one up.
So some common modifications done to these
other than the ones that we mentioned,
you're going to see some Artisa nights,
Artisa Titans on these cars,
our very own in-house wheel brand.
You're going to see BC racing coil-overs
and Fortune autos like we talked about.
If you like air ride,
they obviously make air ride for this airlift.
A Suspension 3P would be my go-to,
but you're also going to see End Keys, Koenig's, Ram lights,
everything in between
because of that 5 by 114.3 bolt pattern.
You can use the gallery if you're looking
for your next setup, that's a pro-tip
because you're gonna find everything that you want in there.
Another mod that you're going to see besides
the performance stuff is a Cobb Accessport.
They're super nice.
If you've never had one it plugs into your OBD-II port,
usually have a little mount for it as well like Zach does.
And then you're able to read everything off there.
Your air fuel ratio, your boost,
you can data log and it makes it super easy.
You can upload your tunes.
They're extremely convenient.
They're a little expensive off the bat.
You're usually paying around $300 to $500,
depending if you're getting a used or a new one,
but they're extremely nice to have.
And with a car like this, just like my Focus ST,
It's almost like a necessity to have,
it's like one of the first things you buy
is a Cobb Accessport.
'Cause it reads everything for your car.
They're super nice to have.
(engine revving)
Enough jibber-jabber though.
Let's get on this just a little bit just to feel how she...
(engine revving)
Woo!
See, and its just like Zach said.
It's enough power to have fun, but it's nothing crazy.
It's not like jarring.
Now the last car we reviewed was the 10th gen
Honda Civic SI, definitely pulls more than that,
but you're definitely paying more than a Honda Civic SI too.
Coming in, these cars are expensive
in that thirty to forty thousand dollar range.
They're not cheap, so you have to really want it.
In my opinion, if you love everything about Subaru,
you love the all wheel drive.
You love the noise that makes, you love the modability.
You're not too concerned about the reliability
'cause you know you're going to take care of it,
I think it is an absolutely fantastic car to pick up.
Now I know we like to rag on them.
The Suby jokes are always going.
That'll never end,
but we make fun of 'em because we love 'em.
There's a lot to love about these cars.
One thing too, the handling has just been insane.
It feels so good on the road.
I'm sure that's a combination of the R888s
paired with those Fortune auto coil-overs
that just make this feel like it's on rails,
but those are some great mods to do right away
to just make this car feel fantastic and feel alive.
The shifter feels really good.
Obviously you got a six-speed transmission
and again, the STIs have that upgraded transmission
compared to the WRX.
So that should be good to go too.
Don't quote me on that though.
It's not the Dakota warranty,
'cause I still don't trust these things
as far as I can throw them,
but I enjoy seeing them. I enjoy hearing them.
I enjoy going to the car shows and people doing them all up.
I enjoy seeing them on the track.
They're great cars if you mod them right.
And just keep in the back of your mind, it could blow up.
That's my advice.
All right, so.
Get her backed up here.
Did I park like a total jackass?
- [Man] No you're good.
- Really? - Yeah.
- We'll keep this in the video. I don't care.
I'm gonna straighten it out.
I don't want to be a typical Subaru owner.
Gonna park this thing nice.
You got the backup camera. Hell yeah.
It's actually a pretty nice backup camera.
But again, the 2017 Subaru STI, or the newest generation.
There's a lot of options in that price range.
So you really got to decide if it's for you.
Now I can sit and talk about the STI all day long,
but I think the biggest thing for you to do is to get out
there and test drive one for yourself,
go to a car meet,
find one you really like and ask for a ride along,
go to a dealership if you're looking to pick one up
and get a test drive,
compare it to the Evo,
compare it to the type R because they're all
fantastic cars in that similar price range.
I think if you want a Subaru,
you got to be about all the Subaru things.
And that means the pros like the Suby rumble,
the fantastic hard lines, the heritage of the rally.
You gotta be about all that,
but you gotta be about the cons as well.
You've got the cheap plasticky interior,
that just seems to be there always.
You got the overweightness.
And trust me I know all about that.
And then you have that detrimental engine blow up issues
and you gotta be about that.
So let me know what you think in the comments down below.
At the civic SI one, you guys let me know that you can,
in fact, turn off the blinker in the mirror,
and you don't got to have it in the dash.
So I'm sure I missed some stuff here.
I want to hear about it, let me know.
And then all the wheels, tires, and suspension
mentioned in this episode, Fitmentindustries.com as always.
Also make sure to check out MAPerformance for the exhaust
and the performance parts.
They'll get you hooked up.
I don't know about these things, man,
but I do like how it sounds,
blow out valve was pretty sick.
Suby rumble. It's growin' on me.
(upbeat music)