Faults:
Front oil seal developed a leak (recall item fixed by dealer)
Clutch chatters some mornings until it warms up. (Known issue, updated part available)
CD Player has been failing and skipping intermittently. Does not depend on weather, time of day or anything that I can determine. All of my CD's are scratch free and perfect yet some CD's cause the skipping problem more than others.
Clutch pedal was sticking down half way on cold mornings and then it started happening all mornings until the car had been driven about 20mins. I removed the linkage and fiddled with it and it's good as new. I believe there is an updated master cylinder that addresses this issue should it occur again.
Cruise control went dead. This was due to a small plastic switch strike plate near the clutch pedal failing. The cruise control thought that the clutch pedal was depressed. Easy fix by the dealer was to stick a nut and bolt in the hole.
Batteries in key less entry remotes were not making good contact so I was having to twist and squeeze the remotes to deactivate the alarm.
The exhaust has developed a whistle starting at 3500rpm when accelerating under load. Dealer claims this is common.
General Comments:
This has been an excellent reliable little car. There have been a few issues, but overall I'm satisfied and would buy another one.
Car needs about 25-35 more horsepower to make up for the AWD drive train power loss.
Certain corners were cut on this car to keep costs down. Features that you would think to be standard on ANY vehicle. The one that drives me nuts most often is the lack of trunk light. The worst part of that is that there is an ashtray light!!! Worse yet, Subaru has a factory part available to add a trunk light and the hookups are already in place.
The Bridge Stone Potenza RE92 tires that came on this car originally are the ABSOLUTE WORST tires I have ever owned. If I were to buy this car new today and it came equipped with these tires, I would replace them immediately and DESTROY the old (unused) tires so no one else could possibly hurt themselves. They are unsafe and unsuitable for this car. I replaced them with Yokohama AVSdb2's and I could not be happier, especially in Washington State's rainy conditions. The RE92's are not fit for any automobile.
Beautiful styling, I wish they still make this body style or I wish they still made a two-door vehicle.
15th Mar 2006, 10:49
On a reliability note, my 2004 Impreza RS (the base model) has been extremely reliable except for some minor trim problems. Although I think Subaru should upgrade their interiors for the price they are charging, I think my next car will be a WRX or STI (we don't have ProDrive version in US). They seem to have the whole package (handling, speed, reliability) which seems to be a rare commodity these days.