2004 WRX - what a disappointment!
 

Just had a couple of days in a spanking new WRX wagon and I'm just so disappointed.

I just can't believe that a 54 reg WRX is riddled with rattles. The a-pillar, somewhere around the b-pillar and again around the back seat all had a minor rattle. If that wasn't enough the left speaker was hitting the door card on deep-ish bass notes (the eq's were all set flat).

The steering wheel looks thin and circa 1994, the driving position is higher up, seats were covered in fake (or very cheap) leather, the dash has no real class to it - still looks cheap albeit in a 2004 designery way. Surely it doesn't take much to add some nicer texture to the plastic moulding? Gauge lighting is mild green the same as my classic - really doesn't make it feel very special at night.

Brakes still fade badly after about 3-4 mins of hard driving and of course, corner entry understeer is there in armfuls.

Okay - it's not all bad; the steering feels better, the windows wind up at a normal speed instead of the lethargic pace I'm used to. There's less road noise, minimal wind noise from the windows, nice power delivery and of course huge amounts of grip.

I had really high expectations of the 2004 model. I was hoping a lot of these issues that have been known on previous models would have been sorted out but they haven't been - at least on the model that I was driving. I guess the STi addresses a lot of these issues but for 20K I really hoped that I wouldn't have to be pulling off trim to find out what's rattling.

hmmm. Sorry to hear you've got gripes with the car, but perhaps I'm missing something here - did you actually test drive an 04 WRX?
You can put rattles down to the individual car, but brake fade, steering position etc, surely you'd have checked or noticed these things when test driving the car.......

With regards the trim etc, take it back to the dealer. That's what the warrantee is for.
The stereo is renowned for being sh1te (including the speakers) - most people change it for something better. Again, something to have checked in the test drive. 20K is a lot of money to shell out without testdriving, or being sure of your purchase.


Dan