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Drove to Manfeild from Christchurch. Drove around track. Drove back.

I’m not really Wellington based anymore and have been trying to find a new Rep for the last three years or so. Please feel absolutely free to organise a meet. Anything you want from burger fuel, fish and chips at a park, or just standing around in a car park We had 30 people jammed into a McDonald’s once....anything at all

Hmmm. I've read about this before. It has something to do with ceramics being insulators vs semi-metallic being conductors. So with ceramics, heat is almost always disproportionately generated on the rotors. My old BP5 has ceramics front and rear and it takes quite a while for the pads to generate heat. It has got new rotors, though and they are still OK after about 4 years of conservative driving. I think the GG9 still has the genuine pads in the rear but I haven't checked yet. I can only see one flayed brake lining on the rear-left outer pad. The rotors are still genuine. I am always concerned by the range in quality of ceramic pads as, based on the list I provided above, they range from NZD 27.00 to NZD 200.00!

If only it was that simple. First payment was supposed to come in on Monday. No money, checked again today. still nothing. So i called the ministry of justice and asked what the next step was. Turns out that the attachment order was served on the 12th of June. On the 18th of June she filed for the benefit. So we can all see the problem there. So back to the court i went. I had to file yet another attachment order in order to get money from her benefit. But i didn't stop there, i don't really want to say what else i've done in case in case she is lurking on here, she is pretty into her cars so it wouldn't surprise me if she's on every forum. What i can say is that its totally legal because the court provides it as an option. As much as i have been told to drop it. Im not stepping away and id like to thank all of you for supporting me to do this. Oh and for those counting. The bill is now almost $4000

My 95 Gf8 wrx only broke down once - a bad fuel pump but probably hadn't been changed in its 213000km life (when I got it) plus most likely ran dry from being run on e heaps. Need to replace various bits, like intake hose/intercooler pipe, but like others have said not many people in NZ change/service parts and will sell a high km car saying good condition but really it's a time bomb with many parts soon to fail. Before I got my Subaru, I had crashed my MR2 in a ditch and the local panelbeater who I got it towed to (then drove home 250m haha) was like careful, theyre likely to be thrashed etc, mr2 lads were like save up for a Headgasket etc. I only did maybe 15,000km in the 91 MR2, faults were starting to show I.e random leaks from those long coolant pipes, I had to re torque my valve cover cos it started smoking lol, and plus I had done a 180 on a simple corner in the wet, had decent yokohama a-drive/a-drive tyres on the 14s, drove it gently and wham. I found when I was pulling it apart someone had put top hats the wrong way round iirc, and replaced one sides shocks but not the other. And tyres tyres tyres is the mantra for MR2s, I spent close to 1800 dollars on nice rays 17s and BS Potenza re003s/s001s and they drove really nice but destroyed one wheel and tyre 1000km later in said crash. But from a technical standpoint I'd say Subies are super reliable. I never have to worry about leaving the road, only done that once when I braked way too late, they grip and grip and grip, my mid range pirellis screech long before I lose any traction, I never have to worry about the weather if I want to go for a spirited drive (except for ice/snow) unlike an mr2 where any rain or gravel is a no no, the stock brakes are better than some? comparable cars, I know a31 cefiros aren't as good. Only had to deal with small amounts of parking outside rust, underbody and engine bay is really good as they've done a good job with rust prevention from factory.

Got the new wiring harness for my Type RA. Good lord this harness is tidy. This is after just a very quick nasty throw it on the motor. Much happy haha. Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

My father bought a GF8 WRX NZ new in 2000, only thing that has gone wrong with it in 17 years is the plastic radiator header tank thing needed replacing. Its been up ski roads, driven hard, towed stuff, its still on the original clutch 250,000K's later! I've no doubt if you looked after a WRX correctly you could easily reach 1,000,000K's without replacing any major components, interior will fall apart before the engine.

I've owned more Subarus than any other brand and for the most part they've been the most reliable cars I've owned. I still have the first WRX I bought 8 years ago and it looks really rough now but its still the most dependable thing I've ever owned.

The kiwi attitude for anything to do with cars is S***. Not just servicing, but driving, wofs, fuel selection etc too. Older Subies tended to fail due to one of these, or a combination of. Like Pete says, 91 octane in a 280hp 4 banger is a recipe for disaster. I don't even use that crap in my lawnmower! The newer cars are definitely way more reliable than they were 10 years or so ago. Most of our tow-ins are another brand. Not gonna say which one, but it begins with H and ends with yundai. See if you can figure that out.

Oh boy this is me on a daily basis trying to defend Subarus....Most people think "Oh nah Subarus are S***. You tried changing the spark plugs? I ran 25 psi with my boost tap and it blew up, Thats crap! My skyline ran 30psi all day and it still goes!" Working at Supercheap for 5 years really did bring out the idiots who should never touch a car let alone own a Subaru. I had people buy shitty 20w-50 oil to run in their post GC Subarus because it was cheap..Oh and did i mention they used the whole bottle when all the needed was 1L instead of 4L? I think the main reason and biggest reason is they have a bad name. Just like Honda's do. Now i will admit i do give Honda's a bit of stick but end of the day they are still good cars and that is the same with Subarus. As many of you have mentioned here, Look after your car and it will look after you. Now my 02 WRX has done almost 300,000kms...on a stock block. Its lasted a trackday, drive to the bottom the south island and back, The odd paddock bash and daily driving for 3 years. If thats not reliability then i dont know what it is. Of course i have played with it a bit(Turbo back exhaust from a GC8 with no cats, adjustable suspension, thicker rear swaybar from an STI etc) but i service my car every 5,000km without fail using GOOD QUALITY products and meeting all the right specifications. The amount of truth in this statement is crazy. Most people buy a Subaru, Run it on 91 or 95(95 isnt too bad but i always run my subarus on 98), Do Launches which ofcourse a standard Trans, Transfer Case & Diff cant really handle, Clutch kick, Go to Trackdays without a baffled sump(if its a track like Hampton & Puke that have big right handed sweepers) and blow their motor due to Oil Starvation & then blame the car for obviously breaking when really it was their own stupidity and negligence that caused the problems in the first place. As the old saying goes, A good Tradesman never blames their tools. And personally i think that 100% applies with cars too.. However each to their own, kind of good in a way cause it keeps the idiots away from Subarus and raising the parts prices because there is more demand. Seen the price for a standard S14 vs a WRX? BIG difference but only because Silvia's, Skylines, 180's etc are popular and there is a high demand for them. People can say whatever they like but i love my Subaru and i always will. Nothing and nobody will change that

I've found most mechanics who say subarus are S*** or reliable are just S*** mechanics. It's either because they're scared of changing plugs which is an easy job or theyve seen loads of dead subarus but dont understand boost taps wound to 25psi kill engines. Either way theyre just basic part fitters much like panelbeaters are now panel fitters. You dont need to be shane t to know too much boost on a stock ecu is going to kill the engine.

If you track or modify a Subaru you're almost certainly going to want to change the oil every 3 months (with expensive oil that most young people just can't afford), properly warm and cool it down, run 98 fuel etc. They're not as foolproof or as low maintenance as other cars especially anything N/A. I do find it weird though that RB's have a reputation as being bulletproof as they seem ridiculously unreliable to me, every time I go to a track there's 6 tow trucks loading various Nissan's to be carted away

Turbo import Subarus plus 91 Octane = "These cars are unreliable as" Kiwis generally treat their cars like S***. In the US, where people buy new and follow service schedules religiously, they have an excellent reputation. 2.5 DOHC had cheese headgaskets, though.

That's exactly what I thought before buying my Subaru. The mainstream opinion of "Boxers are unreliable" put me off for a year or two until I finally took a stab at finally owning one mainly because I know that the car has been maintained very well. All cars have downsides to them. Take care of your car and it will do the same to you.

TL:DR where's the boost taps & numptys that use them give it a bad name no worse than RfB's shoulda just bought a STI

I think this is based on a few factors. The first is the kind of Subarus we get in NZ. During the import boom of the 90s we mostly got Turbos like the BG5 GT and EJ25s like the 250t and Grand Wagon/Outback. For the average joe these mostly ended up being unreliable, the turbo motors were pretty highly strung and in need of good fuel and proper servicing, however most people used them as daily drivers, with a majority not treating them as they needed to. I've seen many a GT-b ruined with 91 octane fuel and shitty oil because "its just a Legacy wagon" (not considering that its a Twin Turbo wagon with about 280bhp!!) On the flip side, a lot got modded poorly with not a lot of thought given to longevity causing faults that stouter engines could survive. The ej2.5 motors again suffered with poor care, but also were very prone to Head Gasket issues. Unfortunately, that engine was very common in Japan, and so a lot ended up here after a few years, just in time for them to go pop. Kiwis tend to be pretty rough on their cars. Given the ease of getting a fresh import cheap from Japan, once a car hits a certain age and mileage people stop mostly caring, but once a trend emerges people jump on it and come to the conclusion that "Subarus are unreliable" without thought as to why that might be.