need some info about auto wrx's

well as many of you know i blew out my knee at the end of the summer and will not be able to drive a manual car until next april the doctors are saying. i have been tryiing to get an audi s4 for the past several weeks, but have had 3 different ones fall through. i had never even considered getting an automatic wrx until the other day when my grandfather was asking why i wasnt looking at automatic wrx's since i had liked my other wrx so much. the thought had just never crossed my mind. but i dont really know about them. are they basically the exact same minus the automatic part? I have found an 02 forsale locally with low mileage, but wasnt sure if the tranny issues carried over to the automatic tranny as well. thanks for the help
drew

 

I was just looking at S4s on autotrader.com and I saw a bunch of automatics. Have you not had any luck with any of those? Don't the auto S4s have paddle shifters?

 

yea the s4's do have a very nice paddle shifter set up, but most of the ones ur seein are above what i want to spend on a car that isnt what i really want and would be sellin next spring when i could get another manual wrx. it appears that you can get the auto's fairly cheap

 

with any automatic you are gonna be slower off the line unless you have a highstall torque converter. if you want a lot of power then a manual is the way to go, its a more efficient way of transfering power.

if you want i've got a '86 jag that you could rent/buy untill you can drive a manual rex again :bigthumb:

 

haha, preciate the jag offer. but as cheap as you can find the autos, i may be doing it this weekend. then do a highstall torque converter and tranny cooler asap. these things are going for about 14-16 is what im seein. in which case many mods will take place in a super short time period. fmic, vf 22, tein flex, ecutek, and much more.........but i need to do a little more research first. dang but still, auto is gunna blow........o well

 

yes, you could always do a manual swap when you are able to dirve stick but ill tell you now, its probably more money than you think. i cant tell you how much bobby spent but i know it took Bob from SoG about 20 hours to labor j0ust on the wiring harness.

 

i was going to say the same thing, . i dunno what the cost difference would be between swapping to the MT vs the s4 buy and sell... but the advantage would definitely be that you could mod the AT wrx along the way and have it a little built up (definitely the handling at least) by the time you do the trans-swap. or, you could keep it stock and get that "guaranteed" subaru trade in for an MT later-which ever works out on paper to be more economical.

sure, it's not as cool as a paddle shift option, but you get to continue to learn about the handling charaterisics and general disposition of the wrx while you're recovering. there's nothing like seat time when learning a car's attitude. just my .02

 

I wouldnt recommend it if I had to do it again but the price still worked out to be just around the same as a built auto.

My car was fine with the auto. The high-stall torque converter is supposed to be a big improvement over stock (I've never driven one with the stock TC though). Gets up to the stall speed really quick and then you just move. 1.8s 60ft times are easy and infinitely repeatable.

With the mods you have listed your tranny might last a little while. Mine lasted 25K miles with the Protorque TC, VF29, etc (I figured probably around 270whp). Get a tranny cooler, run synthetic ATF, and let the tranny cool down for 10-15 mins between WOT runs and it'll hold for a while.

JDM MY02+ WRX autos came with a sportshift feature, though nobody has swapped it onto a US car yet.

If you've got any other questions let me know.

 

well i believe i am going to pick up an auto wrx tomorrow. its a black 02, 17k miles, in dash dvd player, kicker 12in l7, tein s tech springs, 18 in oz rims. man im kicking myself now for selling all my parts. i will post up some pics when i get it.
drew

 

Dang! Low miles! I thought I had low mileage with 22.5K miles.

 

thats pretty low for an 02, you did carfax it right?

 

i have not done the carfax yet, does anyone have an open account before i open one? i am just taking the guys word for it. he told me that it was in a front end collision, but it was nothing major.

 

Definately do a carfax.

 

yup... if its been a collision, i would carfax it

 

Hey...

I like my automatic.

 

I liked mine too until it left me stranded in College Park at 10:30 at night:hsnono:

 

For a not-too-expensive car, have you considered a late model MR2 with the SMG transmission? It's pretty sweet if you can't use a manual clutch...

 

an mr2 is just too small

 

Yeah, they are pretty damn tiny... but the SMG is suh-weet!

 

well i bought an auto wrx an 05 at that =)
im just lookin in to turning it any suggestions on what i should do?

 

i would say turn the wheel whichever way you want go :rofl:

 

scuby drew, did you end up picking up the car?

got any pictures?

 

i saw it today... very nice :bigthumb:

 

preciate it milo, yours is running sweeeeeeeet. yea i picked it up the other day, i will snap some photos of it tomorrow in some good light

 

thank you much