Faults:

Transmission/suspension noise (improved under warranty)

Faulty LF window switch (replaced with warranty)

Hard flat leather seats improved, but shaped badly.

General Comments:

Reliable, fast, excellent steering, excellent in wet, quality fittings.

I liked the sports shift option of auto or manual with sequential style shifting. This suits my wife and myself and is a good compromise.

Dash rattles {never fixed) and poor flat, hard leather seats with poor lateral support spoilt this car. My previous WRX did not have these problems.

Regretfully this car has to go and with no WRX auto option I will give Golf GTI or Golf R32 a try with their 6 speed DSG (Direct Shift auto box) and excellent seats.

Faults:

Central locking buttons on the key don't always work the way they should.

Cruise control slow to react when activated.

Apart from those minor points, the car has been spot on.

General Comments:

This is the first AWD car I have owned and the grip and handling is by far the best I have ever experienced.

The overall finish is extremely good, but the front seats could offer better support.

Faults:

Car is still being run in, so nothing significant to report here.

General Comments:

Just purchased this vehicle and am still running in. Can't really comment on reliability or service costs. So this could be a biased initial review. First impressions are that this is a very well built Subaru (with quality, refinement and security vastly improved over the old ones). The fact that I have upgraded from an Audi A4 (lots of expensive problems) should speak volumes. Even though I am taking care to run it in, acceleration on light throttle is still excellent. Have driven older model (MY2000) WRX's and I think this is as smooth and as rapid as ever! Had doubts about buying a performance car in an auto, but new Sport-shift gives a good compromise not available before. And you don't build up a sweat in traffic. But you do build up a sweat every time you park it!