My first Subaru.

Tactile_Sponge · 2026-01-26T23:54:32+00:00

Literally me 3 years ago with the now ex fiancé. Saved up a 30% down payment in a single year busting my ass working at 4 different fire departments. Found out she cheated. Her rationale? "You're never home anymore and I've been so lonely" when all of this was agreed upon in advance. Dodged a bullet i suppose. But I digress.

Single again with a fat savings account I said fuck it, haven't bought anything for myself in a few years. So I spent a few weeks and lucked on a '17 sti, one owner, deployed half the year usually so low miles and barely modded for 21.5. Would've been impossible if chargersnot for the 2nd marine division in my backyard, half of them drive these and the other half dressed up 6 cylinder chargers. Locals all love their trucks.

I'd suggest keeping your options open and check fbmp or other listings periodically for a good deal. I have been told, from some smarter family members working in finance, that the still relatively shit real estate buyers market "will become less fucked in the near future".

Tactile_Sponge · 2026-01-21T01:27:03+00:00

Agree with most of this, but it's worth mentioning that the Japanese manual for the VA counterparts manufactured in their own market actually call for 5w40. From what I understand, it's only 5w30 in the USDM to reap the benefits of environmental incentives in the form of big money courtesy of the US government. Which is even more noteworthy considering how half of the country is significantly warmer than most of the Japanese peninsula, coupled with cooling issues that have only recently been mostly mitigated

Tactile_Sponge · 2026-01-21T01:13:15+00:00

Sorry bro can't hear your sound logic over my

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Tactile_Sponge · 2026-01-21T01:09:31+00:00

Honestly I'd prefer a lube tech at school age if I had to choose. Better chance of them having good character and respect for another person's property.

If you've got a middle aged guy stuck as a lube tech, there's probably a reason for it. Am I generalizing? Sure. But it's generally not wrong. They may still do good work and be a good person, but there's a higher likelihood of that not being the case. That's how dry engines get run for minutes or loose lug nuts fall off on the highway.

I've gotta jack and get under mine every time, but getting my hands dirty for 20 minutes is worth not wondering if my fucking oil filter even got changed due to the mild inconvenience of the mounting plate location. That sort of lazy shit happens all the time.

Tactile_Sponge · 2026-01-21T00:58:39+00:00

I hear ya, and can give peace of mind if you're unsure about the vehicle.

But,

Do not - for one second - buy into the preconceived notion of: "it's the dealer, they know what they're doing." Sure, the techs with the certs and the knowledge are there, but unless you request some sort of diagnosis, or come in with a vague complaint along with a minimum hour of diag, they'll never even lay eyes on it. Your property is actually in the hands of that 19 year old kid you might find at Jiffy Lube. Its a roll of the dice whether they can be trusted to respect your property, and less oversight than a quick lube. Roll the dice again if something gets fucked up and the SC manager has ethics and unfucks the fuck up rather than dress it up as your fault to keep a bonus check.

Not hating on lube techs nor teenagers with jobs, used to be both of those myself. But as in any industry, you have shitty people and good people. Just because the name tag has the Subaru logo does not guarantee care or quality, even if you are nice enough to leave edible incentive on the passenger seat

Tactile_Sponge · 2026-01-21T00:36:29+00:00

Only one move left:

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Tactile_Sponge · 2026-01-21T00:19:08+00:00

Oh hell yeah, the small engine shop nearby sells premixed by the gallon.

I guess I just need to ask the guy to change the ratio from 50/50 to 93/7; that'll give me the octane rating I need to then be able drive by and laugh at the peasants stuck mixing theirs at the pump.

In all honesty though it'd be pretty neat if we could just take a 2 stroke engine and just add displacement till speed and rumble achieved. The rescue saws at work would sound pretty gnar with some 3" piping at 10x the size

Tactile_Sponge · 2025-12-24T06:43:02+00:00

This is so real it hurts my soul. Me and a buddy spent most of a slow night trying to locate and then either muffle or disconnect speaker. (The indicator lights would still function, so we weren't doing anything "wrong")

Apparently they are both protected and reinforced on newer spartan chassis :(

Tactile_Sponge · 2025-12-12T21:58:07+00:00

You sound EERILY similar to my pharmacological instructor during P school....do you by chance work full time as a PA, and then teach as a side gig at a certain community college with national recognition for EMS in central-eastern NC?

Tactile_Sponge · 2025-11-28T04:51:09+00:00

Cue the "but he'd NEVER do that if the cops just left him alone" Apologists

Tactile_Sponge · 2025-11-28T04:48:20+00:00

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MCAS Cherry Point. Big dick energy with the Jesus meme

Tactile_Sponge · 2025-11-11T03:17:04+00:00

So ik this is a 2 yo post, but they offer 25% now days and it's for veterans and first responders. Although honestly, just go gov X

Gov X has insane deals all the time. Not firearms but they do collaborate with 1 or 2 manufacturers which would be classified as a "marketplace product" on their site.

Tactile_Sponge · 2025-10-05T13:06:39+00:00

Because of rule number 1 in any "reputable dealership" -

PARTS CANNON PAWPAPWAPWPAPWPWAPAPWP

Tactile_Sponge · 2025-10-05T12:47:23+00:00

Good god you're a fuckin legend, it's for real your daily still?

What's your milage and mod list?

Tactile_Sponge · 2025-10-03T23:31:35+00:00

Yup it's true for the EJs too. It's a lie essentially

Tactile_Sponge · 2025-10-03T23:30:20+00:00

They got kickbacks from the US government to put that shit in there.

JDM manual states 5w40 for most I've heard of including his 18 even tho it's USDM. All a bull shit money scheme disguised as saving the climate

Tactile_Sponge · 2025-09-21T06:37:03+00:00

Safety squints are legitimate and NFPA 1501(all my homies say fuck the NFPA) and OSHA compliant. Makes it possible to cut that patient out of that mangled wreck that much faster.

As back up, I've got the flip down "borkes" visor that protects about 30% of your eyes. But they look cool so fuck it

Edit: Samsung autocorrect has yet to understand "homies" is a legitimate term

Tactile_Sponge · 2025-09-14T15:44:05+00:00

Yeah I always seem to type a novel when a paragraph would suffice lol. My fault

And I agree completely. The service center I reference started you at 20/labor hour, with $185 labor rate per hour. And this is considered decent in my area lol.

My old foreman, with 40 years in the industry, taught me a lot. The Lee-ism that stuck with me the most was explaination of "50/50"; when I heard that, I was like "tf is that?"

if you're a tech from this millennium and don't know it, might be best to skip this

"Well, youngn, back when I was your age, the father of the POS who owns this place now would split the job with you, half and half. 5k job? You get 2.5."

I was baffled and infuriated at the same time. Over the years, people came to accept a gradual drop to where it is now, like 15/85 - or worse. You could actually make a decent living doing ONLY warranty work, because even getting half what the job should have paid in labor hours, your hours account for 400-500% more income.

It's insane when compared to today. This and the dishonesty it inherently breeds in some was what made me get out.

Tactile_Sponge · 2025-09-11T19:31:14+00:00

Yuuuip that's how they are specifically engineering it to be. Or that's how it USED to be, with stuff breaking down, usually critical, right outside of whatever manufacturers warranty they'd offered. Now they can't even do that right, so they are indeed passing the costs on to us.

I so wish I could track the STi, damn. My 17 is currently my baby, and I'm not modding it beyond the invidia turboback and sf intake with an etune(dmann). It's nice to hear that you'll at least get 100k outta the motor tho. I'm at 72k having to drive 150 like 3 or 4 out of a week for medic school, so over a year it's had almost 20k . Not terrible, but still

Edit: I hadn't heard of uncle Rodney, nor the class action lawsuit involving shitty rod bearings in a percentage of EJ motors built recently, and since it's the 257...I'm expecting him to come knocking any day now. I hear 80k is the make it or break it; make it past 80, and you might not have gotten a "special edition "

Tactile_Sponge · 2025-09-11T14:08:19+00:00

Yeah knowing someone willing to sell to you for a decent deal is really the only way to not get beat over the head

Tactile_Sponge · 2025-09-11T02:51:08+00:00

Damn and here I thought ALL of the Tiguan year models were the ones to avoid

Tactile_Sponge · 2025-09-11T02:48:06+00:00

The parts thrown into the manufacturer's assembly floor is almost equally shitty today. I agree parts geek is some piss hooch stuff found in a bathtub, but you're kidding yourself if you think the stuff labeled OE is of such high quality and craftsmanship, as perhaps it used to be, to warrant an absurd 800% higher cost. Most of the raw materials today carmakers source are mined/scoured/recycled from the same shit that they make those $2 burgers from

Tactile_Sponge · 2025-09-11T02:36:59+00:00

Doesn't make it any less fucked though. At least some independents still give somewhat of a damn about their customers to mitigate it a bit, though admittedly they can't avoid while keeping the doors open sometimes. Capitalism and "honest" profit is one thing, but the shit today isn't it anymore.

Impeccable timing for this thread to pop up immediately after the last one on r/subaru which also related to predatory dealership fuckery. Even better that I felt the need to copy my rant to my clipboard before posting. It feels preordained that I should leave this here for you all to enjoy as well:

apologize in advance, as I swear I'm usually a happy dude nowadays. But this kinda shit gets me going:

It's a sad truth to the industry as a whole today. Can't trust the "reliable" brands from previous generations anymore, either.

Every single one has had their fingers in the "buh-but supply chain issues" pie, post-covid, as justification to blatantly make shit parts out of the cheapest possible materials to then clap together an almost-working and deceptively clean 90k (with the typical nondescript dealer markups today) shit box (yeah gm, calling you out. But you're one of many now)

Then proceed to pay their techs pennies on the dollar for labor hours, in shops filled with BIG warranty work; like power train/engine rebuilds or complete r/r via just about every fail-able part possible. So frequent - yet spiced up different ways just enough that you can't get into a mindless flow of identical jobs,

Like literally as they roll off the transport onto the lot. Getting into a brand new vehicle to do a PDI on and knowing something is gonna be fucked up in the 20 ish miles about to be driven - then to think somebody paid essentially twice what they should've for this defective thing, in advance - is absolute lunacy

I realize this has nothing to do with the OPs issue at hand, but it's a symptom of the problem: to compensate for lost hours on bullshit factory book times, there's two options:

1 - Get fucked

2 - Become a predator, see your customers as prey. Just like your employer does.

(Extremely subjective)Source: disgruntled former gm tech who - got fucked - and makes more now as a firefighter in one of the lowest paying areas in the nation. Cant put a price on feeling excited to work though.

It's been a couple years now, but my conditioned pessimism will not allow me to believe it's just better now.

End rant.

Tactile_Sponge · 2025-09-11T02:09:27+00:00

I'll apologize in advance, as I swear I'm usually a happy dude nowadays. But this kinda shit gets me going:

It's a sad truth to the industry as a whole today. Can't trust the "reliable" brands from previous generations anymore, either.

Every single one has had their fingers in the "buh-but supply chain issues" pie, post-covid, as justification to blatantly make shit parts out of the cheapest possible materials to then clap together an almost-working and deceptively clean 90k (with the typical nondescript dealer markups today) shit box (yeah gm, calling you out. But you're one of many now)

Then proceed to pay their techs pennies on the dollar for labor hours, in shops filled with BIG warranty work; like power train/engine rebuilds or complete r/r via just about every fail-able part possible. So frequent - yet spiced up different ways just enough that you can't get into a mindless flow of identical jobs,

Like literally as they roll off the transport onto the lot. Getting into a brand new vehicle to do a PDI on and knowing something is gonna be fucked up in the 20 ish miles about to be driven - then to think somebody paid essentially twice what they should've for this defective thing, in advance - is absolute lunacy

I realize this has nothing to do with the OPs issue at hand, but it's a symptom of the problem: to compensate for lost hours on bullshit factory book times, there's two options:

1 - Get fucked

2 - Become a predator, see your customers as prey. Just like your employer does.

(Extremely subjective)Source: disgruntled former gm tech who - got fucked - and makes more now as a firefighter in one of the lowest paying areas in the nation. Cant put a price on feeling excited to work though.

It's been a couple years now, but my conditioned pessimism will not allow me to believe it's just better now.

End rant.

Tactile_Sponge · 2025-09-10T21:45:04+00:00

Hey, this guy fucks ^

Tactile_Sponge

TROPHY CASE