Is putting a wrx programmer on a 2.5i Impreza with some wrx upgrades worth it

If you want WRX performance you need a WRX engine. The power comes from cams, high flow heads and the TURBO. Adding on a few WRX parts and accessories won't get you much power. For that you will need a serious build with cams, heads and more.

Didn't you just ask a similar question about a cold air intake to boost your power and the results are dubious at best? The guru answered saying that they are never really advantageous. Look, if you want a faster car, trade this for an WRX STI, trying to make an ordinary Imprezza into a WRX STI after the fact is NOT a good idea. You'll wind and spending more money than its worth. Besides, the WRX STI has been engineered to withstand these extra tolerances and trying to get your car's performance up without the structural underpinnings will just blow up your system. Just my opinion, good luck.

Look up Subaru engine builders and talk to them about building you a real high performance engine.

Full_of_Regrets, looks like we were both typing this message at the same time, or I was just composing and sending this. Yes, I agree with you completely. I imagine that the original poster is in his 20s. Look, we've all been there once, when we were younger and thought, wouldn't it be cool to make my existing car go faster and be more performance oriented. I had a VW and put on this fancy exhaust, just made a lot of noise. Like I said, we've all been there done that.

Dernisch- Look, let me give you a piece of advice, cars are tools, they're cool and I like them as well as anyone, but, they're the worst investment. Except for special cars, like the Jaguar that FOR has, they depreciate, cost a lot to maintain, repairs, etc. It costs a lot of money to drive high performance cars and even more to keep them going, insurance and everything else. Save your money and skip it. If you're really doing that well financially, put the money into some other kind of future investment that will pay you back in time. Cars will not do this.

The LAST thing you want to do is try using the turbo's programmer on a 2.5i! I'm not sure if you'll blow up the motor or bog it down, but it just can't work, as ALL the damned files are different. Save your money for UHP 17" tires and maybe sway bars. That's about it. Keep it under $1k. When you get older you can follow my lead and put $9k into an old Miata to make a Boxster-eater.

Dernisch, so, are you getting the picture here from this chorus of voices? Just enjoy your car, and save up for another vehicle that can do what you want to do. No sense wasting time and money on things that won't yield the results you're looking for with the current car. In other words, all of these things you're looking at are definitely NOT WORTH IT. Happy Thanksgiving.