Subaru Model Codes and What They Really Mean

How Subaru Model Codes Are Built

Use the first two characters when you mean the chassis alone. GC, GD, and GG are bodies. They are not engines. Add the third character when you mean the car Subaru built: GC8, GGA, GDB. Those three-character codes get used as if they were the same thing. They are not. A swapped car needs both, said separately.

On a 1993–2001 Impreza the first character is the series, G for Impreza. The second is the body: C sedan, F wagon or Outback Sport, M coupe. The third, on that model line, covers displacement, drive, and suspension together. C on that list is the 2.2L all-wheel-drive car. E is the 2.5L all-wheel-drive car. The same letters do not keep those jobs on a Legacy or a Forester.

A full applied code is longer than the nickname. GC8G4FD is a GC8, then a series character, then a door count. GC8G2FD is the two-door form of that string. GC8G4FD is the four-door. A 22B, which is a coupe, has been read off the driver-side strut-tower tag as GC8, and a full label used for it is GC8E2SD.

Why the Third Character Changes the Part

The engine character is doing more work than displacement. It stands in for the engine size and layout, and for the radiator and the crossmember that went with that engine. Two cars can share a chassis and still not share a radiator.

Read a request for a radiator for a GFA that way. GF is the pre-2002 Impreza wagon. A is the 2.0L turbo used on the MY01-and-later WRX. The chassis answer and the engine answer are two different answers. Saying the part fits GC and GF only settles the body.

A drivetrain that already belongs in a GC8 is not a fitment puzzle. That is the car it came in. The question gets real when the body is only named as GC or GF, or as a specific car such as a GF4. Name the chassis you have and the engine you are putting in it. A shorter code does not make them the same car.

A 2.2 turbo is not the 2.2 naturally aspirated code

Early Legacy turbos are not filed under the same mark as a 2.2 naturally aspirated car. In the parts-guide VIN breakdown the chassis reads BC6, and the next digit is the model information. A 7 in that place is the turbo for 1991–1994. The Legacy turbo that matches is a BC67, and a car checked against that reading came back BC67. A first-generation wagon checked the same way read BJ6. The 6 is the engine slot. It does not, by itself, say turbo.

Impreza Chassis Letters

These are the body codes. They do not tell you which engine, which radiator, or which gearbox is in the car.

On US cars the same letters split by model year more tightly than that group. The US list starts at the 2008 model year, not at 2007.

A 2002 Impreza 2.5 RS sedan, non-turbo, follows the GD body plus the E used for a 2.5 naturally aspirated Impreza: GDE. A 1995 2.2 all-wheel-drive coupe is GM plus C, which is GMC. A two-door 2.5 naturally aspirated Impreza is GME. A two-door with the pre-2002 2.0 turbo is GM8.

2015 and later sedans

VA is the sedan chassis for 2015–2021 WRX and WRX STI four-doors. The fourth and fifth characters of the VIN are where that shows up. The longer applied forms used for that platform put the STI at VAB and the S4 at VAG. Series letters A through C cover 2015–2017, and D through E cover 2018–2019. A 2016 WRX STI on that list is VAB-B.

On that platform the WRX automatic is a CVT. The WRX six-speed is type TY75. The WRX STI six-speed is type TY85. The WRX engine in this split is a 2.0L FA. The WRX STI is a 2.0L EJ in Japan and in some other countries, and a 2.5L EJ in Australia, Europe, and North America. All of them are turbo and all-wheel drive.

The Levorg sits on the same V platform, with M for the wagon. VM4 is the FB 1.6. VMG is the FA 2.0. Both are turbo, CVT, and all-wheel drive.

VB is the sedan chassis for the 2022-up WRX. It is the next body, not a VA with a later series letter. The fourth and fifth characters of the VIN are VB, as on a 2022 car that reads JF1VB. The B here is the body character. It is not the B that marks an STI on a GDB or a VAB. The type code on a 2022 Japanese WRX S4 is VBH, and the engine on that car is the FA24, a 2.4L turbo. VAB and VAG do not carry onto this chassis.

The VIN Is Not the Applied Model Code

US cars carry both. The VIN is the long number. The applied model code is the shorter code on the car’s identification plate, and on many of these cars it is also badged on the driver-side shock tower. Japan identifies the car from the applied model code. Mixing the two lists is how a naturally aspirated car gets called a GC8, and how a turbo car gets a naturally aspirated radiator.

There is no GC8 in a US VIN. GC8 is the applied code for the pre-MY01 2.0L turbo Impreza sedan. The 8 means that 2.0L turbo. It does not mean the car is an STI. A 2000 RS VIN reads JF1GM6. A 1996 wagon VIN reads JF1GF6 while the applied code on that car is GFC. A 2002 WRX wagon VIN reads JF1GG2 while the applied code is GGA. GG2 and GGA are both real, and they are not the same system. Every 2.0 on the VIN list is a 2, and the example is a GD2 WRX sedan. GDB is the applied code for the MY02-and-later 2.0 STI. It is not that VIN example.

That table is the revised split between the two lists. It is not a rule that every plate matches the applied column. A 1.8 VIN is 2, as in JF1GC2449, which is a GC2. Applied plates on 1.8 cars have been stamped both ways: GC5 on a US 1993 Impreza L, and GC6 or GF6 on other 1993 and 1994 1.8 cars, including a GC6 badge on the driver-side shock tower of a 1994 Impreza L. A 1993 1.8 sedan carried applied code GC6 and VIN GC2 on the same car. Read the plate you have. Do not pick 5 or 6 from the chart and stamp it on the car.

The 2.5 STI column has the same problem in the other direction. The applied list uses 6, so GD6. The VIN list uses 7, so GD7. A 2007 STI has also been identified from the applied code as GDF, which is the form used where the applied code is what gets read. A 7 in a VIN is not only an STI. A 2006 WRX wagon VIN reads GG7. A 2008 WRX wagon VIN reads GH7. A 2014 STI wagon VIN reads GR8, and an 8 on the applied list is the 3.0L flat-six, which that car is not. The applied form people use for that STI is GRB, with B for the STI. GR8 and GRB are the VIN and the applied code again.

A 2005 Legacy GT sedan VIN reads BL6 and the wagon reads BP6, with 6 for the 2.5. The applied model code given for that sedan is BL9. Same car, two third characters.

Year, Engine, and Gearbox Stamps

On a JDM GC or GF the fourth character is the series. Production dates and the STI version number that goes with them:

GC8G4FD uses that G. It is a 2000 model year, Version 6, and the 4 after the G is the door count. When the GD and GG Impreza arrived in 2001, the series letter started over at A. STI stopped assigning Version numbers. The version nickname after that is a convenience label. US cars often arrive a year behind Japan, so a version nickname rarely lands on the same model year here. JDM parts listings also group by those letters: a Version IV RA is model E, and a listing that says E through G is 1997–2000 GC and GF cars.

Applied codes do not match across markets. A Japanese GC is not a US GM. An Australian MY03 XS Forester compliance plate reads SG9AK7K, and that SG9 is not a turbo. A 9 is the 3.0L flat-six on the US applied list. It is not a 9 on that Australian plate.

The EJ stamp

The engine code that identifies the motor is on the timing-cover sticker, or on a sticker on the back of the cylinder head. Numbers cast into the block or the head are production numbers. They are a poor way to identify the engine. For Impreza, Legacy, Forester, and SVX engines, the identification code starts with EJ.

The EJ series started production in the mid to late 1980s. A 7 in the fifth digit of an EJ20 is the high-output 2.0L multipoint turbo used from 1999 on, which is the EJ207 family. EJ207 is not one STI version. It exists before Version 7, and Version 8 cars are still EJ207. On one worked EJ207 code, W meant the engine was built for a manual, the following 2 meant Version 6, PR meant a standard STI, and PJ would have meant an RA. The characters after the dash are a serial, not a model.

The transmission stamp

Transmission codes start with T. TY856WB1AA reads like this.

The two-digit spacing is the classification. Six-speeds use 85 mm shaft spacing. The five-speeds of that generation use 75 mm. The case digit after it is a family, not a year: 6 is a six-speed, 4 is an 8-bolt five-speed, 2 is a 4-bolt Impreza five-speed, 5 is a Forester 8-bolt five-speed, 3 is a 4-bolt Forester five-speed, and 7 is some Legacy turbo 8-bolt five-speeds. The spec character is the next one: W is a six-speed, V is a five-speed, Z is an automatic with MPT, and Y is an automatic with VTD. That Y is not the second-character Y, which means a manual all-wheel-drive gearbox. The last four characters are the details, including center differential and front limited-slip, plus minor production changes. They are not a ratio by themselves.

Final-drive figures stated for these gearboxes: a 2.0L WRX five-speed is 3.9, a 2.5L WRX five-speed is 3.7, and an STI six-speed is 3.9. The 2.0L WRX uses a 1.1 center differential, so the front is 3.9 and the rear is 3.545. The 2.5L WRX five-speed went back to 3.9 in 2008 or 2009.

Legacy, Forester, SVX, and Pre-EJ Cars

The two-character codes below are the chassis summary. The third character still has to come off the car. A 6 on a Legacy is not the 6 on an Impreza VIN.

The C and F in BC and BF are the same body letters the Impreza uses, on a different series. The wagon row is the one the plates disagree on. On the cars that were checked, the sedan is BC, the common wagon is BJ, and BF is the raised-roof wagon. The 1994 GT wagon is that raised-roof car, and it is the rare one. Most first-generation wagons carry BJ in the VIN. Those plates are read as 1989–1994, while the chassis summary groups the same cars as 1990–1994. A BJ6 wagon is the common-wagon code plus the engine slot.

Second generation keeps the raised roof as its own code. Outbacks are BG. Legacy wagons that are not raised-roof are BK. A Canadian 1999 Legacy GT wagon, 2.5L DOHC, carries VIN BK6, which matches that split. Third-generation wagons are all raised-roof, so they are BH. Fourth-generation wagons are all raised-roof, so they are BP. If a listing says BG for every second-generation wagon, it has collapsed BK into BG.

Forester and SVX

2008 is the changeover on that Forester list, the last year given for SG and the first year given for SH. A JDM Forester with SF5 on the plate and EJ20GDX1NY on the engine stamp was a turbo. SF5 is the code on that car. It is not a US VIN decoding of the 5. The SVX engine is the EG33, a 3.3L flat-six. The VIN form is CX3. The transmission attachment on the EG matches an EJ, so an EJ gearbox can bolt to an EG motor.

Before the EJ

Cars from the 1980s that are being converted to EJ engines use a different family. The XT6 chassis code is AX. Its engine, the ER27, is a 2.7L single-cam flat-six. It was based on the EA series, not the EJ. The bellhousing uses four bolts. A WRX gearbox uses six or eight. They do not bolt together. That is the opposite of the EG33, which does share the EJ attachment.

A T on the end is turbo: EA81T or EA82T. The EA81 is the first turbocharged Subaru engine that went into production. On the EA82, fuel systems are a two-barrel Hitachi feedback carburetor, SPFI (single-point injection, which is throttle-body injection), and multipoint injection. The turbo EA82s are multipoint. Some non-turbo EA82 XT cars are multipoint as well, with a spider intake. The ER27 came only as a naturally aspirated multipoint engine.

Body generations for those cars: Generation I is pre-1982 and EA71-powered. Generation II is 1982–1984 for coupes and wagons, and through 1987 for hatchbacks and Brats, on the EA81. Generation III is the Loyale era, from 1985 until the Legacy in the early 1990s, on the EA82. The XT6 is counted with Generation III, alongside the naturally aspirated and turbo XT. The coupe and wagon change in 1985. The hatchback and Brat keep the Generation II body through 1987.

Before You Order a Part

The code is a parts filter. It is not a nickname for “the old Impreza” or “a WRX.” A wrong third character spends the money on a radiator or a crossmember that fits the body and misses the engine.

1. Read the applied model code. Use the identification plate or the driver-side shock-tower badge. That is the code the chassis-and-engine tables are written in.
2. Read the VIN on its own line. After JF1, the next characters are the VIN chassis code. Do not translate them with the applied-model column.
3. Read the engine sticker. Timing cover, or the back of the cylinder head. It should start with EJ on these cars. Ignore the casting number next to the transmission.
4. Read the transmission code. It starts with T. The 75 or 85 is shaft spacing. The last four characters are the equipment, not a gear ratio you can guess.
5. Split a swapped car into two codes. A GF4 with a later turbo engine is still a GF4 chassis. Calling it a GFA because the engine changed hides the body you actually have to fit.

FAQ

What do Subaru model codes really mean?

The first two characters are the chassis. The third is the engine that chassis left the factory with, and it also stands in for the radiator and crossmember. A longer applied code adds the series, the door count, and the equipment.

Is GC8 the same as a US VIN?

No. GC8 is an applied model code for a pre-MY01 2.0L turbo Impreza sedan. A US VIN does not use GC8. The 8 means that 2.0L turbo, not specifically an STI.

What is the difference between GC and GM?

On US cars, GC is the 1993–2001 sedan and GM is the coupe. In Japan, GC is used for both the two-door and the four-door, and the door count shows up later in the applied code.

Where is the model code on the car?

The applied code is on the identification plate, and it is often badged on the driver-side shock tower. The VIN is the separate number. The engine code is on the timing-cover sticker or on the back of the cylinder head.

What is the model code for a 2015 STI?

The sedan chassis is VA. The applied form used for the STI is VAB. A 2016 WRX STI on that list is VAB-B. A 2022 WRX is VB, not a later VA.

What is the model code for a 2022 WRX?

The chassis is VB. It shows up in the fourth and fifth characters of the VIN. The Japanese type code for the 2022 WRX S4 is VBH, and the engine is the FA24, a 2.4L turbo. The B is the body, not an STI.

Does a 7 in the VIN mean the car is an STI?

On the VIN list, 7 is the 2.5L STI, as in GD7. A 7 also shows up on WRX wagon VINs, including a 2006 GG7 and a 2008 GH7. Read the rest of the car, not that one character.