As Xusia said, not to be argumentative, but I would also disagree with that statement. I had a 2002 for 8 years, 120k miles. Drove it plenty hard, but didn't abuse the transmission (if I was going to launch "hard" I let the clutch take the abuse by letting it slip a bit). Stage 1 (Cobb). Still ran perfect the day I sold it (sold it to get a 2011 WRX hatchback).