The Subaru Impreza: It Gets Uglier, and Worse
First, let me get this out there. I love subarus. Specifically, I love the older Legacy sedan (and wagon at times) but most of all, I love the 1st generation WRX. The 2005 WRX is a thing of beauty. And beauty, I mean it in the eye-of-the-beholder-and-it-looks-like-a-bulldog kind of a way. That WRX was fantastic to drive. Honestly, it is one of the best handling cars made in the last decade... which means one of the best handling cars ever. It was light, had great feedback, impressive suspension (not shockingly stiff, but responded quickly while keeping you well planted) and had symmetric AWD. The hatchback WRX could quite literally, be everything short of a full-on truck: sports car, winter transportation, convenient hatchback.
The WRX is, of course, based off of the plebeian Impreza. And don't get me wrong, the Impreza has been a great car also. Not the beast that the WRX was, but still a very fun car to drive that was also immensely practical, especially if your state fought on the blue side of the civil war.
There is no easy way to say this.... look what they have done to it:
It's sort of a deformed mini-outback with weird bulges and the dimensions all wrong. I mean, yeah, Subarus are not really know for their styling... but this? This is just plain ugly. I would rather drive around in a Baja, and that is saying something.
I am too a real truck!
So now for more bad news: the new car has less horsepower. Yes - less. Remember what I was saying about this being the golden age of horsepower? Well, consider this a sign of the end of that age. In the name of fuel economy (something Subaru has never been known for), they decided to cut horsepower (which, interestingly enough, is also something Subaru has never been known for). The issue is this: the boxer engine has never been that fuel efficient, and AWD saps a lot of your dino juice as well. For years, base (read: not WRX engined) Subarus have just not had that much grunt. This new Impreza? 148hp. Seriously, 148hp.
My '95 Saab 900 had 150hp, and that was the base model from nearly 20 years ago. The worst part? 148hp is 22hp less than the old Impreza and it has 25lbs less torque as well (145 instead of 170). To top it off, the base model now gets a CVT... which is very fuel efficient. Reviewers say it does a pretty good job... but really, we all know that CVTs are for appliance duty only.
Which is exactly what this new Impreza is. A toaster. Or perhaps more accurately, a multi-function home printer. It sort of does a little of everything, cheaply. But unlike the old Impreza, and especially the old WRX, it is not really good at anything.
The WRX is, of course, based off of the plebeian Impreza. And don't get me wrong, the Impreza has been a great car also. Not the beast that the WRX was, but still a very fun car to drive that was also immensely practical, especially if your state fought on the blue side of the civil war.
There is no easy way to say this.... look what they have done to it:
It's sort of a deformed mini-outback with weird bulges and the dimensions all wrong. I mean, yeah, Subarus are not really know for their styling... but this? This is just plain ugly. I would rather drive around in a Baja, and that is saying something.
I am too a real truck!
So now for more bad news: the new car has less horsepower. Yes - less. Remember what I was saying about this being the golden age of horsepower? Well, consider this a sign of the end of that age. In the name of fuel economy (something Subaru has never been known for), they decided to cut horsepower (which, interestingly enough, is also something Subaru has never been known for). The issue is this: the boxer engine has never been that fuel efficient, and AWD saps a lot of your dino juice as well. For years, base (read: not WRX engined) Subarus have just not had that much grunt. This new Impreza? 148hp. Seriously, 148hp.
My '95 Saab 900 had 150hp, and that was the base model from nearly 20 years ago. The worst part? 148hp is 22hp less than the old Impreza and it has 25lbs less torque as well (145 instead of 170). To top it off, the base model now gets a CVT... which is very fuel efficient. Reviewers say it does a pretty good job... but really, we all know that CVTs are for appliance duty only.
Which is exactly what this new Impreza is. A toaster. Or perhaps more accurately, a multi-function home printer. It sort of does a little of everything, cheaply. But unlike the old Impreza, and especially the old WRX, it is not really good at anything.
Glad someone else agrees that Subaru makes their cars look shittier every year. Every time I see the new imprezas I laugh because I feel bad someone was sold such an ugly car. Bring back the classic impreza look. If there's one thing the new generation could learn from its don't change something that's already good.
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