The central instrument cluster is, more or less, the same as the one in both the Impreza and the XV and that means its dominated, visually at least, by the three dials controlling the air-con and heating. That said, the new interior doesn’t feel overly premium, but there’s more liberal use of soft-touch plastics with the hard plastics that are still used, largely hidden in places you won’t often touch. And it shows, because the interior of this new WRX is a big step ahead of the last one – it felt like the plastics had come from old lunch boxes. It’s on the inside that Subaru’s designers have worked the hardest. And when you’ve got a stiffer body, well, improved performance is generally the result, but we’ll come back to that.

But, thanks to the new snout, smaller bonnet scoop, deep skirt all the way around and the small boot-lid-integrated spoiler, the new WRX finally looks like the spiritual successor to the bulldog-chewing-a-bumblebee original WRX.īut there’s more to the new, sharp-creased, and squared off front and back than just looks – the body is around 40% stiffer than its predecessor.

While the STI’s engine has done service in the previous generation car and comes unchanged, the WRX’s engine is completely redeveloped from ground up.Styling has never really been a Subaru strong point, and the WRX has never ever been, what you’d call, attractive. Another difference, although perhaps a more delightful one, is the new 2.0-litre turbocharged boxer four which, curiously, is a newer engine than the 2.5-litre engine in the WRX STI. A key difference in the new WRX is the introduction of Sport Lineartronic, which is in essence a fancy name for a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT). However, while the broth has been made with the same ingredients, does it still taste as delicious as it had been?Īs it were, new ingredients have been peppered into the broth.

Through the years, the genetic make-up of sporty Subarus has remained unchanged, although the cars have looked drastically different, evolving from saloon to hatchback and back again in the new WRX. All that hardcore driving across muddy and bumpy stages in varying conditions across the world has contributed to the creation of core sporty Subaru trademarks: Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive, a turbocharged boxer four and sophisticated suspension setups.

Subaru wrx cvt review