Subaru Impreza WRX 2007 review

The WRX is a legend, of sorts, in car world, but it's never, ever been bought, or stolen, because of its visual features.  From the very first, it's been about as attractive as the offspring of an anteater and a Tonka truck.  And yet young men of a thrusting temperament, older blokes who still favour No Fear t-shirts and criminals who enjoy driving into shop windows have chosen these cars in their droves.

It would be fair to say that each successive WRX has been slightly uglier than the last, which makes the original something of a collector's item, but this time Subaru's designers have really outdone themselves.

The new Impreza is perhaps the most diversely derivative car ever. The fact that it's now a hatch and no longer a sedan is a fairly rude shock to start with, but it also looks like part BMW 1 Series, part Daewoo, part Seat Ibiza with a large sprinkling of Mazda 3. In fact, just about the only car it doesn't look like is a Subaru. While being ugly is nothing new for a Rex, the new one is kind of plain as well. At least the old ones had presence as well as pugilist features.

Explore the 2007 Subaru Impreza range

• Subaru Impreza Hatchback 2007 review
• Subaru Impreza RS 2007 review
• Subaru Impreza 2007 review: snapshot
• Subaru Impreza 2007 review
• Subaru Impreza WRX STi 2007 review
• Subaru Impreza 2007 review: first drive
• Subaru Impreza 2007 review: first drive
• Subaru Impreza R 2007 review: snapshot
• Subaru Impreza WRX 2007 review

The feeling of massive changes being afoot continues inside, where the front seats no longer look like they've been stolen from a rally car. Sure, they're still buckets and still sportily supportive, but the people in the back seat can actually see the windscreen, for the first time ever.

Before even turning the key, the feeling that this WRX was no longer a Rex was niggling. Then I fired it up and waited for the fireworks. I have to say that for the first few days, pootling around town, I was deeply disappointed.

Imprezas of old always gave you the feeling that they wanted to rip your arms off and use them to punch a police officer, but this new car felt polite and refined. It wasn't slow, exactly, but it wasn't a balltearer below 3000rpm, and there's not much room in Sydney traffic to explore beyond there.

Then there was the sound, or lack of it. While 98 per cent of Rexes you see on the road have aftermarket pipes that make them sound like a fat man blowing raspberries into a megaphone, even the standard one always had a bit of oomph to it. But the sounds of the new WRX were so distant and decorous that they seemed to be coming from another car.

All was not going well, so we headed out of town for the real test — could this super Sooob still tear up a bit of country road and put a smile on your dial? Fortunately the answer was a resounding, surprising yes.

Given its head, the WRX is still a seriously quick, slick sportscar, it just makes a lot less fuss about what it's doing. Grip-and-go cornering has always been this car's forte and the way it can hang on through, and launch out of, turns is still a highlight.

What is different is the slightly softer feel to the way it does this.

The suspension set-up feels a little more gentle and this means the driver is a little less involved with the road than before. Even the steering feels a bit lighter, which is a shame.

The 2.5-litre boxer four-cylinder still boasts the same power figures as the previous model — 169kW and 320Nm — but the engine has been retuned to deliver its grunt lower in the rev range.
This means less turbo lag and more instantaneous acceleration.

While the new car is certainly more grunty from lower down, it still doesn't get exciting until about 4000rpm. On the plus side, it does continue to be exciting all the way up to 6500rpm. Mind you, even at that pace, the noise you'd expect seems to be missing. And despite being lighter, the new car certainly doesn't feel quicker - although apparently it is, 0.1 of a second faster to 100km/h at 5.8 seconds.

The five-speed gearbox is a slick and faultless little unit, but it's still missing a gear, no matter how you look at it, and not having sixth on long freeway runs could get wearing.

Over all, though, as motoring scribes have been bleating for years, it's hard to think of another car that delivers as much for the money as a WRX. This latest impressive Impreza is still $39,990, the same price the Rex was 10 years ago. What you don't get for your money these days, though, is the hard, harried edge of old. And that's a shame, for purists at least.

So, the new WRX is a lighter, more refined, quieter, more roomy and (very slightly) faster car than before, yet I'd still take an old one, every time. Perhaps looks do count for something after all.

PS: After handing back the WRX, I took an RS Impreza for a week, but I can't tell you anything about it, because the automatic transmission it was fitted with rendered it too boring for words.

It also had a “Sport” feature, the only function of which seemed to be to illuminate a dash light that says “Sport”. Stick with the WRX.