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For over thirty years, the Subaru Impreza has been an icon on Australian roads.
If you’re a member of the ‘PlayStation generation’ like me, there’s a very good chance you slapped P plates on one as your first car.
For Subaru the Impreza is more than that. Along with its WRX performance variant, it's the car which put Subaru on the map, raising it from a relatively unknown Japanese automaker to a global household name.
Things change, though, and despite 30-plus years of history as a beloved nameplate, the Impreza has gone from a best-seller to tumbling down the sales charts as buyers shuffle into small SUVs rather than hatchbacks or small sedans.
The question we’re looking to answer today is what this new-generation Impreza has to offer in 2024, and whether it is still worth a look.
Read on to see what we found.
This car features something many people reading this review won’t have experienced or even seen up close before.
Especially for you younger ones, it’s called a ‘gear lever’ or ‘gear stick’. And down in the driver’s footwell an extra pedal on the left operates the ‘clutch’ which helps you use the gear lever because this car, the Subaru WRX RS, is what’s known as a ‘manual’.
That means you get to change the gears and wrest back some control from a modern car, many of which seem hell bent on taking over completely!
This is the fifth-generation version of what long ago morphed into a cult phenomenon, the ‘Rex’, with hardcore devotees around the globe loving its brash turbo flat-four performance and tenacious all-wheel-drive dynamics.
It’s been tweaked for the 2024 model year with heaps of extra safety gear and upgraded multimedia, which is the perfect excuse to strap in and reacquaint ourselves with this compact powerhouse.
Read on to see if this small sedan with the lot has what it takes to qualify for a spot on your driveway!
The 2024 Impreza delivers on all the key things which have made the nameplate so well regarded for the last 30-odd years.
The issue is, buyer expectations have moved on. Hatchbacks need to do more than ever to compete with small SUVs, and with today’s fuel prices it’s far more valuable to offer hybrid rather than all-wheel drive.
This is why, despite the sixth-generation Impreza being a tidy high-tech offering with an admirable commitment to safety, I think it will ultimately continue to shrink its market share. This Impreza really is one for the fans.
Over three decades the WRX has matured into a more grown-up, refined performance package.
It’s fast with excellent dynamics, yet comfortable. Safety’s top-shelf, it’s well screwed together and the value equation stacks up. Rear seat headroom could be better and service costs are on the high side for the category. But I just love the way this car puts you in control.
Over the years the Impreza has changed in its design and intention so much.
Once known primarily for its sporty sedan variants, today’s Impreza is a far more contemporary hatchback, forgoing the once wagon-like shape for something with the traditional bubble silhouette to align with its rivals.
For better or worse, it also syncs up with the rest of Subaru’s range, with the brand’s current design language on full show, but it also barely evolves from the previous-generation version from the outside.
It trades the chunky square light fittings from the previous car for something a bit more refined this time around, with a similar look and feel to the WRX and Outback.
Inside also gets a similar fit-out to other Subarus in the range, complete with a raised centre console, shapely dash, and the same huge screen from the Crosstrek and Outback which dominates the space and helps simplify things compared to the busy interior and multiple screens of the previous car.
It’s a cosy space with chunky comfortable seats and the signature bumper car steering wheel is a stand-out bit of Subaru design.
Even the base car with its plastic trimmed wheel and basic cloth trims in the door is basic in an almost refreshing way, but unlike some rivals manages to be comfortable, too, thanks to soft trims for your elbows in the doors.
For a while there in the mid- to late teens it felt like Subaru was pulling the wraps off a ‘VIZIV’-themed concept car design roughly once every five minutes.
Future-focused SUVs, crossovers and wagons, as well as 2017’s Performance Concept, a muscular four-door that clearly had an influence on the look and feel of this car.
From its sinister headlights and all-business hood scoop to the pumped-up flared guards with black 18-inch alloys filling them, the WRX’s intent is clear.
And at the back the professional-grade theme continues with dual twin exhaust tips, boot lid lip spoiler and what looks like a multi-vane diffuser that’s actually more cosmetic than functional.
That said, a low-key technical design feature is the integration of air outlets on the trailing edges of the front wheel arch flares and the outer edges of the rear bumper.
This is to release air pressure from the wheel arches, forming external vortices to minimise body sway and drift caused by wind turbulence.
Inside, the cabin treatment is a fairly busy mix of sharpish angles and shallow curves, the dash dominated by an 11.6-inch, portrait-oriented multimedia screen with a separate instrument pod for the driver next to it.
The colour palette is mid-grey to black with dark metallic highlights here and there, with alloy covers on all three pedals as well as patches of faux carbon on the doors and steering wheel.
Sports front seats look and feel good and the overall standard of fit and finish is high.
Living up to the adventure-ready Subaru promise, the Impreza's interior is quite functional.
Even though many controls have moved to the big central screen, there are individual buttons for temperature adjustment and a permanent touch function for fan speed on the lower third of the screen.
It would be nice to see a full set of physical buttons for climate functions, but this seems like a decent compromise.
Elsewhere there are large bottle holders in each door with a small accompanying pocket, two more rigid bottle holders in the centre console, a small tray behind them, and a huge armrest console box.
Under the multimedia screen there is a bay with a wireless phone charger, but like the Crosstrek, it is finished in a hard plastic material, which means your phone will easy slide around and out of the charging area in the corners, which seems like an oversight.
Adjustability is great, even in the base car, with flexible seats and a wide range of movement for the wheel, letting you easily find a suitable seating position. Width in the cabin is okay, but headroom is excellent.
The back seat offers a solid amount of room for myself behind my own seating position, at 182cm tall, but the middle position is no good for an adult thanks to the presence of a large raise in the floor to allow for the all-wheel drive system underneath.
Amenities for rear passengers are only okay in the base car, with a large bottle holder in the door and a further two in a drop-down centre armrest. There are no adjustable rear air vents or USB power outlets in the L, but outlets are added in the R and S.
Boot space is on the small side, with only 291 litres (VDA) on offer. The high floor means a limited amount of space with the luggage cover in place, although I was surprised to find we could fit the full three-piece CarsGuide luggage set once it was removed, so long as you’re okay not being able to see out the rear window.
Under the floor, the Impreza sports a space-saver spare wheel - a must-have for long-distance regional travellers.
At just under 4.7m long, a little over 1.8m wide and close to 1.5m tall, with a roughly 2.7m wheelbase the WRX stands as a ‘big’ small sedan.
At 183cm I’ve got more than enough breathing room in the front, the away slope of the dash enhancing the feeling of space.
For storage, there’s lots, including a centre console box between the seats, two cupholders and some oddments trays in the centre console, door pockets with room for decent size bottles and a medium glove box
And in the back, sitting behind the driver’s seat set to my position, there’s good foot room, ample legroom, but sitting straight I experienced a bonce-to-roof interface in terms of headroom. No adjustable ventilation, either. Thumbs down.
Storage options include door bins with room for bottles, a single map pocket (on the back of the front passenger seat) and two cupholders in the fold down centre armrest.
Power and connectivity runs to a 12V socket in the front as well as USB-A and -C sockets for charging and/or media.
Plus two USB charge ports (again -A and -C) in the back, the latter a model year 2024 spec upgrade.
The WRX’s boot offers 411 litres of storage space, which is enough to accommodate our three-piece luggage set, but remember, the aperture isn’t as accommodating as a hatch or SUV’s. The 60/40 split-folding rear seats improve flexibility, though.
A space-saver spare sits under the floor and braked trailer towing capacity is a handy 1200kg.
Now in sixth-generation form, the 2024 Impreza range has been trimmed down to just one hatchback bodystyle and three trim levels - the base L, mid-spec R, and top-spec S.
True to Subaru form these variants are all priced quite close together, and the base L comes with pretty much all the kit you’ll need, with the R and S grades adding mainly luxuries to the equipment list.
Now starting from $31,490, before on-road costs, the Impreza is not as affordable as the previous-generation version, and while it manages to pack a relatively high level of standard equipment, some of its key rivals are a bit cheaper in a segment where every dollar matters.
For example, you can get into a hybrid version of Toyota’s Corolla (Ascent Sport Hybrid - $32,110) for similar money to the entry level 2.0L, the Kia Cerato can be had for under $30,000 (Cerato S Auto - $27,060) while the outgoing Hyundai i30 is significantly cheaper in its most basic trim level (i30 Auto - $26,000).
What might make you think twice is the Subaru’s standard all-wheel drive, where all of its rivals are front-wheel drive, but in an environment where fuel costs are high, I can understand why people would prefer to see a hybrid version instead.
Unlike the Impreza’s Crosstrek small SUV relation, there’s no ‘e-Boxer’ hybrid variant.
Still, standard equipment is high even on the base 2.0L. Included are 17-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights, a massive 11.6-inch multimedia touchscreen with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and you even get a matching wireless phone charger.
Elsewhere the base car gets cloth seats with manual adjustment, a plastic steering wheel, analogue instrument cluster with a small digital display, and importantly, the majority of Subaru’s very good active safety equipment is standard.
So, what do you get for stepping up the range? At $34,990, the 2.0R adds premium cloth seat trim, additional charging ports in the rear, eight-way power adjust for the driver, heated front seats, a leather steering wheel and shifter, steering responsive LED headlights, and LED fog lights.
At the top of the range, the $37,990 2.0S adds a 10-speaker audio system, built-in sat-nav, an electric sunroof, and synthetic leather seat trim.
The cabin tech, safety, and standard all-wheel drive are the real draws, but you have to want them. The Impreza isn’t the stellar value buy it once was.
The Subaru WRX RS weighs in at $52,990, before on-road costs, and the RS Sport with CVT auto is a fraction below 55 and a half thousand dollars.
There are some tasty alternatives around that price band, including the Toyota GR Yaris ($51,390), Mazda MX-5 GT RS ($51,640) and Mini Cooper S Clubman Classic ($53,250).
But maybe the most telling competition is closer to home with the less powerful but even purer Subaru BRZ tS ‘2+2’ manual coupe undercutting its WRX RS sibling by more than four grand at $48,690, before on-road costs.
Either way, aside from the standard performance and safety tech we’ll get to shortly, this car boasts an impressive features list including dual-zone climate control air, eight-way power-adjustable and heated sports front seats, heated outboard rear seats, interior ambient lighting, synthetic suede seat trim, built-in sat-nav and an 11.6-inch portrait-oriented multimedia screen (with voice command).
There’s also 10-speaker Harman Kardon audio (with digital radio and 265mm subwoofer), wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, keyless entry and start, a leather-trimmed steering wheel, adaptive cruise control, a sunroof, exterior LED lighting all around, ‘Steering Responsive Headlights’, rear privacy glass and 18-inch alloy wheels.
Relative to its asking price and closest competitors this WRX RS delivers plenty of bang for the buck when it comes to performance and value.
The Impreza is equipped with just one engine and transmission for its sixth-generation, a 2.0-litre (FB20) four-cylinder horizontally-opposed ‘boxer’ engine mated to a continuously variable automatic transmission, driving all four wheels via the brand’s signature ‘symmetrical’ permanent all-wheel drive system.
The FB series is a development of the successful EJ series engines which lasted from 1989-2021. This more recent engine has new material science, heads, and seals which have helped the brand push service intervals out to 12 months rather than six, and should address issues which the older engines developed over time.
Power is on-par, but not a stand-out in the segment, with peak outputs of 115kW/196Nm.
The WRX RS is powered by a 2.4-litre, horizontally opposed four-cylinder, turbo-intercooled petrol engine developing 202kW and 350Nm.
Some call it ‘flat’, others a ‘boxer’, but either way it’s the Rex’s mechanical calling card delivering its distinctively raucous, pulsing engine and exhaust sound.
The all-alloy unit features direct-injection and dual variable valve timing, its relatively flat design lowering the car’s centre of gravity significantly.
And as mentioned earlier, in this case it’s connected to a six-speed manual gearbox driving all four wheels via a centre viscous limited slip differential able to distribute drive between the front and rear axles on demand. But you can have a CVT auto if you really want one in the RS Sport.
One issue with having a non-turbo, non-hybrid 2.0-litre engine with all-wheel drive is relatively high fuel consumption. The Impreza has an official combined cycle fuel consumption figure of 7.5L/100km which is less than impressive in today’s market of hybrids and downsized turbocharged engines.
In my week of mostly stop-start city driving, the test example drank 11.1L/100km, which is disappointing.
Mercifully, it is capable of running on 91RON unleaded. For those who care, the CO2 output is officially 170g/km which is well above the 140g/km it would need to be at to avoid the wrath of incoming vehicle emissions regulations.
Subaru’s official combined cycle fuel-economy figure for the WRX RS is 9.9L/100km, which is moderate for a performance sedan like this. And it emits 225g/km of CO2 in the process.
Over a week covering mainly urban and suburban driving, with some enthusiastic sessions and a hint of freeway running thrown in, we recorded an average of 10.6L/100km, which isn’t outrageous.
Worth noting the minimum fuel requirement is the pricier 95 RON premium unleaded and you’ll need 63 litres of it to fill the tank which translates to a theoretical range of around 635km and roughly 595km using our real-world number.
Have you driven a Subaru in the last 10 years? The drive experience here is pretty much uniform with the rest of the automaker’s range.
This means a lot of very appealing traits. For example, the new Impreza has a comfortable, compliant ride, really nicely weighted steering, and solid handling even on slippery surfaces courtesy of the all-wheel drive system.
The FB series engine also has a good bit of pull fairly early in the RPM range which makes it deceptively spritely, although power really hollows out the more you push it.
This makes it nice to drive around town, but less impressive when it comes to overtaking on the freeway.
This is reinforced by the continuously variable automatic which lends the engine a thrashy, rubbery character when pushed, but is nice and predictable at lower speeds.
The rev-happy engine is also quite noisy when a lot is asked of it, and like a lot of Japanese cars, but Subarus in particular, tyre roar picks up in the cabin above 80km/h.
It’s a comfortable and family-friendly drive, and I particularly like the way the plethora of active safety systems sit by the wayside and don’t interfere with the overall experience.
It is just a bit of a shame it doesn’t move the drive experience forward by a huge amount. The current Impreza doesn’t feel meaningfully different from the fifth-generation version which debuted in 2016.
In driving the first Subaru Impreza WRX when it launched here in the early 1990s, the first attempt to control its surging, decidedly non-linear acceleration felt like pulling back on the reins of a bolting horse.
Subaru was in the thick of its commitment to the World Rally Championship (WRX stands for ‘World Rally eXperimental’) and the Japanese maker had a red hot product on its hands.
Fast forward to the 2024 version and the turbo torque still arrives with something of a rush but this is an infinitely more refined performance sedan than its relatively raw ancestor.
Subaru doesn’t quote a 0-100km/h figure but expect it to come up in the high five-second bracket and with maximum torque available all the way from 2000–5200rpm (and peak power taking over at 5600rpm) there’s always plenty or urgent acceleration available.
And that pulsing engine noise and percussive exhaust beat is still there in a no less distinctive and entertaining way. Our test car was fitted with the newly optional STi-branded exhaust ($2497, fitted) which adds to the aural impact.
The gearshift isn’t ‘click-clack’ direct but it’s smooth and positive and the clutch is perfectly weighted. Such a pleasure to swap through the ratios, with a bit of old school heel and toe action thrown in for downshifts. Love it.
Subaru says the ‘Global Platform’ underpinning the WRX features a “full inner-frame construction” making it “14 per cent better in terms of front lateral flexing rigidity and 28 per cent stiffer torsionally” than its predecessor.
Suspension is strut front, double wishbone rear, which is a relatively sophisticated configuration allowing the WRX RS to combine impressive ride quality with excellent dynamic response.
The 245/40 Dunlop SP Sport Maxx rubber grips hard and steadfastly refuses to squeal or squirm in ‘press-on’ cornering, the AWD system defaulting to a nominal 45/55 front/rear torque split to deliver an initial rear-drive attitude with active torque vectoring helping to keep any pesky understeer in check.
Push even harder and the system seamlessly adjusts the balance. And to top it off, the steering is great; accurate with good road feel.
Despite an alloy bonnet and front guards (even the fuel flap is resin) the WRX RS weighs in at 1482kg. That’s solid without qualifying as chonky, and it still feels nimble, responsive and balanced, helped in no small part by the boxer engine lowering the car’s overall centre of gravity.
The WRX has copped some criticism in the past about its braking performance under intense pressure. And while we didn’t hammer the RS around a race circuit we did repeatedly apply full-force to the centre pedal without any noticeable reduction in effectiveness.
For the record, the system uses ventilated discs all around (290mm fr / 316mm rr) with dual-piston front calipers up front and singles at the rear. In everyday use the pedal is agreeably progressive.
Under the heading of general, mainly ergonomic, observations, the driver display may not be full digital but the 4.2-inch multi-information display in the centre of the instrument cluster delivers a healthy amount of relevant information clearly and simply.
At 11.2 metres the turning circle is okay, while vision for parking, supported by a high-def reversing camera is good. And applying the manual park brake is another reminder of the physical nature of this car.
The majority of active safety equipment is standard across all three Impreza variants including auto emergency braking up to freeway speeds with reverse auto braking, lane support systems, blind-spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, traffic sign recognition, lead vehicle start alert, driver attention alert, and adaptive cruise control.
Stepping up to the 2.0R or 2.0S nets you the front parking camera for a 360-degree parking suite, and high-beam assist for the LED headlights.
Expect the usual traction, brake, and stability controls, alongside the more modern torque vectoring system and an impressive suite of nine airbags. The new Impreza is yet to be rated by ANCAP.
The WRX is “unrated” by ANCAP (it’s maximum five-star rating timed out in 2022) but for the 2024 model year the RS manual picks up Subaru’s ‘EyeSight’ active (crash-avoidance) safety suite including features like AEB, adaptive cruise and more assists, warnings and alerts than you could poke a crash test dummy at.
Specifically, ‘Emergency Lane Keep Assist’, lane centring, ‘Lane Departure Prevention’, ‘Lane Departure Warning’, ‘Lane Sway Warning’, ‘Lead Vehicle Start Alert’, driver monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, ‘Pre-collision Braking System’, ‘Pre-collision Brake Assist’, ‘Brake Light Recognition’, ‘Speed Sign Recognition’ and tyre pressure monitoring.
If an impact is unavoidable, there are seven airbags onboard, including full-length side curtains and a front centre bag to minimise head clash injuries in a side-on crash.
There are three top tether points and two ISOFIX anchors for child seats/baby capsules across the rear seat.
Subaru offers its fairly standard five-year and unlimited kilometre warranty on the Impreza, with 12 months of roadside assist included.
There is also a five-year fixed-price service program covering the first 75,000km, although it’s nowhere near as affordable as the Corolla or i30, coming in at an average annual cost of $464.64.
The Impreza needs to be serviced once every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever occurs first.
Subaru covers the WRX with a five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty, which is still the norm in the mainstream market, although more than a few brands are stepping up to seven years.
The main service interval is 12 months/15,000km, also on par with the market and (five-year/75,000km) capped-price servicing is available.
Average is just under $535 per workshop visit, which is on the high side but maybe to be expected for a highly-tuned car like this.
That said, Roadside Assist is complimentary for 12 months, which is a nice sweetener.