The 2024 Subaru Impreza Revives The Impreza 2.5 RS And Kills The Sedan

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Despite being a fairly sensible and (in certain trims) completely forgettable compact car, the Subaru Impreza has enjoyed a strong loyal following for decades in America. For the 2024 model year, Subaru has redesigned the Impreza with focus on the enthusiasts who’ll always drive these cars. Spoiler alert: It looks pretty great.

While Subaru is no stranger to controversial styling as of late, the new Impreza feels like a breath of fresh air as it doesn’t look ugly. In fact, it’s more than just inoffensive, it’s handsome. What a shock considering the hectares of plastic cladding affixed to the WRX. Subaru wanted the new Impreza to emphasize practicality, so it’ll only be available as a hatchback and feature built-in roof rack mounts like what you’d see on certain German cars.

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Starting with a body structure that’s 10 percent stiffer than that of the outgoing car, Subaru has seemingly listened to enthusiasts with this new Impreza. The Sport trim actually features performance upgrades like retuned suspension, bigger brakes, multiple drive modes, and 18-inch wheels with lower-profile sidewalls. For those seeking more power, the legendary 2.5 RS nameplate is back, featuring an actual 2.5-liter engine with a reasonable 182 horsepower at the peak of the powerband and 178 lb.-ft. of torque at 3,000 rpm. It’s nice to see a big engine option on a standard Impreza, although it’s not entirely surprising considering that the Crosstrek also has that available 2.5-liter engine. Equally interesting yet not entirely surprising is that the new Impreza features a version of the steering rack from the WRX.

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As for the base powertrain, it’s a two-liter flat-four making 152 horsepower and 145 lb.-ft. of torque. Perfectly adequate numbers for a compact car, if not necessarily thrilling one. Unfortunately, it seems like Subaru’s fumbled the bag a bit by only equipping the new Impreza with a CVT. While it likely plays nicely with advanced driver assistance systems, the general Impreza community is incredibly vocal about its desire for manual gearboxes, and I know several new Impreza buyers who actually voted with their wallets. While Sport and 2.5 RS models get paddle shifters and eight simulated ratios, that just doesn’t sound as enticing as rowing your own gears.

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On the inside, the dashboard is virtually identical to the one on the WRX, with an optional 11.6-inch touchscreen dominating the experience. Considering how the WRX dashboard features a newfound focus on materials and ergonomics, it’s relieving to see it in cheaper models. Such toys like push-to-start, a Harman/Kardon stereo, and remote climate control activation are also on the menu, for drivers who want all the goodies. Mind you, base models don’t get the big screen, instead featuring an infotainment setup with two smaller displays.

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Of course, Subaru is all about safety, so the new Impreza features the latest version of the marque’s Eyesight advanced driver assistance suite. In addition to an electric brake booster, Subaru claims that this new system features a wider field-of-view than the outgoing version, and revised software for earlier obstacle detection.

While the 2024 Subaru Impreza likely won’t satisfy the most die-hard Impreza drivers, it seems like it should be a competitive entry into the compact car market. However, now that the Impreza hatchback is on the new SGP platform, I can’t help but wonder why Subaru doesn’t seem interested in producing a WRX hatchback. With more power and a manual gearbox, this little hatchback could really rip. Pricing hasn’t yet been announced for the 2024 Impreza, so expect Subaru to publish some numbers closer to the car’s on-sale date in the spring.

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64 thoughts on “The 2024 Subaru Impreza Revives The Impreza 2.5 RS And Kills The Sedan

  1. What a joke. Yeah that’s exactly what I want in a “rally sport” hatchback, a CVT that brakes when you really push it. I’d rather keep my 165 hp 2.5, 22mpg and manual transmission than pay over 20k for a glorified economy car with sporty seats

  2. so here’s my question as someone who hasn’t really been following Subaru’s portfolio over the last 5 years or so:

    what’s the real difference between this hatch and a Crosstrek? ground clearance and some plastic cladding? seems like these will be competing against each other for most of the people who really don’t care much about their cars other than as an appliance.

    i will say that here in wisconsin i know of countless people who’ve jumped into Crosstraks as a do everything commuter and weekend camping/outdoors adventure vehicle. they must be doing something right, but i don’t really see anything that would sell me on a (non hot) hatchback like the base Impreza over a Crosstrek.

  3. I hate the artificial shift-points in their cvt. Dad bought a ‘14 Impreza and didn’t want a manual as he figures it’s his last car and his knees were acting up. He had me drive it up the Blue Ridge Parkway a few years back as we went to visit his brother. It’s fine, I guess? The only positive thing I have to say about it is that ‘down shifting’ via the paddle really does help haul your speed down: could come in handy in the snow. Considering he’s had manuals as long as I can remember (50 Ford truck w/52 flathead Mercury motor, 74 SuperBeetle, 82 Rabbit, 87 Golf) and never really been much of an enthusiast (except for a glorious summer fling with a 914), it’ll serve him just fine-even if I died a tiny bit when I saw the shifter.

    I can’t find a reasonably stock Hawk eye for money I want to give, so I’ll just keep my early Bug eye going until I physically can’t push the clutch in any more…

  4. Does anyone know what Subaru is doing? More to the point, does Subaru know what Subaru is doing?

    We’ve had a few in our family, my mum has had two, my brother has one, my wife has one, so we like our Subarus. What is mind boggling is that for years people have been clamoring for a WRX hatch to come back, Subaru finally kind of listens but doesn’t give you a serious motor or even a manual option.. like everyone else has said, take this new hatch, cram the WRX motor in it with a manual transmission, bolt on a wing and some badges and people will be lining up to buy them.

  5. It doesn’t have that stupid wheel arch cladding that the crosstrek and WRX have, so it automatically looks better. I am hesitant about the CVT, but if I just want a commute-o-box for heavy traffic I am done with manuals.

  6. I should be a target for this new 2.5 RS. I like Subies, I like small hatches with a sporty flair. But they can go get fucked with that CVT, I’ll keep my manual Mazda 3.

  7. “Spoiler alert: It looks pretty great.”

    I know looks are subjective, but what makes you say that? All I see is a generic car, with frumpy proportions, and a few lazy applications of the typical swoops and cuts. It’s not refined enough to be handsome (90s Subaru), yet also has no discernible point of view or visual characteristics (bug eyes!). It’s both ugly and forgettable…the worst kind of Subaru.

  8. Not a day goes by, not a single damn day, that I don’t look at my BRZ and mention how much I miss my WRX hatch. Maybe this is the path back to WRX hatchood but I’m not holding my breath over here.

  9. “While Sport and 2.5 RS models get paddle shifters and eight simulated ratios”

    Apparently I’m weird, but if there’s one thing that pisses me off more than a CVT, it’s a CVT with simulated ratios. Like, why would you take the one good thing about a CVT (being able to keep the engine in the RPM sweet spot all the time) and wreck it? What you’re left with is a transmission that probably has weird responsiveness issues, inferior reliability, and no better efficiency than a traditional auto.

    1. I’m a Subaru lover, and that CVT is the biggest issue they have in my opinion. Recent generations have been slightly better, but that isn’t saying much. I really wonder if they just aren’t developing an alternative because they intend for iterations of this CVT to carry them through to going full hybrid/electric….

      1. None of the Japanese manufacturers have a decent autobox of any sort. It’s a world of CVTs and torque converters that are relics from the 2000s. Even their more modern “sportier” variants like the 9 speed in the TLX Type S are wonky as hell. The only noteworthy one is the ZF8 in the BMW Supra.

        I wonder if what you’re suggesting is correct, because it seems odd to me that they haven’t seen what modern DCTs and other automatics can do and said “we should probably have something like that”. Maybe they really are just saving the development effort since EVs are coming…but then again Honda and Toyota are being dragged into electrification kicking and screaming, so I’m not so sure.

      2. I believe the Toyotas use an actual first gear to minimize wear on the cvt belt, so it sounds like those will be more reliable.
        Toyota isn’t going to be producing a disposable Corolla anytime soon, but all these cvt Subarus, Nissans, etc., are designed to meet their fate in the junkyard within 10 years.

        1. Yeah, I remember getting excited when first hearing about Toyota developing the gear-to-CVT hybrid of sorts thinking, “Maybe they could use this tech to get actually sporty feeling acceleration on the low end with CVT’s!” But nope. Didn’t happen. Sad trombone.

    2. Fake gears are just weird. But vastly inferior reliability is the biggest issue for me. Any CVT other than an e-CVT, like Toyota hybrids means no sale. No matter the make. Even a non-hybrid Corolla or Honda Civic is not worth the chance to me.

      I’ve been interested in Subarus, but they’ve gone almost all CVTs. Other than the WRX, the local dealerships only rarely get a car with manual. Even then it’s always been a stripper model, missing all the miscellaneous little comforts I’m not willing to give up.

    3. They do it because it’s available for the cost of a couple of switches and a bit of software programming.

      Then it can be sold as some kind of feature. The people who think they would like the feature will use it twice, realize that it’s silly and never try to manually shift it again.

  10. Might be the lack of roof rails on the above examples, but that upward sloping beltline does something to the proportions that just doesn’t work for me. Had a 2014 and the more level beltline made it look more wagon-y and less hatchback-y to me. This one seems to pinched at the rear of the greenhouse for me. Improvement over last gen, though, in which I thought the Crosstrek looked good but the Impreza did not….

    1. Just put a finger on it…..the greenhouse now looks like an updated Toyotiac Matrivibe to me. I don’t view that as a step forward.

      Subaru, please just send us the Levorg.

    1. These Japanese manufacturers need to stop with all the CVT nonsense already. It’s 2022. Is it THAT hard to offer a halfway decent automatic? They’re literally everywhere now. I’m so confused as to how/why between Honda, Nissan, Toyota, and Subaru there isn’t one good automatic transmission.

      Or they could simply keep saying “screw developing a good auto” and shove manuals in all the things. It sure doesn’t seem to hurt Honda and Toyota when it comes to their enthusiast offerings.

  11. I’m kind of a fan of the current-gen Impreza hatch. Starts under $23k and it’s a true bargain, maybe one of the last fun(ish) small hatchbacks you can buy, even available with a manual transmission. I hope it continues.

    1. I’m honestly surprised there don’t move a ton of base and premium level Imprezas. They are a great value for what you get. Yeah, they are slow and have an abysmal CVT, but it has more usable space and better passenger dimensions that any of the sub-compact crossovers that sell like crazy, while coming in cheaper. If I were Subaru, I’d be trying to get every 20-something year old I could in an Impreza so you could establish some brand loyalty by the time they are moving up-market.

      1. With a relatively weak motor and AWD driveline causing extra loss, they are quite sluggish IMHO.

        Subarus sell very well in a few markets in the US, but there are huge areas of pickup truck land where you’d have a long drive to your local Subaru dealer if you ever needed service. They’re a very low volume manufacturer compared to the big boys.

    2. Finding a new manual Subaru Impreza is not at all easy.

      They rarely come in, yet all of them near me have been spoken for, months in advance. Months ago, the dealership told me they wouldn’t take a deposit for one until the new model was released, but I did get on the waiting list. They had more people on it than the number of manual Imprezas they typically receive in a whole year.

      I got on the waiting list with no idea when or if I’d get one. I guess I just got my answer in this article. No more manual Imprezas. They’ve called several times trying to cross sell me, but I guess I’m not considering Subaru at all anymore.

          1. When I first saw that, I just thought they’d have that as the top-trim CVT and then there’d be an STi with all the GT stuff, more power and a manual. The next day Subaru announced there would be no STi…

            I’ve become pretty Subaru-oriented since getting a couple of dogs, but I feel like they are actively chasing me away from their showroom with their offerings.

        1. Don’t forget about the BRZ!

          In all seriousness, I worked at a Subaru showroom 10 years ago and at that point, the only Subaru which you *couldn’t* get a stick on was the Tribeca. What a damn shame.

          of course they are also selling close to three times as many vehicles as they sold when I started working there so… there is that.

      1. My mother’s been thinking about what’ll replace her 136k-mile ’14 Sonic in a year or two. It has to be car-height (no crossovers due to an old, low-ceilinged garage), not too much bigger than the Sonic, and ideally she’d prefer to keep driving a manual. AWD would be a nice bonus for our winters, although FWD with snows has been fine in all but the nastiest storms.

        If she decides she really wants AWD, it looks like it’ll be a pre-owned Impreza by default.

  12. They should merge the WRX with the Impreza again, like it was originally. Impreza WRX 🙂

    And make an STI, too.

    Hatchbacks are better than sedans anyway 🙂

    1. yup yup yup
      The WRX is almost indistinguishable from a Camry, and I’m a WRX guy. The new gen Impreza hatch is a good looking car, add a snail and you back in business.

  13. Since the current WRX is such a flop just go ahead and plop that engine right here. Literally all sins will be forgiven and we’ll forget that the current cladded, mini crossover abomination of a car ever existed.

    1. The styling of the current wrx is the only flop part about it (oh and maybe not having an uprated sti model) but subjectively the 22 wrx is a fantastic car and better than any one that came before it.
      The cladding is a bit much.

      1. …is it? It gets worse fuel economy in the manual configuration than the previous generation one and it was the second slowest WRX in 0-60 time that Motortrend ever tested. I’m sure it’s plenty fun to drive but I think its issues go beyond the styling.

        1. This is why you cant believe everything online though, and the reality is better than internet numbers.
          I currently own one and am averaging 25 and change mpg which is better than its rated. Full time awd is always gonna hurt this, no way around it.
          0-60 is slow only due to the fact you need to shift to 3rd before it will hit 60.
          This is the smoothest engine to actually drive with a great torque curve. Arguably the best felling wrx ever made. Steering response is the best of any Subaru I’ve ever driven but i will say its a hair dull, its far better than most give it credit for.

          Im not trying to make it sound like the best thing ever, but I am sick of people getting a false representation of vehicles due to online reviews and not experiencing them for themselves.
          It’s not just this car but just so many in general.

          1. Yeah, the new WRX is good. The engine tuning alone makes it vastly superior to the previous gen. Get the dark grey or sapphire blue if you want to minimize the cladding or embrace it and go with the red.

            And I don’t know what’s up with Subaru and their EPA MPG ratings because the new BRZ is rated at 22 combined and I regularly see 25 city.

  14. The 2018 Impreza Sedan my wife has is great. If they had this as an option, I would have considered it.

    However I could not beat the price on the 2018 after the lease ran out on the Altima. It was just what she wanted, smaller commuter, manual, fold down seats for larger items. Even with the full warranty it is less than the lease.

  15. Kinda sad they’re killing the sedan but I am glad to hear the 2.5 RS is coming back. That said, the styling is still a bit hit or miss for me (the headlights are a bit too squinty and the rear fascia seems like it’s 3-4 inches too high so the back looks a bit fat while the rear window is too small)

    1. and then redo the BRZ with a completely new drivetrain and call that a WRX or BRX if you really want. but whether they go electric or just a clean sheet boxer 3.0 turbo 6 or something, they just really need to do something to have a decent halo car.

      1. Have Subaru ever had a Halo car? SVX is the closest I can think of, and I’m not sure that qualifies, being down on performance vs. the sporty offerings from other Japanese automakers at the time.

        I think the halo role is being filled by the Wilderness versions of their SUVs, which probably bring more real buyers into their showrooms than a turbo RWD coupe would.

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