The Subaru WRX takes me back to my youth! With the WRX STi now dead - for the time being anyway, we've finally had a chance to get behind the wheel of the Subaru WRX here in Australia. Is it any good? Paul Maric goes for a spin to find out!
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Subaru content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/subaru
More Subaru WRX content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/subaru/wrx
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 01:10
Interior 03:35
Infotainment 04:38
Safety Tech 06:08
Practicality 06:59
On the Road 10:23
0-100 km/h 12:22
Verdict 17:36
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#subaru #wrx #review
Hardness tester results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More Subaru content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/subaru
More Subaru WRX content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/subaru/wrx
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 01:10
Interior 03:35
Infotainment 04:38
Safety Tech 06:08
Practicality 06:59
On the Road 10:23
0-100 km/h 12:22
Verdict 17:36
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulMaric
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#subaru #wrx #review
Category
🚗
MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul. I've got some good news and some bad news.
00:02 Bad news first, the WRX STI is dead.
00:05 Well, it's dead in its current form, it might come back later, but it's gone for the moment.
00:09 But the good news is, the WRX is here, and it has finally arrived here in Australia.
00:14 I've been looking forward to driving this because the Evo and the WRX were kind of the cars of my youth.
00:20 These were the sports cars when I was growing up.
00:22 They may not be as fast or as polished as some of the new stuff out there today, but this is what I remember.
00:28 Now this here is the most expensive manual version you can get, the rest are CVTs.
00:33 This here is called the RS manual, it's priced at just over $50,000.
00:38 If that's too expensive, the entire range kicks off at around that $45,000 mark.
00:42 So this competes with things like the Ford Focus ST, the Hyundai i30 N, the Volkswagen Golf GTI, those sorts of cars.
00:49 They are all front-wheel drive though, so this kind of sits in its own little niche.
00:52 Today we're going to do a detailed review of this car, so if you do want to skip ahead to other parts of the review,
00:57 you can use the time codes on the screen, or if you're on YouTube, you can scroll down and use the chapters below.
01:01 And if you haven't done so, please subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon, it only takes a second,
01:06 because that's going to tell you every single time we drive cars that I grew up with.
01:09 Now before I go over the exterior design, the weather today is so horrible, so it's going to be interesting to see how this goes.
01:17 You've got eight external colours, and they are all free of charge.
01:20 What about the design?
01:22 Look, I think some people saw the pictures of this and thought, "Oh my God, they've destroyed the WRX,"
01:26 but that happens every single time they make a WRX.
01:29 When you see it in person, it actually looks really cool, especially in this colour.
01:33 So, let's start with that scoop.
01:35 So this is functional, and that is good to see, so air goes through there, it's all real, there's nothing blocked off.
01:42 Down the bottom here, you've got this sort of graphite-coloured grille with the big Subaru logo and a camera down there.
01:48 You've also got this sort of matte plastic finish as you head further down.
01:52 I really like the look of this, it's quite resolved, they've put a bit of rally to it with those flared wheel arches and stuff,
01:58 but it really suits the demeanour of what this vehicle is.
02:00 Over here, you've got a set of LED headlights with LED daytime running lights.
02:05 You also get a headlight washer there too, and then a fog light down the bottom.
02:08 Let's whip around to the side.
02:10 Now around here, you're going to find yourself a set of 18-inch alloy wheels.
02:14 Fan of this design as well, so you've got that sort of graphite look on the outside.
02:17 The brakes do look very small under there.
02:19 Look at those calipers, they're very, I don't know, miniature.
02:23 I would have thought for the WRX they could kind of beef them up a bit, maybe colour them or something,
02:26 just to make it look like you have actual brakes to pull your car up.
02:30 Low profile on that tyre too, this doesn't have an adaptive damping setup,
02:34 so I'm curious to see whether this is neck-breaking in terms of its ride, or whether it is actually quite nice.
02:40 These wheel arch protectors, very interesting design, this is part of that sort of rally look with open sections here.
02:46 Over here, you've got wing mirrors with body colour up the top, indicators built into the side,
02:50 and then a black section down the bottom.
02:53 You've got privacy glass, a sunroof, and then whip around to the back, have a look at this rear.
02:58 Love this, so quad exhaust pipes.
03:01 These taillights are interesting, so it looks like they use incandescent globes,
03:04 but if you look really closely, it actually looks like the lens has been shattered under there.
03:09 It is a really cool setup, and I like the way they've done that.
03:12 Reflector down here, I love this diffuser, it really just gives the back end a bit of meat.
03:18 You have a boot lip spoiler built into there, these black sections that divide the body colours.
03:22 WRX, and then Subaru Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive, and a shark fin aerial as well.
03:27 Let me know what you reckon about the design in the comments section below.
03:30 Do you think it actually looks good, or do I need to go to Specsavers and get my eyes checked out?
03:34 Let me know down there.
03:35 So, we're inside the WRX, we will start with the key.
03:38 You've got lock, unlock, boot, a little bit of brushed aluminium on the side, and a blank on the back.
03:45 It's a proximity sensing key, so that stays in your pocket, and then you have a push button to start over here.
03:50 This looks good. It is a big step forward from where the WRX used to be,
03:55 and I love the fact that they've gone to town with this big infotainment system down the centre there.
03:59 I don't know, just putting a bit of effort into the interior to make it look and feel premium.
04:03 It is laid down a little bit here at the top of the dashboard,
04:06 where they've got these sort of fairly scratchy plastics,
04:08 but for the most part, everything else is soft to the touch and looks presentable.
04:12 On our touch points, centre there, that's nice and soft, and then soft on the door as well.
04:17 How soft are they? Well, we've got our durometer, we've tested the main surfaces in this cabin.
04:22 If you want to see how this car compares to others that we've tested before,
04:25 have a look at the link in the description.
04:27 Now, build quality, that all feels really nice and solid.
04:33 Door test.
04:35 Solid as well, very impressed.
04:38 Let's talk about infotainment.
04:40 So, it's a whopper screen, just under 12 inches in size, loaded with information as well,
04:45 and I love the fact that you actually have functional knobs on either side as well,
04:49 if you don't want to faff around with things like the temperature and the volume.
04:53 Outside of that, it's pretty straightforward to use.
04:55 You have inbuilt satellite navigation that takes up that entire screen.
04:58 There's also a feature, which you can see just here, that little eye,
05:02 it's basically scanning your face constantly when you get into the car to recall your settings.
05:06 It's also a driver fatigue system, so really good to see that it has that,
05:10 and you don't need to fuss too much when it comes to getting all of your settings
05:13 every time you get in and out of the car.
05:15 In terms of smartphone mirroring, you have both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
05:19 Both of those are wired.
05:20 I'll show you what Apple CarPlay looks like first.
05:23 So, almost a full screen integration.
05:26 Tiny bit laggy as well, but I don't actually mind that setup, it actually looks OK.
05:31 Not bad.
05:32 And this is what Android Auto looks like.
05:34 That is ridiculously small in comparison, so it only sort of takes up half the screen,
05:40 and it's also a slight bit laggy too,
05:42 so that is a little bit disappointing in comparison to Apple CarPlay.
05:46 On the radio front, you have AM/FM/DAB digital radio.
05:51 That's all plumbed through a 10-speaker Harman Kardon branded sound system.
05:55 Ahead of the driver here, you still have analog gauges,
05:58 and then a small digital screen ahead of the driver,
06:00 but outside of that, this is all pretty straightforward.
06:03 By the way, look at what I've just discovered.
06:05 This throws back to my youth as well.
06:07 It's a CD player.
06:09 Now, safety technology.
06:10 This is pretty disappointing, if I'm honest, because this is a manual.
06:13 You don't get any autonomous emergency braking.
06:16 You don't get radar cruise control.
06:18 You really don't get many safety features.
06:20 All you get is blind spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alerts.
06:24 So, they do blame it all on the manual, but other car brands manage to get all of those safety features
06:28 working with manual transmissions, just Subaru, for some reason, refuses to do it.
06:32 So, that is pretty disappointing in my book.
06:34 And what about parking?
06:35 Well, they've kind of stinged out on parking as well.
06:37 There's no front or rear parking sensors, but you do get a set of cameras to help you with parking.
06:42 So, I'll show you what it looks like.
06:43 So, pusher, this gives you vision out the front, the sides,
06:47 and then another one you can see directly out the front or just the side,
06:50 and then finally, your reverse view camera.
06:53 This is what that looks like.
06:55 Quality is okay. It's not amazing, but I can kind of read that text on the suitcase.
06:59 Moving on to practicality, we'll start off with your connectivity.
07:02 So, you've got an auxiliary port, two USB-A ports that will output 2.1 amps, a 12-volt outlet,
07:09 no wireless phone charging, unfortunately, but you can pop your phone down there if you want,
07:14 or it can live inside the cup holders.
07:16 Speaking of cup holders, not great for coffee because, actually, it is in the back.
07:21 That one's okay, but, yeah, down the front there, you'll lose that.
07:23 So, two different tiers of height.
07:25 Our bottle, let's see how that goes.
07:27 Fits in fine. You've got, like, a little rubber thing up the top there, and also, this comes out,
07:32 so you can move that around if you want to to give yourself a bit more space.
07:35 Bottles inside the door. Let's have a look.
07:37 That fits in perfectly, and then our big bottle.
07:41 Will that fit anywhere? Let's have a look.
07:44 No, it fits into there. Does it fit in the door?
07:46 No, it doesn't quite fit in the door, though, which is disappointing.
07:49 And we've got a center console over here.
07:51 So, the CD player robs you of most of that space,
07:54 so there's not really a great deal of room in there outside of that.
07:57 And glove box. Let's have a look.
07:59 That's okay. Once the manual's in there, you kind of don't really have a great deal of room.
08:03 What about your comfort? Well, you have dual-zone automatic climate control.
08:06 You have heated seats here for the front row.
08:09 In terms of the seats themselves, I like the design.
08:12 You've got WRX there in the headrest.
08:14 There's Alcantara material, exposed red stitching.
08:17 Actually, a very cool-looking seat that hugs you in really well.
08:20 The driver and front passenger seats are electrically adjustable,
08:22 so you can go forwards, backwards.
08:24 Backrest can go forwards, backwards.
08:26 You can also lift the base of the seat up as well,
08:28 and then you have a lumbar adjustment.
08:30 Steering wheel. It offers both tilt and reach adjustment,
08:34 and then on our reach test, all of that stuff is easy to reach while you're driving.
08:38 Second row. I'm actually really surprised by the amount of legroom I have here.
08:42 Look at that. Knee room is excellent. Toe room's not too bad.
08:45 Headroom, not amazing.
08:46 I've got my fancy hairdo right in that headlining.
08:50 You have heated seats for the two outboard seats.
08:53 A set of USB-A ports.
08:55 You've got mat pockets just-- or mat pocket, rather, just in the passenger seat.
09:01 There's no air vents back here, which is a little bit disappointing.
09:03 I would have liked to see air vents keeping us cool on those hot summer days.
09:07 You do have a center armrest, though, with two cup holders,
09:10 with little rubber teeth there as well,
09:12 and then storage inside the door too.
09:15 Isofix points for your two outboard seats,
09:18 and then you also have three top tether points as well.
09:21 So, yeah, aside from lack of air vents, this rear seat space is actually pretty good.
09:25 Oh, almost forgot our window test.
09:27 So it's auto up and down.
09:29 Boom. Goes all the way down as well.
09:32 Very, very impressive.
09:34 Let's talk cargo capacity.
09:35 So being a sedan, it actually means you get a decent haul over here.
09:39 So a little over 400 litres available.
09:42 Nice deep boot as well.
09:43 Beneath the cargo floor, you have a little bit of storage there,
09:46 but beneath that storage, it's an interesting tie.
09:49 So it is a space saver spare, but it's 205mm wide,
09:53 so it's not one of those dinky, tiny little ones.
09:55 It is yellow, but, you know, it's probably just going to give you a little bit more holding on the road there if you do need it.
10:01 I'll show you what it looks like without bags in there.
10:03 So laptop bag in there.
10:06 And suitcase.
10:08 Look at that. That is pretty impressive storage, I reckon.
10:11 Now, you can also drop the second row if you want.
10:14 That expands the space a little bit,
10:16 but it kind of isn't the most versatile space if you want to load massive things in.
10:20 It kind of doesn't really give you an entirely flat floor.
10:23 So we've just hit the road in the WRX.
10:28 We have had a break in the weather here.
10:30 It's finally sunny, but the road is still very wet,
10:33 so it'll make driving a little sketchy, but we will see how we go.
10:36 Now, powering the WRX is a bigger engine.
10:39 Great news. So instead of a 2.0-litre, it's now 2.4,
10:42 and it's turbocharged, which is great. It's a flat-four as well.
10:45 And it now produces 202 kilowatts of power and 350 newton-metres of torque.
10:49 Yeah, I know. They've gone upmarket in terms of the capacity of the engine,
10:53 but the power and torque really hasn't changed a great deal at all.
10:57 So that's a little bit disappointing, if I'm honest, but it is what it is.
11:01 Thankfully, though, you can still get this in a manual.
11:03 So we're driving the six-speed manual here.
11:05 You can get an auto which is a CVT, and then they've added in virtual gears there,
11:10 so you do feel stepped gear changes, but in reality, it's not really doing a great deal.
11:15 It's just mimicking what a traditional torque converter or a dual-clutch actually feels like.
11:20 This retains full-time all-wheel drive.
11:22 I think that's one of the big benefits of WRX.
11:24 While everyone else is going to front-wheel drive and making sporty front-wheel drive cars,
11:28 Subaru has stuck to their guns, and I think that they should be commended for that.
11:33 An all-wheel drive, especially a full-time all-wheel drive, isn't really all that efficient.
11:36 Packaging-wise, it's not great, but it does deliver a unique experience.
11:40 And same with this manual gearbox, right?
11:42 It is a USP, and I'm glad that they are sticking to their guns with it all.
11:46 What does it all feel like? There are no real drive modes or anything like that.
11:50 With the manual, you just basically point and shoot, and it does its own thing.
11:53 So I'll give it a stab here at a second, and we'll see what this feels like.
11:59 Yeah, that's nice. It gives you a really sort of healthy push in the back.
12:03 And it's kind of fun driving a manual. I haven't driven a manual in ages, so it's good to see it still has that experience.
12:09 The gearbox is great as well, so really nice and tight shifter.
12:13 The clutch has a little bit of weight to it, but it's nothing too crazy.
12:16 And you have more than enough room there to do a bit of heel-toeing, should you so desire.
12:20 There's no sort of rev-matching modes or anything like that.
12:23 Subaru claims a 0-100 time of 6 seconds for the WRX.
12:27 This is how it went up against our stopwatch.
12:30 Let's talk fuel economy. So Subaru claims a combined figure of about 10 litres per 100 km.
12:44 We're currently sitting on 11.6, so pretty close to that.
12:47 We've been having a bit of a fang around here as well, so I really can't complain about that type of fuel economy.
12:52 If you're buying this type of car, that's about where you expect it to be.
12:55 Now, what's road noise like? We'll dial this up to country speeds.
12:59 Yeah, look, there is a fair bit of tyre noise coming into the cabin.
13:02 Actually, quite a lot. So sitting here just under 100 km/h on a course-chip surface,
13:06 you do get a lot of tyre noise into here.
13:09 But I guess that's traditionally what WRX was all about - noise.
13:13 Now, let's have a look at what it's like on our sine waves.
13:16 We'll dial this up to maximum legal speed in Australia, which is 130 km/h.
13:22 We'll see how it performs over those.
13:25 It's actually really good. I'm really impressed with that.
13:28 So this car doesn't have adaptive damping.
13:30 You can get adaptive damping on higher spec WRX and sports wagon models,
13:35 but this just uses a passive setup.
13:37 It's not really all that firm. I thought it was going to be way firmer than this,
13:41 given traditionally how firm WRX and STi has been,
13:44 but it's actually quite a nice setup and it's not going to do your head in,
13:48 especially if you're using this as a daily driver.
13:50 What's your visibility like? Well, nothing too out of the ordinary.
13:53 I can see our little bonnet bulge there, which is great.
13:56 Visibility down the sides is really good.
13:58 So you have big wing mirrors, you have a blind spot monitor built into those,
14:01 so everything is pretty straightforward there.
14:03 Visibility out the rear is fine as well. It's a big window, so there's no dramas there.
14:07 Steering feel is interesting. It doesn't have a great deal of weight to it,
14:10 and about centre it's fairly sort of lifeless.
14:13 So it is disappointing that I haven't really tried to dial in much sort of feel
14:19 through the wheel, given this is the Sport model.
14:21 OK, let's go for a slightly quicker stint through here,
14:24 keeping in mind it is wet at the moment.
14:27 Drop this back to third for our corner.
14:30 OK, dial it in.
14:32 Actually a lot of understeer.
14:36 Yeah, it is very wet out here, and this surface is designed
14:40 to basically mimic a low friction surface,
14:43 and that is exactly what's happening there when the rain drops.
14:45 But on this faster sweeping section, far out it picks up speed alright.
14:51 Wow, that's actually really impressive.
14:54 It feels like it's on its tippy toes.
14:56 It's quite playful in that sense that you can kind of just chuck it around a little bit,
15:01 and it's quite predictable in terms of what it will do.
15:04 There's no real surprises when it comes to what you expect from it.
15:08 The torque is fantastic.
15:10 So part of that change to a 2.4 litre means they've been able to give you
15:15 a wider torque band, so it comes on earlier, stays on slightly later as well,
15:20 and as a result of that you really are able to just get on the throttle
15:24 midway through the torque band, and it's always there and ready for you.
15:27 Coming onto our back straight now, we'll roll onto the throttle.
15:31 Let's see how it goes here.
15:33 Yeah, nice.
15:37 It's moving.
15:40 That is awesome. It has got some balls. This is good.
15:43 I was expecting this to be way, way tamer than it actually is.
15:46 Look, it's going to tear your face off, but it actually goes,
15:50 and if you find yourself on a faster circuit like this,
15:53 you can really just get stuck into it and have some fun with it.
15:56 Brakes are great as well. It's got some really good feedback through the pedal.
15:59 I don't know what it's like if you do a track day where you're assaulting them all day,
16:02 but I'll tell you what, they've done a really good job with this.
16:05 It's worth pointing out as well that Subaru uses a brake-biased torque vectoring system,
16:10 so it's not a genuine torque vectoring system like you'll find in something like a Ford Focus RS
16:16 where it's a mechanical torque vectoring setup.
16:18 This just uses brakes to mimic that.
16:21 It tends to work okay, but I did notice when we were driving around here,
16:24 if you do switch traction control off and dial a bit of throttle into some of these corners
16:28 that don't have a great deal of traction, the effect of it is quite limited,
16:32 so you really need to go down the path of a mechanical torque vectoring system
16:35 for it to work genuinely as one of those systems should.
16:39 Now, I did mention that WRX is all about noise.
16:45 Hmm. Someone forgot to tell the people that worked on this car though,
16:49 because... I'll dial this back to second gear and I'll wind this out just through that rev band
16:55 so you can have a bit of a listen while I go quiet.
16:58 [car engine revving]
17:00 Yes, I was accelerating. The car wasn't switched off.
17:07 You don't hear a thing, and I think that is disappointing to me.
17:10 It sounds a bit like a sewing machine, and this needs to have an exhaust,
17:14 or at least the option for an exhaust. I don't want to have to go get an aftermarket exhaust
17:17 for my new WRX, I mean, that's unheard of 10 years ago,
17:21 so it just doesn't have that boxer burble, and having to spend extra money to make that happen
17:26 just seems a bit counterintuitive to me. No one's buying this car wanting it to be quiet.
17:30 They're buying a WRX especially in a manual because they want it to make noise.
17:34 So, yeah, a little bit disappointed about the engine note and the exhaust note.
17:37 So, the Subaru WRX. I'll tell you what, I actually came into this thinking
17:43 this was going to be just pretty average, given, you know, the engine specs
17:47 and all the other stuff, the lack of safety and whatever, but I actually really enjoyed it.
17:51 It is a punchy little thing, it's fun to drive, and it just has character.
17:55 A lot of cars in this segment, yes, they're quick in a straight line and fun around corners and stuff,
17:59 but they're just a little bit boring, whereas the WRX still feels like the car that I grew up with.
18:05 It feels engaging and interesting to drive, and it's just got a bit of character and feel to it.
18:09 So, yeah, all big ticks. I am disappointed by the complete lack of safety technology,
18:13 the noise coming out of the exhaust and the induction noise.
18:17 I think all of that could be much better, but I don't know.
18:20 I guess this is the type of car you want if you want that nostalgic feeling,
18:23 and you want a car that actually looks pretty nice and stylish.
18:26 So, yeah, let me know what you reckon in the comments section.
18:29 Have you bought one? Did you go the manual?
18:31 Please don't tell me that you got the CVT, but let me know what you did down in the comments section below.
18:35 If you enjoyed this video, please make sure you like it and share it with your mates,
18:39 and if you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.
18:43 But, until next time, take it easy.