New Subaru Impreza: mainstream move, WRX still the draw

If you want to know whether you’re the sort of person shopping for an Impreza, start by glancing down. Green wellies? Pick any of the non-turbo models. Reebok Classics? You’ll be after a WRX.

It’s a tired cliché, but it neatly sums up Subaru’s issue with the outgoing car: people bought them for farm tracks or city one-way systems, and little else.

Subaru Impreza: a bid for the C-segment mainstream

This new Impreza, then, is Subaru’s push towards the mainstream. On paper it ticks the obvious boxes for tempting a few C-segment customers who’d normally be drawn to a Golf or a Focus.

The concept is sound - and it might even have landed properly - had the styling not looked like a step back to those years when Korea earned its unfortunate reputation for awkward, gawky design.

Practicality and the switch to a proper hatchback

That’s what makes it such a squandered chance, because most of the basics are right. It’s now a genuine hatchback, so owners can finally do the straightforward, practical, load-lugging jobs that the old booted Impreza simply couldn’t accommodate.

Cabin, engines and emissions

Inside, it’s familiar Subaru in the best sense: reassuringly hard-wearing. The plastics and trim could feel more upmarket, but everything functions as it should, it’s comfortable enough, and it never gives the impression it’ll start shedding bits after a few weeks.

Subaru has also kept its strong boxer-engine range, beginning with the 1.5- and 2.0-litre non-turbo cars driven here. Engineers seem to have dialled back a little of the flat-four thrum, yet the character is still there when you work the engines properly. Just don’t bring up emissions - it doesn’t feel as though the green question has reached Subaru’s agenda yet.

Four-wheel drive, ride and pricing

The brand’s trademark symmetrical four-wheel drive doesn’t help economy, but it does deliver plenty of grip and genuine high-speed reassurance. A completely new suspension layout - multi-link at the rear - produces ride comfort that’s decent, if on the soft side. It’s not dynamically in the same class as a Focus or Golf, but it’s good.

Pricing is pitched sensibly against those rivals, too. The line-up opens at £12,495, and there’s a healthy amount of equipment for the money.

The faster models - likely the real reason you’re reading - start arriving in November. Subaru expects a limited run of 1,500 WRXs to be gone before Christmas, with 230bhp STi versions following next year. The company is also working on a boxer diesel (does that qualify as green?), and there’s even talk of producing a WRX version of that.

After all that, though, the situation hasn’t really shifted. It’ll still be the quick ones that move, and even after next year’s hurried facelift, the everyday Imprezas you spot will probably have bales of hay in the back. A pity.

Paul Regan