New Impreza WRX

[Ming]

Official pics of Subaru's next Impreza have been floating around online for the past couple of weeks, but Subaru is really hesitant to talk about the car. We bothered the Subaru folk a couple weeks back after we saw a video of the new WRX in action.

Subaru's response? "You saw the new WRX? We... uh... we don't know anything about a new WRX." Oh yeah, we then heard the all-too familiar click of a phone being hung up.

We tried again a few days later with the same query, only this time, Subaru actually took a couple of minutes to talk to us. We'd like to think that it was because Subaru respects IGN as a world-class auto magazine, but the real reason the PR girl talked to us is because we used our sexy Barry White voice on the phone. The ladies just love our Barry White voice... We even scored ourselves a date thanks to that voice - but that's another story for another time.

The helpful Subaru PR girl transferred us to Subaru's U.S. headquarters so that we could get some more info on the car. The rep said that the "official" info can't be posted yet, but that it would come out soon. All he said is that the U.S.-spec car may be receiving a power boost. It sounded too tempting to us, but we didn't want to wait for the info -- we wanted it now. Subaru wouldn't give it to us, as we it had to wait for the "OK" from corporate before the news could be spilled.

However, no one bothered to tell Subaru U.S.A. that pictures and technical info for the new Impreza are on Subaru Japan's consumer site. We guess that the car is already available over there - those lucky b*stards. Anyway, we were able to go through the official Japanese site, get some pictures and specs, and share them all with you. We won't go into too much detail, as we don't know which traits will be carried over to the U.S.-spec cars. But here are a few of the cool details we found out...

As you can see, the front and rear ends of the car have been redesigned. When we first heard that the B9 Tribeca's oval-heavy front end was going to make it onto the Impreza, we cringed. Sorry, but the Tribeca's front is ugly, and we didn't want to see it grafted onto our beloved Impreza. However, the new front end of the Impreza actually looks good! The center oval isn't too prominent, so it doesn't distract from the overall look of the car.

http://cars.ign.com/articles/632/632360p1.html

[driverblogger]

I actually like the new nose of the Impreza. It doesn't look bad, actually good.

[1BadPig]

It is better than the current and first generation WRXs, but not by much!

[FightingChance]

I like the front end, really establishes a brand identity, I thought the previous designs were a little vague.

[jro4566]

Amazing how the B9 is so ugly yet this turned out to be OK.

[SonicAerio]

Looks more like the Saab 9-2 now..except a little better with the projectors

[mgescuro]

Originally Posted by jro4566

Amazing how the B9 is so ugly yet this turned out to be OK.

I don't think Tribeca is that ugly at all.
It's got great lines and is quite fast.
I've sen a couple on the road here.. and they are much bette rin person.

[jro4566]

Originally Posted by mgescuro

I don't think Tribeca is that ugly at all.
It's got great lines and is quite fast.
I've sen a couple on the road here.. and they are much bette rin person.

Trust me - fast isn't in the B9's vocabulary. I test drove one last month thinking I might replace our XL-7 with it, but I immediately changed my mind. I wasn't expecting it to be faster or better-handling than an SRX, M-Class, etc. but I was expecting it to perform better than an MDX. Aside from less body roll, it beat not even the MDX in performance. And with 4 people in the car, it got taxed at 60MPH. I do, however, like the linds of the car and the compact size, but even with the dealer-installed chrome package, the grill still looks out of place. I'd rather wait for the Theta XL-7 which will come with actual torque and passing power.