Welcome to our second-ever Photo Gallery Road Test, this time of the mighty Subaru WRX Premium auto.
You can check out our Road Test of the manual WRX here, the story and videos from the launch here or just enjoy the pretty gallery below. It is pretty simple to sue; just click on the photo and you will be presented with a larger version of it, scroll down to read the words and see the details of the photo. Click on the right side of the picture to get to the next one (or the left side to go back) and at any stage you can get out of the gallery by clicking anywhere on the page outside of the photo.
The all-new Subaru WRX has ditched the Impreza name, but still shares a platform and quite a few body panels with the range that it used to be part of. As a result, it bears a passing resemblance to an Impreza, while still retaining a distinct appearance and personality of its own.
Despite Subaru’s moves to make the WRX into a more civilised, refined and grown-up car, it is still a wonderfully fun hooligan when it is asked to be. While it is very much a city-boy, it still loves to play in the dirt, so to speak…
The WRX’s move towards refinement has seen a marked improvement in the interior of the car, as well as the way it rides, but the single biggest thing that marks the new WRX out as being more refined and mature is the continuously variable transmission…
Yes, that’s right a CVT. The new WRX is available with that most hated of transmissions. And you know what? We absolutely love it…
Where the manual car feels like a smoother, quieter version of the last WRX, the CVT-equipped machine is a rather remarkable experience to drive. That’s right; the CVT brings a new and unusual experience to driving the WRX – smooth, utterly linear and damn-near constant acceleration.
The feeling is quite unsettling to begin with – you nail the throttle and the WRX takes off like a fat kid after a piece of cake, as it always has done. Then the weird bit happens; it just keeps going. No gear changes interrupt the aggressive acceleration, just a pure, linear, constant increase in speed that feels like it will never end.
And it won’t end until one of three things happens – you lift off, you run out of road or you run out of confidence. Or you run into a member of the constabulary…
While the WRX has become more civilised and the CVT is quite remarkable, at its heart it is still an absolute delinquent of a car. It rewards anti-social behaviour from you with wonderfully predictable (and equally anti-social) behaviour of its own.
And that is where the dirt comes in, because while it may have a fancy new suit, we still reckon a WRX looks best covered in dirt and filth.
Of course, while the CVT is quite honestly the best one we have ever experienced, a lot of the credit for that has to go to the remarkably flexible and powerful 2.0-litre turbo horizontally-opposed four-cylinder engine lurking under that massive bonnet scoop.
Producing 197kW of power and 350Nm of torque, the 2.0-litre engine is eager and responsive, without being a high-strung prima donna about moving slowly around town.
While it is happy going slow, it is utterly in its element being thrashed and growls with a mechanical boxer-engine kind of glee when pushed hard. It can get a bit thirsty doing this, of course, but for the performance on offer, the fuel consumption is more than acceptable. The trick is to just hold yourself back…
Of course, being the Premium model, this WRX came equipped with automatic headlights, an electric sunroof, leather trim, an eight-way power adjustable driver’s seat, keyless entry and start, satellite navigation, an eight-speaker Harmon-Kardon sound system and rain-sensing wipers.
Although the backing camera wasn’t much help after a day on dirty roads…
At the end of the day (like in the picture) the WRX fufils both the role Subaru want it to take on – that of a grown-up performance sedan – and its traditional role of bang-for-buck fun powerhouse. Subaru may want to shed the boy-racer image, but the WRX still has credentials to live up to it.
Of course the CVT-equipped car probably wouldn’t impress a boy racer, but it is a damn impressive piece of kit anyway. It is the car we never really expected to come across – a car with a CVT that we truly, genuinely love…
