Parked at my parents’ place one fine Friday, my mom told me how she noticed three kids checking out the sedan I was driving. They even came up the driveway to give it a thorough once-over, going so far as to look underneath the sedan.
I suspect these kids spied the intake scoop on the hood for the turbocharger, plus the rest of the subtly muscular front end. Maybe the engine heat vents behind the front wheel wells drew their eyes. Did they walk around to the back to check out the four polished stainless steel exhaust tips? Any one of these body style elements would be enough to make passerby give the 2015 Subaru WRX a second look.
photo: Josephine Pica
Engine, brakes, transmission, performance
The turbocharged 2.0-liter DOHC, 16-valve 4-cylinder BOXER engine puts 268 horsepower and 258 lb.-ft. peak torque to all four wheels. The brakes are up to the task as well: ventilated discs (315 x 24 mm) at the front and solid discs at the rear.
Hood scoop, meet intercooler. photo courtesy Subaru
Putting this beast through its paces using the standard six-speed manual was fun, but being able to merge onto a well-trafficked 80 km/h roadway from a standing start, achieving the limit while still in second gear, was really useful. The optional Sport Lineartronic® features SI-DRIVE performance management with 6-speed and 8-speed manual shifting modes and steering wheel paddle shift switches.
Subaru’s Hill Holder system prevented rollback on several occasions when the car faced uphill. It’s a nice touch I didn’t remember Subaru offered until after the first few times it took effect.
Coming off six days of driving Subaru’s BRZ and getting used to its firmer suspension, I noticed the travel in the WRX’s. It wasn’t precisely bouncy, probably just a return to a more common suspension tuning.
Fuel economy is nothing to write home about: 9.8 L/100km city, 7.0 highway (I got a combined 9.3 according to in-car readouts). That said, I concede that a full 60-litre tank of 91 octane fuel will take you far enough and deliver more fun than any fuel-efficient models you might try.
Exterior
The dark grey metallic paint may have made my WRX tester a little more subdued than the brighter colours Subaru offers, but certain body elements will catch the connoisseur’s eye (even if said connoisseur is in high school).
The aluminum hood with integral scoop supplies fresh air to the turbocharger’s intercooler. The hood scoop doesn’t stick up as much as it did on prior WRXs. Subaru widened and flattened it, but it’s still obvious.
I covered many of the other “don’t-mess-with-me” styling elements earlier in this post, but I should mention the 17-inch aluminum alloy wheels with dark gunmetal finish. They sport an aerodynamic design that Subaru says helps to improve fuel economy.
Interior
Firm, performance-design front seats with separate height- and tilt-adjustable head restraints felt good on long drives. The WRX sports plenty of headroom even though the driver sits relatively high in this car.
The three-spoke, flat-bottom leather-wrapped steering wheel is a rally-inspired touch, where you’d rather not knock your knees against the bottom portion of the wheel when you hit bumps. Leather and red stitching adorns the shifter hand brake lever and shift boot too.
The pedals and footrest are aluminum alloy, making them stick out against their dark background.
An engine start/stop button would make sense in this car, but it’s only available with the top-of-the-line Sport-Tech package.
Trunk space was large and easy to get to. The hockey bag rolled in easily, sticks poking through the 60/40 split folding rear seat.
In-cabin electronics
The WRX features a digital turbo performance gauge in the middle of the dash. Other things you can display there include a vehicle dynamics monitor, clock, outside temperature, maintenance reminder and other customizable settings.
For the record, my eyes were firmly fixed on the road each time the turbo kicked in (yours would be too). I did watch this screen while in reverse, when it turns into a rearview camera.
The base model WRX I drove had a standard entertainment head unit. touch-screens are available on other models. Truthfully, I wouldn’t have looked at it much. To understand why, reread the preceding paragraph.
Conclusion
The Subaru WRX continues to justify its rally car popularity with the 2015 model. It’s practicality for the family and fun for the road in an elegant package that will continue to look great years from now.