Quick Review: 2018 Subaru Impreza Sedan

Since I did a lengthy review of my 2009 WRX last week, figured I'd give a brief review of the 2018 Impreza Premium sedan I have as a loaner while they do my airbag recall. First of all - I fully realize this is a cheap econo-car so i'm reviewing it based on that context, and not comparing it to a WRX or other cars that cost $10k+ more. Comparing it with things like Mazda3, Focus, and other things I've driven that are simlar in price and concept.

Highs: It has four wheels with AWD, the A/C works ok in this 100-degree heat, and it has the usual large Subaru greenhouse giving a nice open feel inside the car and great all-around visibility (and the side mirrors are giant).

Lows: Everything else. This car bored me to death after about 2 minutes of driving and I didn't notice anything else about it I could say that I "like" for the rest of my commute home in mixed highway/local roads. I am fine with driving appliance cars, but this one had a lot of needlesslly annoying things about it, I thought. 

Drivetrain: Gutless when attached to the CVT. I'm pretty sure my 1985 BMW 4-cylinder is faster than this car. The paddle shifters don't really improve anything, honestly, and on any hilly areas where you may want to accelerate, it takes forever.

Brakes: The initial bite is excellent, but modulation is downright terrible.

Steering: I guess this car has electric steering? In any case, the weighting is really bad, and on even fairly mild turns it feels like it wants to understeer. Granted all Subarus have some understeer, but I'm not sure if I've ever been in a car with so much of it, ever. I'm sure the OEM Conti tires are soft sidewalls, but still....the car was oddly twitchy during mild turns. It only has 50 miles on it so I can't imagine the alignment is already off.....

Handling and ride: Pretty average, and corners reasonably flat for what it is. Again, the tires that come on this car are pretty mushy - they feel like Altimax Arctic snow tires, almost. Seems to soak up bumps fine...about like my WRX did when it was brand-new. Definitely not what I'd call a "great" ride by any means - and coupled with the flat/hard seats probably felt worse than it should have on the smooth roads here in Fairfax county.

Ergonomics: They're ok. Things are generally in the right place but the dashboard is pretty busy-looking considering how few features the car actually has. Gauges look nice at least. Visibility out of the car is excellent.

Seats: This car is "premium" package cloth/heated manual seats (same as my 2009 WRX). That's where the similarities stop. These seats are as flat as a school bus bench seat. No apparent bolstering, pretty hard, flat bottom. This must be a US-spec seat made for fatass Americans or something. Just driving it the 8-10 miles home from the dealer I was uncomfortable.

Sound: Cabin noise seems pretty average. A little bit of wind noise at 50 mph, and the sound of the engine struggling pretty much no matter what you're doing. Road noise is minimal.

Appearance: Subjective, of course, and my 2009 WRX is hardly a looker. But somehow Subaru with this Impreza has made something that looks both boring and strange at the same time. The proportions, the headlights and taillights, they all seem kind of weird to me - and not in a good way. But at the same time I look at it and think "the new Corolla or Elantra look way less boring than this."

The fact that the "Premium" trim level still has steelies and hubcaps is also a head-scratcher.

Overall, I was looking forward to getting a loaner and hoping it would be an Impreza, just because I'm thinking about what commuter car to get next. After having it for one day, it's already crossed off the list (and literally nothing else is crossed off the list so far). I would love AWD, but even Subaru AWD cannot make this boring appliance palatable to me, personally.

The one I have is identical to this one..,

One thing I didn't mention is the "infotainment." I didn't mess with it too much, because it seemed clunky just trying to find a radio station. I'm not a neanderthal (I have 3 computers and 6 monitors on my desk at work and a Google Pixel phone), but I found the car's infotainment system to be kind of lame.  Basic yet complicated.

I have an 18 Crosstrek so same vehicle but i will say the seats in the crosstrek are nice but everything else is the same as you described.   Also at least for the infotainment i just use android auto since at least the 18 crosstrek has AA/ACP so i avoid most of the infotainment.  Also they somehow made the 6 speed slower than the last gen while adding a gear. CVT and Manual are the same 0-60 now

Seconded on your description.  I had a couple of Impreza wagons when my son's car was in the shop and seriously thought about slamming a RedBull every time I had to drive it to keep from falling asleep.  It didn't do anything well, but it didn't do anything badly, other than boring me to sleep.  I ended up watching and playing with the MPG meter to see how much I could squeeze out of it just to break up the boredom.

I guess, if you just need an AWD appliance that requires minimal concentration and drama, it's a perfect car.

-Rob

It's honestly pretty sad that I dislike driving this Impreza so much that I'm just going to do my 30-mile commute tomorrow in my Sequoia...

irish44j said:

...the "infotainment." I didn't mess with it too much, because it seemed clunky just trying to find a radio station. I'm not a neanderthal (I have 3 computers and 6 monitors on my desk at work and a Google Pixel phone), but I found the car's infotainment system to be kind of lame.  Basic yet complicated.

From my time in rental cars, this description can be applied to almost any new car in the past 3-5 years IMO.  Mazda I thought had one of the more straightforward systems, but even that was needlessly complicated.  There is no dedicated play/pause button.  You basically have to flip between applications then scroll over to the play/pause button, which is not the default button on the music app.   Really, Mazda?  Hyundai may have had one of the worst.  I could not for the life of me figure out how to just flip through local stations without getting XM/Sirius in the mix.

We had a similar experience driving a Forester XT last year when we traded in our Mazda3 after owning a 2004 FXT. My wife was very unenthused.  I wanted the FXT to be the winner since it's the only car in this class with decent power, but blech.  We went to the Mazda dealer and grabbed a CX5.  Not a racecar, but nice ergonomics and materials, and control feels and dynamics felt much better.  People in Wisconsin LOVE Subaru and constantly make comments about how awesome they are and how ridiculous it is that I put snow tires on our cars.  Okay... Drive a few other brands and then talk to me.  And stop driving like an idiot in winter because Subaru marketing convinced you that your car is invincible.

We just picked up a 2016 FXT saturday for my wife. She loves it. Of course coming from a 2003 sienna it handles much better than that. She drove a 2017 outback with the 2.5 and a manual crosstrek which just doesn't have enough power for an awd system. I have decided to keep the engine stock since it came with the subaru cpo warranty. 

I've been shopping in the Mazda 3/ Chevy Cruze/ Civic Hatch market now and sort-of eyeing the Impreza hatch/ wagon.  Unfortunately, the fuel economy of the thing is incomprehensible.  The CVT is rated at around 37 HWY, but the manual version only 31.  And real world numbers bear this out.

I've lived my whole life driving 2WD cars in all sorts of weather.  Subaru's only real claim to fame these days is that it drives all 4 wheels.  Really nothing else outstanding about them at all.  I won't even bother with a test drive.  

EDIT: I believe the main issue is that the Subaru's pretty much the same price as everything in it's class.  And for that same price, you get AWD.  Now, AWD is not free- there's shafts and gears and clutches and some amount of technical whizbangery going on there to get you AWD.  All that costs money.  So, since the car sells for about the same as the others in its class...well, they had to yank money out of something else.  

Having driven the Civic Hatch, Cruze diesel, and Mazda 3 now (all in Manual transmission form), the 3 is top of my list.  I'd love a VW Sportwagen....if it were made by literally anyone else besides VW.  

I just spent a weekend in our 18 crosstrek and felt like bringing another opinion. 

The seats in our car are very comfortable. I’m not sure if they are any different in the crosstrek but the cloth is soft and the foam is just right for me (6’2” 155lbs). I find them more comfortable over a long distance than my 08 MS3 seats which are one of the best seats I’ve sat in. The power is weak but if you’re not afraid to dig into it the car will get out of its own way. I was able to knock down 34mpg doing extra legalish speeds and passing anyone I needed to. I was impressed. It has limitations but once you know them it’s easy to work with.

Cabin noise in our car is minimal until about 80-85. Then you notice it. Engine noise is present above 3k rpm and around 4K a strange whine starts and gets louder all the way to redline. Super weird. I’ve found the cvt to be decent but hard to predict. Traditional automatics are really predictable and I can manipulate the throttle to pick the gear I want. This car, forget it. It also downshifts when you brake so it’s difficult to stop smoothly. I’m figuring it out but it’s off putting at first.

Handling is flat but the car doesn’t want to be hustled. The geolanders give up pretty quickly. 

Overall we have been really happy with the car so far. It does just what we need it to do and not much more. I’m looking forward to see what it does In the dirt. 

Almost forgot: the infotainment system is the newest I’ve owned so I don’t have much exposure to what’s out there but I think it’s only okay. CarPlay is convenient but slow. Twice now the navigation was slow to update and I’ve missed my exit. That’s disappointing. 

spandak said:

I just spent a weekend in our 18 crosstrek and felt like bringing another opinion. 

The seats in our car are very comfortable. I’m not sure if they are any different in the crosstrek but the cloth is soft and the foam is just right for me (6’2” 155lbs). I find them more comfortable over a long distance than my 08 MS3 seats which are one of the best seats I’ve sat in. The power is weak but if you’re not afraid to dig into it the car will get out of its own way. I was able to knock down 34mpg doing extra legalish speeds and passing anyone I needed to. I was impressed. It has limitations but once you know them it’s easy to work with.

Cabin noise in our car is minimal until about 80-85. Then you notice it. Engine noise is present above 3k rpm and around 4K a strange whine starts and gets louder all the way to redline. Super weird. I’ve found the cvt to be decent but hard to predict. Traditional automatics are really predictable and I can manipulate the throttle to pick the gear I want. This car, forget it. It also downshifts when you brake so it’s difficult to stop smoothly. I’m figuring it out but it’s off putting at first.

Handling is flat but the car doesn’t want to be hustled. The geolanders give up pretty quickly. 

Overall we have been really happy with the car so far. It does just what we need it to do and not much more. I’m looking forward to see what it does In the dirt. 

Almost forgot: the infotainment system is the newest I’ve owned so I don’t have much exposure to what’s out there but I think it’s only okay. CarPlay is convenient but slow. Twice now the navigation was slow to update and I’ve missed my exit. That’s disappointing. 

I'll note that I'm not bashing Subaru overall, as my daily driver is a 2009 WRX - and if you read my review on that, I absolutely LOVE the seats in that car - the best I've ever owned, hands-down. No idea if the Crosstek has the same seats this Impreza did.

I drove the car back to the dealer today and tried to drive "sporty" (then again, I drove my Sequoia to work, so anything feels sporty).. The steering still greatly annoyed me, and the CVT is so so unresponsive. Cruising at 50 and I put the pedal to the floor and it's a slow 2-count before the car does anything...just that slipping-clutch feel as revs go up and the car doesn't speed up. I tried using the "manual" mode and pretty much the same thing. From a stop the car seems to accelerate fine, like any other econobox...it's the rolling acceleration delay that would drive me nuts in DC's crazy traffic, where if you don't have instant throttle response, you're gonna have some close calls making any traffic moves, because nobody slows down to let you in around here.

It was nice to get back in my WRX. Feels like a F1 car now, haha...

Dang... The previous Impreza was the thing we almost got instead of the Mini. Bummed to hear they messed it up so badly this time around.

I still kinda miss my '12 WRX, and would love the same car with better mileage and less lag, even if it had a bunch less power.

When one of the few other cars you looked at goes splat, you start to wonder whether it's time to try again to take care of the household 8k miles a year with something older and more interesting (and spares)...

I had imagined the Impreza being a little sportier but it seems not. That’s a little disappointing as I think it’s a cool car in concept. The steering and transmission seem to work in a DD suv but I can see how they wouldn’t in a smaller car. Ah well.

oh and the fuel tank in the Impreza is something like 3 gallons smaller than the crosstrek. Boooo

if anyone is interested here is my 18 Crosstreks gas mileage over the last 19k miles. http://www.fuelly.com/car/subaru/crosstrek/2018/fordmexicanparty/648776 

But the non WRX/STI impreza's are nothing more than AWD camry's at this point. My crosstrek is gone as soon as i can get out of it positive or equal equity. Its just so boring.