This one looks solid on paper. Subaru's Impreza Sport 5-door offers utility, economy and all-wheel drive for a starting price of $22,495. But if you can live without options, you can get the base model of the Impreza for just $18,895.
Our test car came with a CVT transmission, but you can opt for a five-speed manual.
Remember when Subaru was a niche brand that only those in the know knew about? Yeah, those days are over. This past June, Subaru of America celebrated 67 consecutive months of increased sales. This was also their best June ever, an 11.7-percent increase over June 2016.
The Impreza is new for 2017, and I think this latest addition is going to help keep that trend going. Yeah, it’s that good.
Our test car was the upmarket Sport 5-door that starts at $22,495, but let’s back up a minute. The current Impreza lineup starts with the base sedan. MSRP is $18,395. A five-speed manual transmission comes standard, while the company’s Lineartronic CVT is an option. The Impreza's 2.0-liter boxer makes 152 horsepower along with 145 lb.-ft. of torque. The rest of the current Impreza lineup–not counting the WRX, since that’s now its own unique animal–uses that same drivetrain. So, here's what I’m getting at: What I say for the Sport pretty much applies to other new Imprezas.
Okay, that out of the way, let’s talk some specifics. First, the wow: Without even trying, I recorded 41.5 mpg–and that’s what my math says, not the on-board computer. A lot of those miles were driven on the highway, but that was without using the cruise control or really even trying. Subaru says that we should have seen 27 city/35 highway. We’ll take that win.
The second wow: I was totally fine with the optional CVT gearbox fitted to our test car. I want to say that it’s the best CVT that I have ever experienced, but that still sounds like damning praise. Here’s perhaps the best way to sum it all up: If, for whatever reason, you can’t do a stick and need something with only two pedals, then this box works just fine. It wasn’t quite a DSG, but I’d put it on par with any other traditional modern automatic box. Somehow this CVT has seven speeds and you can manually shift it via paddles, but I found it best to just leave it in D and let the magic happen.
The rest of the car follows up on the previous Impreza. The front door openings are really generous. The view from behind the wheel is nearly perfect. There are plenty of cubbies for your stuff. The ride is quiet and comfortable. Nothing annoyed me. If anything, I’d still call the front seats’ bottom cushions a bit flat. They’re easy to slide into, but maybe a tad more side support would be nice. (And that’s pretty much my only nitpick on the entire car.)
The Sport isn’t a WRX, but it adds some, well, sport to the Impreza. The 18-inch alloys look cool, and the model’s lower cladding works. The carbon fiber interior accents might not shed a ton of weight, but they’re subtle and look par for the course.
Final thought: Between the economy, practically, price and everything else, this would make a fine daily. And that’s before you throw in the all-wheel drive.
GF just put a deposit down on the car in the pic - 5-dr, Sport, manual, Island Blue, no moonroof. Locating such a beast has been darn near impossible. Exactly zero within 200 mi radius, but dealer says there are 2 scheduled for build, so apparently she's getting one of those.
Her being 5' on a good day, finding something that fit well was hard for her. This was the only thing she drove that she felt totally comfortable in.
Cool--well, cool on ordering one, but bummer about the wait. I really enjoyed my time with the car.
That side skirt really cleans up the lines. I like this latest gen of Impreza.
It's the closest I've seen to the 93-07 run of wagons in terms of seating position and ergonomics yet. The '12 was close, but there's a lot of refinement in this new platform (especially on the XV).
That gen Impreza is the new "global" crap. It's basically a forester, a levorg (or whatever it's called), a legacy, blah, blah, blah.
The previous gen Impreza had like, ZERO ground clearance. It's why I went with the crosstrek. The suspension on anything but the crosstrek looks like it went down a pothole infested road on blown out shocks everyday for the last fifteen years.
I know the infotainment center has severely upgraded though. My 2017's console sucks asspipe.
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