Subaru almost made the perfect car for me - one that's fast, handles well, and has good utility. If only they brought over the Turbo Legacy Wagon that Japanese people have access to. I drooled over this car ever since I knew it was coming to the US, and when we were deciding on our purchase of the Sentra. Back in April 2001, the Impreza was just arriving on our shores, and no discounts were to be had anywhere. Dealers were marking up them up as well. I don't know what came over me around Thanksgiving, but I really wanted this car. We'd have to trade the Sentra (the Protege had 0% financing), and we'd lose a lot of money, but I was getting tired of the Sentra's harsh ride and seats, and I still drooled over the WRX.

So my fiancee and I took a stroll to the local Subaru dealer and found that he had a dealer unwind with 500 mi on it. There was no abuse as far as I could tell, and I'd save $1500 over a new car (the price of the car was about $1000 below invoice for a new car, assuming I'd get a new one for $500 above invoice). Thus, my negative equity on the Sentra was offset a little, and I followed my heart and signed the dotted line and drove off with the WRX. No matter the negative equity, the turbo under the hood whispered to me, "forget about the Sentra and the money you lost, I'll show you what a great car you have now."

EXTERIOR:
The WRX has a nice shape, and looks sporty even in wagon trim. The rear spoiler is standard on WRX wagons, and it matches nicely with the profile of the car. The front end definitely takes some getting used to (if you really can't stand it, there's aftermarket projector light kits available). The lights look powerful, but don't perform as well as you'd expect. The fog lights also look powerful, but they light up very little extra area on the road. The hood scoop announces that this car's a turbo, and unlike earlier Subarus, there is an actual intercooler right under it. The wagon comes with roof rails, but not a cross-bar kit. The rear of the wagon is nice looking, and the exhaust has dual chrome tips (not dual exhaust). The 16in wheels look good, but are a pain to clean due to the closely spaced spoke pairs. European and Japanese WRXs get 17in wheels standard. Why must we always get the lesser form? The Silver looks great on the wagon, but Subaru's paint appears to be very thin, so be careful in dinging the car or watch out for dings.

INTERIOR:
The interior of the WRX is all business. It's comfortable, but there's little in the way of luxury features, optional or standard. Most of the interior is black, but the seats and doors have a blue/black interlaced cloth. The dash is vinyl, but cushiony, which is unusual these days. The cushiony vinyl continues on door panels as well.

The instrument panel is straight-forward, with usual black-face gauges, accented by grey rings. There are two control stalks on the side of the lovely Momo leather-wrapped wheel, the left stalk controls lights and turn signals, while the right stalk controls both front and rear wipers/washers. There is a cruise control master button on the left lower dash near the fog light switch, and the control stalk for the cruise is mounted on the steering wheel. The radio includes a 6 disc changer and a tape player with 6 speakers. It's not a bad sounding unit, but could use better speakers.

The seats are very comfortable and the drivers seat includes a clever height adjuster that rachets the seat up or down. There is a cubby between the seats, but the button to open it is located on top, and I often found myself unintentionally opening the cubby while shifting. The front seat well isn't all that roomy, and the rear seat room is small as well. For adults to be comfortable in the back, you'll have to move the front seats up a notch or two from the furthest back position. The wagon includes some storage bins in the back above the spare tire area. The back hatch can be covered by a retractable shade.

DRIVING DYNAMICS:
This is the crux of this car, everything else is really secondary. The WRX comes with the rally-inspired 2.0L turbo engine with intercooler. It puts out 227hp at 6000 rpm and 217 lbs at 4000 rpm. That's quite a lot for a car that weighs around 3200 lbs. It channels this power through a manual 5 spd or 4 spd automatic into all four wheels. The AWD systems are different for both transmissions, with the automatic getting a Variable Torque sensing center differential. Both have limited slip rear diffs. I have the 5 spd. This car thoroughly enjoys to be driven hard, and it was hard keeping the revs below 4000 rpm in the initial break-in period.

The 16in wheels are wrapped with Bridgestone RE92 205-55-16 tires, and these tires are not well-matched to the rest of the performance of the car. They cry foul even at moderate speeds, and I can feel the sidewall flex as well. The suspension is definitely upto the task of extracting maximum cornering potential of the car. A good upgrade would be 17in wheels and tires or even just better 16in tires. The 16in wheels are lightweight though. The sport suspension is relatively stiff, but still allows for a decent ride on most streets. Even though prepped WRXs compete very successfully on tough off-road rally stages, the mass-produced WRX is probably too stiffly sprung for any serious off-roading. An Outback sport would be better suited if you'd like to go off-road.

The transmission is quite notchy, and it can be difficult to shift into first and reverse, but otherwise offers reasonably good shifts. The clutch is light and easy to modulate. The 6spd gearbox from the STi versions would be very welcome here. Fuel economy still remains pretty good, and though the EPA rated this car 20/27, you could only get those numbers with very conservative use of the throttle. I usually average 22-24 in the city and 25-26 on the freeway (you'll have to keep this car at 55-65 mph to get 27, I think).

The 2.0L turbo engine has gobs of power, but you have to live with the lag that accompanies it. Keep the engine at 3000 rpm or above, and you won't be able to stop grinning. If you do that constantly though, you'll be going "stupid" fast in no time. The rush of the turbo is strongest in 2nd and 3rd gears from 4000-5500 rpm. The gearing is reasonably tall for long trips. A downshift may be required if you desire strong acceleration at speed.

The suspension is old fashioned struts at all corners, but it does its job commendably. Again, the overall handling feel is hindered by the poor factory tires. The cornering is still pretty flat, and the tires give plenty of warning before they break loose. The handling is tuned for understeer, but you can induce oversteer by lifting off throttle in a sharp turn or by changing the front and rear sway bars. The car has inspired confidence in 99% of any cornering I've attempted so far.

The last part of the handling equation is braking. While
it has 4 wheel disc brakes with ABS, the brakes seem to be lacking compared to the rest of the hardware. They sometimes lack bite, and exhibit some fade on longer mountain roads. They work well in everyday situations, but stronger hardware might be expected when you experience the rest of the car. Upgrading brakes would most likely necessitate getting 17in wheels, but that would also give you a significant handling benefit.

OVERALL:
I have loved owning this car since that fateful day in November 2001, and I continue to be impressed. Subaru definitely saved some money by installing lower quality tires and inferior brakes, but they seem to have spent money where it counts, in the engine and handling. The transmission could have a better feel, but I've heard that all Subaru transmissions share the same characteristics, but they're reliable, solid units nevertheless.

I also had some nagging quality problems relating to my "check engine" light. It appeared about 3 weeks into owning the car, and my dealer seemed inept at fixing it completely. While this problem never made an impact on how the car drove, the dealer should have been able to fix it with all the computer diagnoses available now. After three attempts to fix the light (first-reset, second-new computer, third-new fuel pressure sensor), I had a Subaru regional rep look at the car. This time I went to a different dealer. He fixed the problem and I haven't had any issues for two months. Subaru also gave me a free 6yr/100k extended warranty "for my trouble." The regional rep also diagnosed a faulty clutch that results in some drivetrain noise upon deceleration, but the clutch problem is more widespread, and the parts are on backorder. I hope to have no other problems after that is fixed.

Of course, my particular car isn't quite representative of all WRX's, but I feel as though these problems should not occur because the same car had been selling in Europe and Japan for 1 year before it was sold here.

I thought about giving this car 4 stars overall due to the repairs, but you forget all about that stuff when you drive it aggressively...
Amount Paid (US$): 21500
Condition: New
Model Year: 2002
Model and Options: WRX, 5 spd, Silver wagon