CNET editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 07/23/2007
Subaru's WRX gained cult popularity among video gamers and drivers who wanted racing performance on a budget. We tested out the newest iteration, the 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX, and have some bad news: the WRX has matured. Oh, it still has rally handling, a screaming engine, and a scoop on the hood for its intercooled turbocharger. But its refined body style will make it fit right in the corporate parking lot, and even the Subaru Forester has a hood scoop.
The first thing we noticed about the new WRX were the sides, which look an awful lot like they were stripped off of a BMW 3 series and shortened. Yes, it's that smooth flame-surfacing, broken up only a little by the beltline and a rib. Of course, with the cheapest BMW 3 series starting above $30,000, Subaru's new WRX can claim the ground BMW ceded as it took its cars up-market.
The WRX lives in a middle ground between the standard Subaru Impreza and the highly tuned Subaru Impreza WRX STi, with a short detour to the Subaru Outback, part of the Impreza line. Despite its mature look, this new WRX mostly delivers on the performance expected of it. It also shows Subaru's direction in cabin electronics, with a really nice-looking navigation system and a stereo that true audiophiles can appreciate.
Test the tech: Turbo test
On our first run out in the 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX, we felt the power of the intercooled and turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine. Acceleration is good below 2,500rpm, but above that it becomes incredible as the turbo spins up and the car gets its peak 224 horsepower. So we thought it would be interesting to run some acceleration tests starting with and without the turbo wide open.
For our first test, we launched the car from just over 1,000rpm. With the clutch engaged, we stomped the accelerator and held the gears until 6,000rpm before upshifting. The car behaved very well, with no wheel spin and no tendency to pull to either side. Our time to 60mph on this run was 7.02 seconds.
Finally, we let the driver modulate the accelerator, without trying to launch from a specific tach reading. For this run, we got our best time of 6.45 seconds. While starting with the turbo running at full speed achieved a better time than launching from idle, the car performed best when the driver was allowed to find the sweet spot of rpms, power, and gear.
In the cabin
As we would expect from the sporty version of the Impreza, the WRX includes sport seats for the driver and passenger. These seats have fixed headrests and a sculpted look that goes well with the general interior theme. The dashboard curves in to meet the center stack, somewhat like the cabin of the Subaru Tribeca. The interior also has a clean look, with few buttons marring the curving surfaces. The stack is particularly simple, only hosting HVAC controls, vents, and an LCD for the navigation and audio systems.
Subaru includes an information pod at the top of the dashboard, which shows temperature, time, and fuel economy, among other things. With the navigation option present, the LCD also shows trip computer functions, with more detail than shown in the information pod. The LCD trip computer also has an analog display that shows three animated dials indicating such things as average and instant fuel economy.
Beyond its pretty graphics, the navigation system stood out as one of the best we've seen because of its complete points-of-interest database, including retail establishments, and its usefulness in planning complicated trips. For each place or address you enter, you can choose to make it a waypoint or the final destination. With the waypoints, you can change their order, delete some or all, and easily enter new ones, all from a convenient list screen.
On the lower part of the LCD's bezel is a button labeled Tilt. This button lets you set an angle for the LCD, something we didn't find particularly useful, or open it up completely to reveal a disc slot. This single-disc slot handles MP3, WMA, and RedBook CDs, as well as DVDs. Yes, when the car is parked, you can actually watch DVDs on this LCD. There is also a composite video jack alongside the RCA jacks in the console, letting you plug in an MP3 player, video game, or other video device. XM satellite radio is also available. The onscreen interface makes it easy to find and select music from MP3 and WMA CDs, and satellite radio.
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