When I saw the first photos of the all-new-for-2002 Subaru Impreza line, I thought of the old joke: “Nice looking piglet you got there, ma’am, but why are you carrying him around in a baby blanket?”
The new baby Subies may not win any beauty contests – this has never been a priority for the Fuji Heavy Industries unit, now co-owned by General Motors – but they rule in terms of inner beauty.
The prognathous, gap-toothed aspect of the 2002 2.5 RS sedan I received is distinctive, at least – you’ll never mistake it for those carefully-massaged Japanese products that seem so inbred nowadays.
It’s to Subaru’s credit that instead of taking on the giants with a frontal assault, it has relied on fancy footwork to keep from being run over by them. Those dancing feet have propelled it to a string of world championships in rally competitions, where the term “road” is a bit of a stretch, and that heritage has translated well into even more workaday applications like the Impreza RS. (They never spell it out, but Subaru probably wouldn’t object if we took RS to mean “rally sport,” a moniker applied to a lot less plausible entries over the years.) The company seems to focus more on its higher-profit items like the Forester and Outback in its marketing efforts, leaving the Impreza in almost cult-car obscurity.
In redesigning the subcompact, Subaru wisely, I think, dropped the coupe configuration and gives us now a choice of four-doors and what they choose to call wagons, though in such curtailed form, they might more reasonably be styled hatchbacks.
The hot ticket is the WRX series, with its competition-oriented chassis and powertrain. I look forward to flexing one of those anon, but for now, let’s discover what awaits $5,000 south of that point in the baseline sedan.
At $18,995 manufacturer’s suggested, it’s the least expensive all-wheel-drive performance sedan in America – the only one, actually, in the subcompact category. (All Subarus, I would remind, feature some species of all-wheel drive.)
No need, really, to lay aside a few Gs for the add-ons one often must add to make a low-end subcompact livable. The 2.5 RS comes with air conditioning, 5-speed manual transmission, anti-lock brakes, air bags, halogen headlamps, front and rear stabilizer bars, 205/55 all-season tires on hefty 16-inch alloy wheels, 80-watt, 4-speaker AM-FM-CD stereo, cruise control, leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, carpeted floor mats, power windows, door locks and outside mirrors, remote trunk and hood releases, tilt wheel and a three-year, 24-hour roadside assistance package.
You would correctly deduce from the name of the piece that it’s powered by a 2.5-liter engine. Not a small six, but rather, a big four, laid out in Subaru’s unusual flat, or “boxer” configuration – think of two sets of two pistons slugging it out. This design has been used in exotic cars for the same reason Subaru clings to it: it makes for a compact package that all ows for a lower hood and a center of gravity closer to the earth, especially valuable in performance iron.
I like this gutsy little powerplant, but must admit, it’s an acquired taste. At idle, it sounds and feels like a well-mannered diesel. As it climbs toward redline, it snarls like a cur with a bone. But its bestial nature befits a car just one or two steps removed from competition machinery and serves to further differentiate the Impreza from vanilla fare.
Best of all, it is quite content with regular gasoline, even with a snappy 10:1 compression ratio which helps it make 165 hp (@5,600 rpm) and 166 foot-pounds of torque (@4,000). The torque curve seems fairly flat, providing good urge from just off idle on up to the cacophonous, fuel-cutoff range. The Impreza with manual transmission slips in just below 3,000 pounds. That and apt gearing put it into the sub-9-second “peppy” range on the 0-60-mph drill. That time of course would suffer if one opted for the optional four-s automatic, which on the whole would not be the best choice for this vehicle, which offers involvement.
The five-speed has fairly short, direct throws, and unerringly found the right slot whether I was shifting up or down, and didn’t grumble too much when I rushed it a bit. The ratios seemed aptly placed so as to eke as much performance as possible. Top gear is a 0.780:1 overdrive ratio, which was a bit much for around-town motoring. It also made dropping into fourth a good idea for high-speed passes on two-lane roads.
Though it has a small frontal area, the Impreza’s 0.33 coefficient of drag is nothing to brag about – all that body sculpting doesn’t help. Nonetheless, fuel consumption is respectable – 21 mpg city, 28 highway on the EPA’s scale. I logged 24.8, that in spite of my predilection for the higher ranges of the cacophonous quartet.
The driver’s position was surprisingly accommodative of my outsized frame, with good seat support and enough bolstering and stretch room for protracted fun runs. Draw your own conclusions about how much space that leaves for the rear compartment. The trunk is a mere 11 cubic feet – pick your bags wisely. The cabin ambience is quite pleasant, with a purposeful, gimmick-free feel and good control placement.
The Impreza RS uses Subaru’s simplest implementation of its all-wheel-drive technology, a viscous center differential that normally sends equal amounts of power front and rear. When one axle gets out of sync with the other, the power split is altered to provide more power to the wheels that have more traction. Though it’s a reactive system, it functions quite well as a foul-weather friend and even on light-duty off-road treks. More than anything, though, it gives the car a balanced, sure-footed feel on high-traction roads, beyond what one gets in the typical inexpensive front-wheel-drive gear.
In light of the paltry 99.4-inch wheelbase, I found ride quality surprisingly good. There was much less pitching than I would have expected, even over sinusoidal surfaces taken a wee bit too fast.
The front and rear stabilizer bars kept roll in check, even during slalom checks, without seeming to increase ride harshness. Despite the so-called “sport-tuned” springs and shocks, the car was easy to live with.
The disc brakes, ventilated in front, solid in the rear, were well up to the task of bringing the missile to a halt in reassuring distances, even from elevated speeds. The antilock was efficient and not unduly intrusive – kudos to Subaru for including it as a standard feature.
There are two (depowered) air bags up front, but Subaru is slipping a little behind the curve not providing for side or head-curtain bags.
Neither the government nor the insurance folks have crash-tested the new Impreza yet, and of course the jury will be out a while on the issue of reliability, this being a new design. Sure seems solid and well-thought-out, though, and ruggedness is a Subaru hallmark.
Build quality (the Impreza’s imported from Japan) was very good. The included stereo had average tuner sensitivity, and when fed a good signal, excellent clarity, though little in the way of ambience.
The test machine had two relatively inexpensive, but worthy, extras: a keyless entry system ($175) and splash guards ($125). With freight, the car scooted in below the $20K barrier, at $19,820. Payments on one just so would be $402, assuming 20 percent down, 10 percent interest and 48 coupons. The rating firm Edmunds says its price surveys show you may be able to haggle down by $600 or so.