2015 Subaru WRX STI Review | Auto Expert John Cadogan

Full review on the website: http://autoexpert.com.au/subaru-wrx

If too much Subaru WRX is barely enough, the Subaru WRX STI is the car you’d crawl over broken glass to get into. But take another look. There’s an obvious question: Has the Subaru WRX STI has gone soft?

The Subaru WRX STI is an incredible $10,000 cheaper than before. Although the engine carries over, the WRX STI has certainly discovered refinement for the first time, later in life. If you’re into performance cars, and not a bogan - the Subaru WRX STI is a gift from heaven. It’s sophisticated, blindingly fast, and very forgiving. So if your IQ is greater than the room temperature - in Fahrenheit - the Subaru WRX STI is the kind of car you lie awake in bed, lusting after. I know I do. And this new model is an incredible $10,000 cheaper than its predecessor - which means it’s 10 grand closer to jumping out of those half-asleep fantasies, and into your driveway. That's a damn fine scenario.

You also can't have the Subaru WRX STI as a hatch - the entire Subaru WRX range is sedan-only.

The Subaru WRX STI first appeared on Australian shores in 1999 - for $62,500. When you adjust for inflation over that time, using average weekly earnings growth, spending $62.5 big ones back then would be like spending about $114,000 on a Subaru WRX STI today. So, you’d have to say, buying a Subaru WRX STI today for about $50k - because that’s where they kick off. And that means the Subaru WRX STI is one of the truly great performance car bargains.

The engine outputs are the same as the previous model - 221 kilowatts and 407 Newton-metres, but the driveline has been upgraded. You get active torque vectoring, which the previous model lacked. Overall, though, the Subaru WRX STI is basically the performance you've always loved, plus a huge step forward for refinement and equipment levels. So, in a sense, you could mount a case that the Subaru WRX STI has gone soft - the hard edge of performance is still there, totally, but it’s wrapped in a level of refinement that you just never got before in any previous Subaru WRX STI

The real story with this fourth-generation Subaru WRX STI isn’t the awesome performance. STIs have always delivered that. It’s a given. The big story is all the extra equipment they’ve jammed into this model, for $10k less. That opens the vehicle up to an entirely new group of potential buyers.

You no longer have to forego all creature comforts to drive a Subaru WRX STI. You get the D-shaped steering wheel, a proximity key with pushbutton start, multi-function display (which is just right for watching the turbo boost while you hit a kangaroo, unless you’re very careful). There’s a beefy sound system with Harman Kardon speakers and amp. I never bothered with that, not for the whole week I drove the car; Frankly, I was happy listening to the engine's fat beats. Sat-nav is standard, there’s a reversing camera, daytime running lights, dusk-sensing LED headlamps with halogen high-beams, rain-sensing wipers and dual-zone climate control.

Criticisms? Well, the Subaru WRX STI is manual-transmission-only, so your girlfriend might not be able to drive you home after a few drinks, depending on her. Personally, though, and not just because of the added post-inebriation GF chauffeur flexibility, I’d love to see a CVT in a Subaru WRX STI, because the CVT in the garden-variety Subaru WRX is just so good. I’d buy one. That car changed my view on CVTs for ever.

But the main problem with the Subaru WRX STI was: I had to give it back. Saddest day of the year so far: the day Subaru came to take the WRX STI back. And, OK, because, after numerous threatening letters they turned up with the Jaws of Life, and the sheriff … ultimately I just handed it over without a fight. But I hate myself now, for being so soft about it.

The Subaru WRX STI would be a great car for $60 grand. Only it’s available for just $50 grand - and that just makes it better, or at least more accessible. So: you can either pick up Thor’s hammer, swing it around, or you can drive a Subaru WRX STI. Those two things probably feel about the same. And there’s no stupid red cape when you play with the 2015 Subaru WRX STI. (Or, maybe there is, but you can delete it at no extra cost if you want...)

Driving the Subaru WRX STI is like being upgraded to business class. It’s easy to move forward in the plane, but heartwrenching to move back. That’s exactly what giving the WRX STI back is like. Suddenly you’re back in economy. There’s plastic utensils and no more Veuve Cliquot. There’s a screaming baby on one side, and a fat man knitting on the other, and your seat is bang in the middle. All the way to Dubai. And you’re wondering: How do these peasants travel like this?