Cincinnati.com's view

Sedans are so BOR-ing, goes the oft-repeated lament. Leave it to the idiosyncratic Subaru to put that canard in the can. The new 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX sedan may be a bit of an ugly duckling, but it ain’t boring.

Impreza is the little guy in the Subaru lineup and it has been totally redone for the 2002 model run. The coupe has been dropped in favor of a brace of sedans and a selection of wagons.

The Impreza is a subcompact, so if you can put away the mental baggage associated with the sedan configuration, you’ll soon appreciate why having four portals makes sense – getting into the rear seat of a small coupe is near-impossible for any but tiny female gymnasts, and the exercise is a drag for the front-cabin occupants, too. The presence of the extra doors at least liberates the first-class folks, and, truth to tell, those rear portals are mighty handy for stowing the gear that will more likely occupy the nether regions most of the time.

Though being inordinately large, I found a reasonably comfortable situation behind the small-but-hefty Momo steering wheel. (Momo wheels are beloved of the sporting trade.)

This class of car wouldn’t be anyone’s choice for cross-country voyages, but I found the legroom sufficient for the more likely usage, and there was enough headroom to accommodate a helmet, if necessary.

Yes, I suspect many buyers of the new WRX will be wearing helmets as they play weekend racer. The very name is meant to evoke Subaru’s prowess as world rally champion. (Purchase of a WRX brings with it a complimentary membership in the Sports Car Club of America.)

Last year Subaru offered, and it still does in the new generation, a semi-serious vehicle similarly tricked out with hood scoop, spoiler and aero effects. It was (and is) called the RS. The WRX is a quantum jump toward the more purposeful end of the sporting spectrum.

The one I tested a few weeks back came with a warning label that it was a pre-production prototype and should be judged accordingly. It’s not as if they needed any indulgence on my part; there were no glaring flaws in construction to note. Sometimes as production ramps up, minor changes in specifications are made, but I’d take the WRX just as it was.

The WRX is made in Japan and will be imported in limited quantities — perhaps 10,000 for North America – modest even by Subaru’s standards.

Even though it is ready for weekend warrior duties, it would also make a most agreeable way of getting the blood pumping on the way to work or clearing the cobwebs on the return. Despite its gutsy nature, it was relatively civilized even over challenging paved surfaces and cornered like a roller coaster.

Neither the robust suspension nor the low-profile tires made it cross the line from sporting to abusive. The car tested had the standard 16-inch alloy wheels (exceptionally handsome), wrapped in all-season 205/55 V-rated rubber. If you’re very intent on squeezing out the last iota of performance, you might want to look at the 17-inch wheel kit, at a breathtaking $3,035. The tires in that case become try before you buy – I suspect the package would significantly degrade the ride quality while incrementally boosting grip. Even with the standard tires/wheels, the Subaru, like all its relatives, is an all-wheel-drive machine and thus very sticky. Even on wet streets, and sans any kind of electronic yaw oversight, the WRX and the road kept in close touch even with deliberate provocation.

The WRX comes with two different all-wheel-drive mechanisms because – horreur! – it can be equipped with an automatic transmission.

Not to be unduly disdainful of the mechanically-challenged, that would be a silly expenditure of an extra $1,000. The essence of this car is the intimate involvement of driver and machine – interposing an intermediate layer would be self-defeating.

The test car had the five-speed manual transmission. It functioned well, and although could have wished for shorter, crisper throws, it never grabbed the wrong gear in rapid changes both up and down.

With the manual transmission, the torque is split 50:50, front to rear, under stable conditions. The allocation varies, via a bevel-gear center differential, the instant slippage of one or more wheels is detected. The implementation is so fast it’s virtually imperceptible. Backing up the fore-aft power allocation is a viscous rear differential, which further subdivides the output between wheels on the same axle.

The net effect is to raise the white-knuckle threshold far above what would be possible in a 2WD machine. Passengers, however, will need a bit of gentle breaking in before you demonstrate the WRX’s capabilities.

Despite the astonishing adhesion, the WRX, at 3,165 pounds curb weight, is still light enough to feel tossable.

While the lesser Imprezas have a 2.5-liter flat-four engine, the WRX’s is only two liters. You guessed it: turbocharged. At full tilt, boost is 14 pounds, cramming nearly twice as much air and fuel into the cylinders as they could suck on their own. Consequently, output is an eye-opening 227 hp (@6,000 rpm) and 217 foot-pounds of torque at 4,000. Premium unleaded is required, of course, but even in very aggressive driving I logged 21.4 miles for every gallon consumed. EPA estimates are 20 mpg city, 27 highway.

Because power is put to the ground so efficiently, 6-second 0-60 blasts were easily achieved by letting the turbo spin up and popping the clutch. I ran into the rev limiter a lot because of how good the engine felt near redline, and was glad to see the electronic overseer is fairly gentle.

The turbo makes itself felt rather early on and, for all its caged fury, the engine was decently tractable, content to soldier along at 2,000 rpm.

Comparably-priced machines with V-8s can do a tad better in the sprints, but just wait till it rains, or the road gets twisty. The brakes on the WRX are little short of awesome. I don’t care for the pseudo-racer drilled-out aluminum facing on the pedal (slippery when wet), but the pedal feel was solid, easily modulated and stopping distances were among the shortest I’ve ever seen and the antilock was quick and efficient. Do NOT follow one of these fellas too closely.

An AM-FM-cassette deck with 6-CD changer is standard. Overall sound quality was good, but I preferred listening to the mechanical goings-on.

Neither the federal government nor the Insurance Institute has crashed a 2002 Impreza yet. Front air bags, rugged construction and the standard side front-compartment air bags lead one to expect high survivability, to say nothing of the active safety measures inherent in the design.

Base price on the WRX is $23,995, and that includes all the niceties mentioned earlier, plus all the usual upper-level power and comfort extras. The tester had no options. Total, with freight, was $24,520. The grin:dollar ratio is quite high. Edmunds, the research firm which tracks auto transactions, says the WRX is commanding nearly full sticker on average, which means you might even have to pay a premium in some venues.

The only points of comparison in this price range are found at VW/Audi dealers; their quattro all-wheel-drive cars have a more refined, sophisticated feel, but lack the youthful brio of the WRX.

Part of the “Gannett News Service.”