Video: 2022 Subaru WRX: Review

They placed second in our cheap speed comparison when it debuted, and the 2018 was just taken up a notch. The 2022 WRX gets a complete overhaul, but has it grown up? Well, the short answer is yes. It's a more refined performance car. The question now is, is it too refined? There's a new 2.4 liter turbo four cylinder that replaces the outgoing 2.0, and it may not look like it's very different on paper. The peak numbers are pretty similar, but that doesn't tell the whole story. Subaru says that there's a broader torque curve. And what that means from behind the wheel is that there's less acceleration delay. Now the 2.0 liter just didn't have a very good response in the lower engine speeds. It was very peaky. You had to be in that sweet spot of power. The 2.4 liter doesn't act that way at all. It has very linear power delivery. It's very smooth. It works all over the rev range, and it's a very refined engine too. It's a very different experience than the 2.0 liter. What I think is an even bigger difference than the engine though, is just how much easier to drive this new car is. The clutch pedal is much lighter. The engagement has longer travel. So on the old WRX, you had this really narrow window of engagement and it was right off the floor. So it was difficult to drive. The clutch pedal was heavy. That's changed here, and that's especially notable in acceleration. For fast starts in the previous car, it was really hard to get going. You had to be in 4,000 RPM and sometimes you'd release the clutch pedal and it would bog or it would burn the clutch. And it was just very difficult to drive. This new one though, the 2022 WRX is so much easier to drive. You can launch it quickly. (engine revving) And you're not gonna bog the car. Perhaps it's that broader torque curve that's helping, but it is much easier to drive faster. Even with it being easier to drive, it hasn't taken away some of the good characteristics from the previous manual transmission where you could click off quick shifts very easily. The brake pedal and accelerator pedal are also in a much better spot for heel toe downshifting. Now I'm not the best at it, but you kind of have to do it for smooth downshifts, because there's no auto rev match feature like you get with a Veloster N or Civic SI. So you have to do it manually. So it's easier to drive quickly, and especially with acceleration, but what I'm noticing, and it might just be this car because of all season tires and we're just getting outta winter. So the roads are still cold. I experienced a wheel spin, especially on those fast starts where the front tires would spin and kind of slow the go a little bit. And also, when you ring this engine out, I can't say it has a particularly defined engine or intake noise. It's kind of buzzy. It does sound like there's some decent noise coming out the back, but you just don't hear it from inside the cabin. (engine revving) And would I take that over some artificial piped in noise? Probably, because in the aftermarket, you might be able to solve that with a higher performance, louder exhaust system. And those will be no stranger to this car. The WRX's new ride and handling is really interesting compared with the old version. Our car is equipped with all season tires. Michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4 tires. Now you can't order these from the factory. They don't come equipped. Subaru equipped these all season tires, just for loaning it out to media in the Midwest during the winter. The standard tires are summer variety and that's what the WRX comes with. So what we're driving right now may not be exactly indicative of what you can buy because the all season tires, and that is going to affect ride and handling. This car though as equipped, I'll say rides really nicely, especially compared with the old car that you couldn't say about it. Now, this new platform is considerably stiffer. Subaru has increased rigidity throughout the car, and you can feel that in the way that the suspension works. The suspension feels like it's doing work without upsetting the rest of the car. The previous car was almost skateboard stiff, and it really beats you up. But the ride quality on this is very well done. Even when you do hit big bumps, they don't necessarily upset the car. On the flip side, I can't say handling is as engaging as the old car. There lacks some crispness from the front end, and on long, sweeping highway on ramps, it feels a bit uneasy at higher speeds. So how does that compare with the competition? Well, I was recently driving the Civic SI and in similar conditions with its all seasoned tires. And it's got a leg up on the WRX as far as what I would want from a handling vehicle. It has very communicative steering. When you turn into a corner, you immediately know that you are at its capabilities or there's a lot more. And the WRX just doesn't quite have that. So the WRX's styling. It'd be nice to say that it was polarizing, but people weren't really that nice about it. Yes, it has a lot of this plastic cladding, but I recommend seeing it in person first. The wider fenders are done really well. I think the proportions are better on this car versus the other, as far as wheel to body ratio. One thing to note though, functionally, not just styling, is that the effects on the side here, really gonna have to be mindful about cleaning them, because this one has scuffs on the side. So figuring out how to clean that safely. Overall though, I like it. Maybe not orange. Maybe black or gray would kind of hide these plastic fenders a little bit more, but overall, see it in person before you decide. The interior on the WRX is mostly Impreza. You've got a lot of good visibility, a lot of glass. What's not like the regular Impreza though is the dashboard and the touchscreen. That's unique to the WRX. Quality is about the same. It's just styled a little differently, but the big difference is the 11.6 inch touchscreen. Now this does some good things, does some goofy things. What I really like about it is it is this portrait oriented touchscreen where CarPlay is a larger size. On most portrait oriented screens, CarPlay is limited to an aspect ratio, probably just a little bit bigger or the same size as your phone. But in the Subaru, it's much larger than that. Not full screen, because there are other menus here that stay on top for access. And that's where things get a little goofy, especially with this heated seat button. This is the premium model we're testing that is about $33,000 and it has heated seats. But if you hit the heated seat button, it doesn't turn 'em on. It takes you to another menu, and then you turn 'em on from that menu. So that's just a little goofy. It'd be nice if that were a control that were a little bit shallower. Also, if you're an Android Auto user, you don't get that larger screen. You're stuck with the standard aspect ratio, which is just really small considering how big the screen actually is. So did Subaru go too far? Yeah, I will say that a performance car with all-wheel drive and manual transmission in the $30,000 range is still unique to the WRX, and it's an engaging car to drive because of that. I also like how they haven't gone overboard with their driver assist features. The manual transmission car doesn't have Subaru EyeSight. In our experience, EyeSight is one of the more intrusive offerings. It's always bleeping and yelling at you. So it's nice to just be able to focus on the driving here. I'm leaving this review with a question mark, because right now, it's cold outside. This car has all season tires. That was a good call. But with summer tires, will the ride quality get worse? Will the handling get better? Am I just experiencing the characteristics of the redesigned WRX? Right now, I don't know. And we hope for warmer weather when we get to retest the WRX with its standard summer tires.