Subaru Impreza review

Having sampled both engines, it’s clear that opting for the 2.0 option is a no-brainer. It delivers 154bhp at 6,000rpm and 145lb ft at 4,000rpm, while the 1.6 can only muster up modest numbers of 112bhp at 6,200rpm and 111lb ft at 3,600rpm. That equates to a huge jump in performance, the 2.0-litre running 0-62mph in 9.8 seconds, where the 1.6 takes a veritable age to crawl to the benchmark (12.4 seconds). The 2.0-litre also has a 15mph higher top speed of 127mph flat out, for what it’s worth.

Don’t, though, even for the briefest of brief seconds, think the 2.0 Impreza is a road rocket. Lineartronic might be the best CVT you can buy, because it simulates the steps of ‘gears’, but if you flatten the accelerator there’s still a din from the four-pot engine as it screeches past 4,500rpm, and not much in the way of swift acceleration to go with it. Also, there are slightly more vibrations when revving out the 154bhp lump than there are when you cane the turbine-smooth 1.6 to within an inch of its life, although that unit makes an even harsher, strained noise at maximum revs.

There’s a hesitance to the Lineartronic on the bigger engine, too, which isn’t as obvious on the 1.6, yet we’d still opt for the 2.0 as the better of two rather compromised choices – mainly because the 2.0-litre comes with paddle shifts on its steering wheel and a manual side-gate on the gear lever, allowing you to control the transmission yourself to a degree; the 1.6 does without. Nevertheless, the drivetrain is the Subaru’s main weakness, and this is a shame, because the rest of the Impreza package is remarkably good.

And the chassis is a gem. Changes have been made to the rear suspension mounting points, the torsional rigidity of the body and the stiffness of the underpinnings in order to transform the Impreza. There’s minimal understeer, little body roll to report and a firm but fair ride quality on the 18-inch alloys (17s will be standard in the UK), the car feeling beautifully controlled in all situations. The steering, too, is a real highlight, clean, accurate and direct, with actual feel filtering back to the driver through a perfectly-sized wheel. Refinement levels are also high, because below 4,500rpm, when the drivetrain becomes suitably hushed, the only thing you’ll hear in the cabin is a bit of road roar. In essence, the weedy petrol motors simply do not have the power to even remotely challenge the road-holding the symmetrical AWD blesses the Impreza with, and the result is a car that feels like it could easily handle over 300hp with little difficulty. Kind of like if Subaru did an Impreza WRX STI version in blue and… oh. Damn.