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2018 Subaru WRX Drivers' Notes | Turbo traditionalist

Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore: The Subaru Impreza WRX is one of my favorite enthusiast sedans. It's invigorating, just a bit raw and makes you want to drive it more and more. Our tester has subtle blue paint and aggressive black wheels, which strike the right tone. It's sporty without being stupid. Inside is black leather, red stitching, and plastics that are decent, or at least non-offensive. Good looking car, overall. I was excited for my one-night stint in the WRX. I blitzed home, dashing in and out of traffic in the lower gears. This thing is like a hovercraft, and with the windows down and the engine growling and buzzing, I made record time. The steering is tight, the clutch engagement is heavy, and the brakes have just the right amount of pedal depth. I felt focused and in control. I've always felt the WRX is the right Impreza for me. The STI is awesome, but unusable for many everyday driving experiences. I could live with the WRX longterm, and love it. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Associate Editor Joel Stocksdale: If you've ever lamented that turbo cars don't feel like turbo cars anymore, you should check out a WRX. Its 2.0-liter turbocharged flat-four definitely takes a page from the peaky boosted beasts of the past. Driven at low rpms and gently enough that boost still builds, the turbo is laggy and takes a while to hit peak boost. This means that in mild driving, you'll be just shy of the speed limit when the turbo whacks you in the back, and you'll have to jump back off the accelerator just a moment later. But the rush of the turbo kicking in is still pretty entertaining, and a unique feeling that has been engineered out of a lot of other turbo cars. If you drive the WRX hard, though, the turbo engine becomes much easier to work with. The lag disappears, and the turbo spools right up. But you do have to be running the boxer right up close to redline to keep it responsive. These characteristics aren't something I personally enjoy. But the way the rest of the WRX drives is spot on for me. The steering is weighted nicely, and the car is very responsive. It also feels quite neutral, much more so than even good front-drive and front-biased all-wheel-drive cars. There's a bit of lean, but the chassis is always composed and communicative. And the benefit of the slightly roll-y suspension is that the WRX has impressive ride quality.

Poor sales prompt Subaru to kill the Crosstrek Hybrid

The Subaru XV Crosstrek is a major hit. It's high off the ground, offers enough seating for five, and has Subaru's iconic all-wheel-drive system, which is exactly what modern consumers want. As we pointed out last year, Subaru posted impressive sales figures thanks to its crossover lineup, which includes the Forester, Outback, and XV Crosstrek. It turns out, though, that Subaru owners aren't interested in the hybrid variant of the crossover, as Subaru plans to axe the XV Crosstrek Hybrid, reports Cars Direct. The discontinuation of the XV Crosstrek Hybrid is due to the crossover's poor sales figures, claims Cars Direct. Subaru introduced its first-ever production hybrid, the XV Crosstrek Hybrid, in 2013 and after just three years the vehicle is being killed. As we pointed out in our review of the vehicle, the hybrid's larger price tag and marginally better fuel economy made it a tough choice over the non-hybrid models. The XV Crosstrek Hybrid starts – sorry, started – at $27,245, while the base 2.0i model has - had - a price tag of $22,445. That's $4,800 more for a vehicle that gets seven mpg better in the city and only three mpg more on the highway at 30 mpg city and 34 mpg highway. We reached out to Subaru for a comment, but haven't heard back yet. We'll update the story when we hear back from the automaker. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2014 Subaru XV Crosstrek Hybrid: First Drive View 53 Photos News Source: Cars DirectImage Credit: Copyright 2016 Jonathon Ramsey Green Plants/Manufacturing Subaru Crossover Hatchback subaru xv crosstrek subaru hybrid discontinued subaru xv crosstrek hybrid

Toyota GT86 engineer Tada recounts how sports car came to be

Because the Toyota GT86, Scion FR-S and Subaru BRZ coupes are now a reality, it's almost hard to imagine the struggle that had to happen within the large, conservative corporate structures at both automakers for the joint project to even get off of the ground.
Speaking to those struggles on Toyota UK's Toyota Blog, GT86 Chief Engineer Tetsuya Tada enlightens us with a recap of the sports car's earliest origins. For Tada, the first stages of the project must have seemed almost as dreamlike as the final product is to drive.
Said the Chief, "I had been working in the minivan department engineering new product, but a month after the meeting I was summoned. 'Forget about minivans,' they said, 'you are now working on the sports-car project.'"