It’s actually been more like 14 months, but who’s counting? For those who don’t know, I picked up my ’06 Impreza 2.5i Wagon in February of ’06. Since then, I’ve covered nearly 29,000 miles through (oh man, I need a second to figure this out) Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Alberta, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana, in no particular order. I drive a lot. For the benefit of our loyal readers, I thought I’d write up a little long-term road test.
The only problem I’ve had was with a stumble off-idle at 20k, which was fixed by an ECU reflash. I’d say it’s been a pretty darn reliable car considering it’s been lived-in, thrashed on logging roads, and it’s seen more off-roading than most modern SUVs. You could count the days this car has been clean on one hand. Subaru seems to build them pretty tough. From here, I guess I’ll break it down by section.
Exterior – I love the styling of this car, even though some say the grille resembles a part of the female anatomy. The paint quality could be better, as it seems very prone to stone chips, although that may be due to the aforementioned off-roading excursions or my attempts at playing “rally car” on logging roads. The roof rails make it a snap to mount my Thule rack.
Interior – The elephant in the room here is the quality of the materials. This car will never be mistaken for an Audi on the inside, although the great ergonomics more than make up for it. Every control is exactly where you’d expect it to be, the three-spoke steering wheel is just the right size, and the secondary controls are very simple and easy to use. The manual-adjust seats have great lateral support, although there’s no adjustable lumbar support. They’re not as comfortable as VW/Audi seats on longer drives, and I sometimes end up with a sore back after an 800 mile day. The various knee and back injuries I’ve inflicted on myself over the years might have something to do with that as well. The cloth seems very durable and is somewhat water-resistant. The rear seats are surprisingly small – they’re fine for kids, but to give a normal-sized adult enough legroom the front passenger’s knees will be pressed against the glovebox. Trunk space is decent for a car this size. The frameless windows look cool, but allow a fair amount of wind noise into the cabin and also tend to leak in the car wash. Plus, they rattle if you close a door too hard.
Engine/Transmission – One of the things that hooked me on this car in the first place was the engine note. Most 4-bangers in this class don’t have a very inspiring exhaust note, but the 2.5L flat-4 sounds great even with stock exhaust. Nobody will mistake this car for a WRX after an Italian tune-up, but it can hold its own. I’ve never timed a 0-60 run, but I figure it’s around 8 seconds which is plenty quick unless you live your life one quarter-mile at a time. Fuel economy is OK considering it’s a 3000 lb car with AWD – I can usually pull in 29-30 mpg at my typical 80 mph freeway cruising speed. The 16 gallon tank gives it a cruising range that is pretty well-matched with my bladder capacity. The car’s single biggest flaw is the shifter and clutch. For starters, the shift linkage will never be mistaken for a Honda’s, and it can be tricky to grab reverse on a cold morning; this goes away as soon as the car warms up. The clutch action is extremely light and it engages abruptly at a pretty high point in the pedal’s travel. It’s not always the easiest car to drive smoothly in traffic. Gearing is fairly short which helps keep the engine on the boil, but this car really could use a 6th gear on the highway. I enjoy the sound of the engine, but hearing it drone at 3400 rpm for hours on end gets irritating.
Ride/Handling/Braking – The suspension tuning on the base Impreza is a wee bit on the soft side for my liking, but it’s great on the highway and perfect on dirt roads. I’ve had several passengers compliment me on the car’s ride. It’s very tossable in the corners, and the 50/50 AWD is a breath of fresh air compared to FWD. I’ve only spun it once, and that was due to an unexpected patch of gravel. It was a bit hairy but easy enough to recover. The brakes are easy to modulate with good pedal feel, although they tend to fade noticeably after some spirited mountain driving. Considering the car’s price and intended purpose, it’s perfectly fine.
Features – This car came as stripped as a Subaru can come. Being your typical modern car, it still came with power windows & locks, keyless entry, A/C, fog lights, and so forth. The factory “stereo” was utter crap. I’ve heard clock radios with better sound quality. A quick visit to Crutchfield.com and a few hours in the driveway took care of that. Beyond that, there aren’t any frills I can think of, and that’s the way I like it.
Conclusion – This car is not without its flaws, but what car isn’t? For the price, it would be hard to do better, and most of the other cars in this class don’t come in a full-on wagon version. If you want AWD in this price range, it’s the only game in town. Sometimes I wish I’d gone for something a bit more economical but as an overall package it’s hard to beat. The biggest improvement they could make is the shifter – can’t Fuji Heavy Industries steal a few engineers from Honda or BMW?
In the tradition of the car magazines, I’ll go ahead and give it a numerical score. Let’s call it an 88%.
