Subaru Impreza: 2018 Motor Trend Car of the Year Contender

We Like: Outward visibility, improved interior design, and bump-soaking ride

We Don’t Like: Boggy, underpowered engine; brake dive

We had high hopes for the Impreza after the Crosstrek won a recent comparison test. After all, both nameplates have a lot in common, including the hatchback chassis, automatic powertrain, and refined suspension setup with noticeably superior dampers.

“These fancy shocks already feel better than most of the family sedans here,” Frank Markus said. “This car handled the worst bumps as well as or better than everything in its price-range. Nothing on this drive so far has elicited a rattle or squeak.”

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Although sharing the suspension, interior bits, and surprisingly capable CVT turned out to be a blessing, the common 152-hp flat-four continued to be an Achilles’ heel. “There’s no polite way to put this: The Impreza is slow,” Angus MacKenzie said. Markus agreed. “As a base engine this is fine, but as the only engine it’s inadequate,” he said. “It doesn’t need much more power, but a little would go a long way.”

The manual transmission improved our perception, though. “This five-speed gearbox does help make up for the lack of power,” Christian Seabaugh said of the Impreza Sport’s standard stick-shift. “I love the tight, closely spaced gears.” What our judges didn’t like was the abrupt clutch uptake, which made smooth shifting difficult.

The Impreza offers honest value in a soundly engineered and competitive package. Safety and efficiency get high marks, but the latter is at the cost of performance. Design is on the rise, particularly when it comes to quality of materials and techno-touchpoints, but the Car of the Year must nail all six criteria.

	2017 Subaru Impreza 2.0i (Sport Sedan)	2017 Subaru Impreza 2.0i (Hatchback Limited)
BASE PRICE	$22,815	$24,415
PRICE AS TESTED	$24,965	$29,260
VEHICLE LAYOUT	Front-engine, AWD, 5-pass, 4-door sedan	Front-engine, AWD, 5-pass, 4-door hatchback
ENGINE	2.0L/152-hp/145-lb-ft DOHC 16-valve flat-4	2.0L/152-hp/145-lb-ft DOHC 16-valve flat-4
TRANSMISSION	5-speed manual	Cont variable auto
CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST)	3,128 lb (58/42%)	3,186 lb (59/41%)
WHEELBASE	105.1 in	105.1 in
LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT	182.1 x 70.0 x 57.3 in	175.6 x 70.0 x 57.3 in
0-60 MPH	9.7 sec	9.3 sec
QUARTER MILE	17.4 sec @ 81.4 mph	17.2 sec @ 83.0 mph
BRAKING, 60-0 MPH	123 ft	127 ft
LATERAL ACCELERATION	0.82 g (avg)	0.80 g (avg)
MT FIGURE EIGHT	27.7 sec @ 0.60 g (avg)	27.9 sec @ 0.60 g (avg)
EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON	23/31/26 mpg	28/37/31 mpg
ENERGY CONS, CITY/HWY	147/109 kW-hrs/100 miles	120/91 kW-hrs/100 miles
CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB	0.75 lb/mile	0.62 lb/mile

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