Friday 16th February 2018

Subaru WRX STI Final Edition: POTW

Because nothing says Subaru like an STI in snowy Scotland, does it?

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Alright, so we’re not quite done with saying goodbye to the Subaru WRX STI just yet. It’s been a long-term relationship, after all, so it’s probably going to be a while before we’re fully over it.

We’ve done our farewell feature for the Subaru, but unsurprisingly a few others are jumping on the valedictory bandwagon. One of those being Autocar, who this week have taken the very same Subaru to Scotland; the Peak District made for good photos, but Scotland makes for even better ones...

It was bleak, cold and miserable in Selkirk, exactly the kind of conditions a Subaru thrives in - the durability and toughness that proved invaluable on the rally stage also benefitting regular customers, who could turn to their Imprezas in any weather.

Fortunately for us (and for your desktop background) a Subaru in the snow is always going to look great, evoking memories of Prodrive-liveried Imprezas sliding through the slush in Sweden, Monte Carlo and the like. So here’s your new wallpaper to remember the glory days, with a solemn promise that the rose-tinted glasses will come off soon. Maybe. 

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[22daz]

After being a dedicated owner and loving all Subaru did with rallying. I ask myself how they could have got is so badly wrong time and time again with each model thereafter. It's as if they worked out their niche then went out of their way to alienate that.

Distinctive flat four engine note.. lets make an equal length manifold.
2.0 engine in common with rallying.. lets change that.
Hardcore models.. lets make it appeal to the masses.

Sadly, they do little for me these days which I find really disappointing.
I maintain that a flat four in the forests is one of the best sounds in motorsport ever.

[22daz]

FiddleSticks said:

22daz said:

After being a dedicated owner and loving all Subaru did with rallying. I ask myself how they could have got is so badly wrong time and time again with each model thereafter. It's as if they worked out their niche then went out of their way to alienate that.

Distinctive flat four engine note.. lets make an equal length manifold.
2.0 engine in common with rallying.. lets change that.
Hardcore models.. lets make it appeal to the masses.

Sadly, they do little for me these days which I find really disappointing.
I maintain that a flat four in the forests is one of the best sounds in motorsport ever.

STI still has unequal length manifold.

1.6 engine is now the standard in rallying, wouldn't want that.

STI definitely doesn't appeal to the masses (in UK at least) hardly anyone buys them as they are too.. hardcore!

So I submit that everything that used to appeal is still there

The buying public disagree.

Both appeal and sales are not there and I can't remember the last time I saw one on the road.
They are no longer desirable performance cars which is exactly the ethos of what it's supposed to be.

20 years ago I'd walk up a rally stage and every few cars there was a standard or hard core version of an Impreza parked up.
To say no one buys them because they are too hardcore, has to be inaccurate from the numbers they sold in the past.

We have hardcore hot hatches with more performance these days and they find buyers. So there is a market.
Its just that Subaru no longer understand it.