On a recent business trip back East I was fortunate enough to have at my disposal, a 2015 Subaru WRX. I’ve always had feelings for the WRX, especially since the 2015 design came on the scene. At first I disliked the design. However, slowly it grew on me. The last WRX I drove was a 2009 variant, and that did not disappoint.
What I loved about this (second) experience driving the 2015 WRX is that it’s what all test drive should really be like: a solid week with the vehicle where you can really put it in all kinds of situations. Highways? Check. By-ways? Check. Winding back-roads? Check. Traffic? Check. Airport runs? Check. Crater-laden roads? Check.
What I like visually about the WRX is that it has presence. When I would park the car and walk away, I would want to look back at it. Walking back to it to go somewhere, I would look at it with eager anticipation. Not at the level of my MINI Cooper S, but good enough that I was glad to be driving it again, and again. Also, everyone I gave a ride that week, car enthusiast or just car driver, remarked about the muscular look or feel of the WRX.
The seats are comfy for lengthy drives with or without adult passengers, and do their job well. The ride is as harsh as you’d expect a WRX type of car to be. Not unbearable, but not Nissan Altima plush either. The mileage was much better than I expected. I got a lot more miles to the tank than I thought I would, given the type of mixed driving I was doing.
The turbo lag was quite noticeable and so it took me some time to learn how to adjust my driving to get the best out of the WRX. Initially, I would floor the trottle, but then nothing would happen for a second plus, before…woooosh. It would take off like a rocket. Which is always an awesome feeling. However, if I had just gotten my license a month before, I would have been scared $#!+-less at receiving such unexpected acceleration.
While I loved the light clutch, compared to my MINI, I felt like the clutch pedal was too high. In fairness, I was driving with snow boots. Still, that pedal height just made shifting awkward. The gear box sometimes felt like someone had dumped a bunch of chunky peanut butter in the shift linkage. Getting back to first gear was sometimes confused with third. Again, in fairness, it was below freezing during most of my driving, so less than slick shifting wouldn’t have been a shocker. In any case, I wished the gear box had been less uncertain in feeling.
The interior dash and controls, I didn’t care for at all. It’s too damned busy, even for an Asian manufactured car. I’m I a bit biased having owned mostly German cars? Sure.
In all, I really enjoyed the 2015 WRX. My only wish at the time was that it would come with Apple CarPlay. I just found out earlier this week, that the 2019 Suburx WRX will come with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, standard. Very nice, indeed.