Monday, January 2, 2012

2012 Subaru WRX

Price: USED to be be reasonable
Power: Lots and lots of it.
Sex Appeal: Ill leave that for you to decide.  If you have testosterone It will appeal to you.  Otherwise I have a feeling the best you can come up with is "nice rims."

I've wanted a Subaru WRX for years and years now.  I tried back in 2006 when I got my first car and they were conveniently out of them. I tried a couple years later and, again, they were out.  In the end I have come to determine that this car doesn't actually exist.  Ok that is a slight exaggeration.  What that really means is that this car is extremely popular with today's youth, and for good reason.  There are very few cars that offer as much "car" for the money as this one.

Since it started its life as a rally car, the WRX comes with all wheel drive (standard), and a big, bad ass motor.  Up until 2009, this mean about 220 hp.  In 2009, "Bad ass" became around 265 hp.  A reasonable number but what was really impressive was its performance.  A special little combination between the power, the all wheel drive, and the transmission made this car faster than pretty much anything on the road.  It went 0-60 faster than a BMW M3, Mustang GT, Nissan 370Z, and the list goes on.  The best part?  All this fun could be yours for 25 thousand bucks.

Last weekend I went to the San Diego car show.  What did I find there? A WRX that was cooler than ever.  They took the body kit from the STI (Its MUCH more expensive and powerful counterpart) and put it on the WRX.  So now it looks even cooler.  What wasn't so cool? Subaru decided to be lame and start overcharging for the WRX.  It is 30 thousand bucks now, for no particular reason.  You could argue that the performance is worth the money, but drivers spend most of their time inside the car.  What is inside this car? Crap.  Lots and lots of crap. You open the door and slide into a realm of cheap plastic, no technology to speak of, 3 different shades of grey, and boredom.

I would still get this given the opportunity, but the price bump and the lack of anything even reasonably nice on the inside really keeps me depressed.

3 comments:

  1. This confirms my theory that the $25k car doesn't exist anymore. It's either 22 or 28. LAME.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sex appeal, LOL! Where in San Diego was the car show held? A Subaru WRX with a body of an STI is definitely a must see. I wish you took a picture of it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The picture in the blog post is actually one of the beast. It looks identical to the STI, just without the red writing. As for the car show, it is held every year down at the convention center for a couple days right before new years.

    ReplyDelete