Fourth-Gen Subaru Impreza with Upgraded Engines and New Styling

The Subaru Impreza has become a very weird model in the Subaru lineup. While nominally the brand's basic, compact car, it is much better known in its WRX and STI guises that can cost roughly double the price of a standard Impreza. It seems like Subaru is trying to change that with the new, fourth generation Impreza that it just revealed at the Tokyo Auto Show. The new model, available in four-door and five-door versions, borrows many of the styling queues found on the newest generation Legacy that came out in 2011. 

The exterior of the new Impreza takes a lot from the new Legacy, especially in the four-door model. The front end of the Impreza uses the Legacy's eggcrate grill with horizontal chrome trim and Subaru badge. The five-door has the same front, but the rear 3/4 of the car looks more like the previous Impreza. 

The five-door model will be known as the Impreza Sport and the sedan will be called the Impreza G4. 

Subaru says that it has made the A-pillars more narrow on the new Impreza to improve outward visibility and all models have standard vehicle dynamics control. 

Like all Subaru, except the new BRZ, the fourth-gen Impreza comes with all-wheel drive and a boxer engine. For the new Impreza there is a choice of either a 1.6 liter or 2.0 liter four-cylinder engine, and both are now available with a CVT transmission. The 1.6 liter engine uses the same block as the former 1.5 liter just bored out an extra 100cc. That means an improvement in torque, and Subaru says that it is also 20% more fuel efficient than the old 1.5. The 2.0 liter engine gets a 27% fuel economy improvement over the previous 2.0 liter. Both engines now have start/stop as an option. With the CVT and start/stop the 1.6 uses 5.7l/100km (41.4mpg) and the 2.0 liter uses 5.8l/100km (40.46mpg). Both of these figures are in the Japanese fuel economy test.