2025 Subaru WRX

Finding a new car that comes standard with a manual transmission is almost as unusual as finding a new car that still comes standard with a manual, grab-handle emergency brake.

How about one that comes standard with both?

What It Is

The WRX is the street-legal iteration of the World Rally Cup Experimental race cars that Subaru racing teams have made famous – and made desirable to people who want to drive basically the same thing with license plates. It used to be based on the compact-sized Impreza but is now built on a slightly larger Global Platform that Subaru uses as the basis for several of its current models.

It also used to be available as a hatchback but now comes only as a sedan – which makes it less practical in one way than one of its two main rivals, the Toyota Corolla GR hatchback – which has more room for cargo but less room for legs in its backseat, because it’s a much smaller car. It’s also a significantly pricier car. The Corolla GR stickers for $38,860 to start vs. $35,750 to start for the WRX – topping out at $45,705 for the tS version, which comes only with the six speed manual and comes standard with a driver-adjustable adaptive suspension, Brembo brakes with gold anodized calipers, a 19-inch wheel/tire package, Recaro sport buckets with blue accents and a 12.4 inch LCD instrument cluster, among other upgrades.

Basically, almost everything – except the huge wing on the rear deck and the larger, 2.5  liter engine – that used to define the WRX STi, which Subaru dropped from the lineup back in 2021.

The Soobie’s other rival – the Hyundai Elantra N – is also a sedan and so doesn’t have much space in its trunk, either. And it also doesn’t offer all-wheel-drive, which comes standard with the WRX.

But the Elantra N is more price competitive. It stickers for $34,250 to start – or $1,500 less the least-expensive Premium trim WRX.

What’s New For 2025

Galaxy Purple has been added as an optional color for all WRX trims and Subaru’s EyeSight suite of driver-assistance technology is now included as standard equipment.

The previously available base trim has been dropped, which means your starting point is now the Premium trim, which was the next-highest trim last year. The good news is that heated front seats, heated outside mirrors, dual-zone climate control and larger (18 inch vs. 17 inch) wheels are now standard.

The bad news is you can’t get a new WRX for $32,735 – which was the price of last year’s now-discontinued base trim WRX.

What’s Good

A practical high-performance car in that it is set up to deal with low traction conditions such as wet and snow-slicked roads as well as unpaved roads.

Much more backseat legroom than Corolla GR.

Manual pull-up emergency brake and manual transmission are standard.

What’s Not So Good

Not much room in this sedan’s trunk (just 12.5 cubic feet of storage space).

Corolla GR’s mighty mouse three cylinder engine makes almost 30 more horsepower.

Eyesight “safety” stuff is standard.

Under The Hood

The WRX comes with an engine that’s almost as large – and nearly as strong – as the engine that used to be exclusive to the WRX STi. It’s a 2.4 liter version of Subaru’s growly boxer four – so named because unlike an inline four, the Soobie engine has two of its four cylinders facing the other pair across the centerline of the crankshaft. Hence boxer – because the pistons of opposed cylinders box their opposite number. This layout has several advantages, among them inherent smoothness because the engine is naturally balanced. Also, a lower center of gravity because the weight of the engine is lower down in the chassis and spread out more evenly, which enhances the balance of the car during high-speed cornering.

The engine makes 271 horsepower – exactly 29 less than the 2021 WRX STi’s 2.5 liter (300 horsepower) engine developed. A six speed manual is standard but if you want an automatic, there’s a performance-calibrated CVT available optionally in all trims except the tS, which comes only with the six speed manual.

The CVT is standard in the GT trim only.

Interestingly, Subaru claims the CVT-equipped WRX is slightly quicker getting to 60 than manual-equipped versions. The latter makes the run in about 5.6 seconds; the former in 5.4 seconds.

Gas mileage with the manual is 19 city, 26 highway. With the CVT, it’s 18 city, 25 highway – so essentially the same.

All wheel drive is, of course, standard. And it’s not just the usual front-to-back type of AWD. The system can also modulate power delivery to inside and outside wheels, which is a big part of what gives the WRX its ferocious off-road (and slick road) handling capabilities.

The Hyundai Elantra is just as potent as the WRX – in terms of power. It comes standard with a turbocharged inline 2.0 liter four that produces 276 horsepower and it comes standard with a six-speed manual transmission, too. But the hotted-up Hyundai is front-drive-only and so not exactly the right machine to take up a muddy dirt road or even a snow-slicked paved road.

The Toyota Corolla GR trumps them both – in terms of power. It comes with a 1.6 liter three cylinder engine that summons an astounding 300 horsepower through the miracle of turbo-boost and it has AWD and a six speed manual. It also has the highest base price ($38,860) of the bunch and it’s the smallest of the bunch, about which more follows below.

On The Road

Most high-performance cars are fair-weather cars. Especially the rear-drive ones. They are like Samson after Delilah cut off the former’s hair if there’s snow on the road, even just a little. And taking one onto a washed-out dirt road is kind of like going swimming with a cinder block strapped to your back.

The WRX, on the other hand, is made for that. More finely, it is made for everything. Take it to the track – or take it up your favorite old dirt road. Or take it to work. Snow is just an excuse for more fun. Point being, you can drive a WRX every day, pretty much anywhere – irrespective of the weather or even whether there’s a road. You can’t do that with a Mustang or a Corvette. Or – for that matter – the Elantra N, which is great fun on a paved road but out of its element if there’s snow on the road. It also does not have a manual pull-up emergency brake like the Soobie does (and so does the Corolla GR) which means you can’t steer the car using the emergency brake.

It’s interesting to compare the objectives vs. the subjectives with regard to the WRX’s two transmission options. By the numbers, the CVT is the preferable transmission. So equipped, the car gets to 60 more quickly and there may be an advantage lapping a road course due to the CVT being faster-acting and more accurate-acting than a human selecting gears and operating the clutch. That might win you a race.

But which is more fun?

Subaru knows – which is why this car still comes standard with a manual, even though it’s available with the better-performing CVT automatic. By the numbers absolutely matters when racing for money or even bragging rights, but when all you want is to enjoy yourself in a fun car, there is no beating the fun of shifting gears and operating a clutch yourself. Sure, sometimes you’ll stall the car. You’ll shift too soon – or too late. Your clutchwork is sometimes clumsy. But there’s always fun – in a way there isn’t in a car where the only thing you do is put it in Drive and floor the gas pedal.

The WRX is also a very easygoing car to drive – even in heavy traffic – which is unusual for a car that is basically a street-legal race car. It’s actually hard to stall the WRX because the clutch engagement progression telegraphs clearly and because the boxer four produces ample torque at low RPM as well as that high-RPM horsepower that makes it such fun to wind it out to redline before grabbing the next gear.

It’s also a less visible car to drive than the STi, which had that hard-not-to-notice wing on its decklid and that huge air scoop (for the intercooler) in the middle of its hood. The WRX has a scoop, too – but it’s lower profile and no wing on back. This makes it less noticeable and that’s desirable when driving a car like this, if you really want to drive it.

And why else would you buy a car like this?

At The Curb

The WRX used to be based on the Impreza, which used to be a compact-sized car. The current WRX is based on a new “global” platform and is a longer by almost a foot (183.8 inches vs. the previous, Impreza-based WRX’s 173.8 inches long)  and that’s huge – because it created room in the back for more than just a gym bag. The Impreza-based WRX had a tight back seat, comparatively speaking – with 33.5 inches of legroom vs. the current car’s 36.5 inches.

This is about 7 inches more backseat legroom than you’ll find in the Corolla GR, which is a car about the same length (176.2 inches) as the old Impreza-based WRX and just as tight for that reason. It is a hatchback, though – and that layout does carve out generous space for cargo: 20.4 cubic feet behind the second row vs. the Soobie’s very small (12.5 cubic foot) trunk and that space can be expanded by folding forward the second row to 56 cubic feet.

Subaru used to offer a hatchback iteration of the WRX and it’s perplexing that it’s no longer available because that layout would make the WX even more practical than it already is.

This, by the way, includes the pull-up emergency brake, which is a simpler (and so more practical) way of applying the emergency brake than an electronically-activated push-button parking brake. The words are italicized to emphasize an important difference. A pull-up emergency brake can be used to bring the car to a controlled stop if the main brakes fail – and to hold the car in place when it’s stopped/parked. Electric parking brakes are designed hold the car in place when it’s already stopped/parked. They can be used to stop the car in an emergency, but you can’t modulate the braking force applied as you can with a grab handle. The ebrake is either On – or Off. If you push it while the vehicle is moving, it’s likely the rear wheels will lock; with a handle, you can back off the pressure to avoid that.

The Rest

The WRX – like many performance cars – has gotten expensive, which makes it more difficult for the very demographic (chiefly, young guys under 35) that is interested in cars like this to afford one. The 2025 iteration of this performance car costs $3,015 more than last year – and while it’s true the ’25 comes standard with many things that used to be optional, that’s irrelevant if you can’t afford them.

If anything, Subaru ought to figure out a way to sell this thing for less rather than more – in order to sell more rather than less.

The Bottom Line

Fun – and  practicality – are rarely found in the same package. Here’s the exception to that rule.

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