A PROBLEM OF TMI
Subie’s hatch is smooth, but…
Circumstances this winter gave me the opportunity to test drive the 2015 Subaru Impreza 2.0i 5- door hatchback twice. The first week was over the Christmas holidays when I realized my Portuguese mother- in- law would be staying with us for a couple of days. As she is 85, her mobility has decreased, so getting her into my personal 2002 F- 150 RWD pickup truck was not a wise choice. The streets in the Plateau district of Montreal where she lives are notoriously lined with snowbanks on the narrow streets, making the transportation of an elderly person even more risky. I for one certainly didn’t want to spend my holidays in an overcrowded hospital ER waiting room.
Subaru Canada lent me the Impreza and it suited my needs perfectly with its all- wheel- drive, ease of entry and plenty of cargo room with the hatchback for luggage, presents and Portuguese food. My VIP passenger even liked the heated seats!
Being the holidays, I didn’t get to drive the Impreza as much as I usually do with a weekly test vehicle and I hoped it would show up on the driving. ca wish list. It recently did just that. I quickly booked it for a proper evaluation. Considering the ongoing depths of winter here in Montreal, it was still perfect Subaru weather. Even the snow lining the streets was still there!
The thing I admire most about Subarus is their willingness to be different rather than mainstream copies of other marques. On the engineering side, the most obvious features are the boxer engines with their horizontally opposed cylinders and the symmetrical full- time AWD system. Subaru has stuck by these designs for decades and for good reason: they work very well.
On the stylistic side of the coin, Subaru has been hot and cold, with the pendulum of good taste thankfully swinging in the good direction with current models. I really like the current corporate “face” and the Impreza benefits from the rectangular grille and contoured multi- reflector Xenon High Intensity Discharge ( HID) ( low beam) with auto levelling headlights. It looks bold and a bit edgy for a touch of aggressiveness without being gimmicky. The test car came equipped with steering responsive fog lights ( SRF) as part of the optional Technology Package ($ 1,200).
There are two body styles to choose from, a four- door sedan and the five- door hatchback. My personal preference is the latter, as I find the longer roofline gives the car a sleeker look especially in the side profile, and you get the added benefit of more rear cargo space. The rear window on all hatch and SUVs does get dirty very quickly due to the aerodynamically induced low pressure area behind the vehicle but there is a small spoiler, with nicely integrated rear stoplight, and a washer/ wiper combo to keep the view rearward somewhat clean.
The interior of the Impreza was a slight letdown. It’s not a problem with the overall design, which is clean, functional and ergonomic, but rather the tactile quality of the materials, which were primarily hard surfaces made of plastic. When I first got in I thought to myself, “Oh, I have the base model this week,” when in reality this is the Limited model, top- of- the- line.
Further along in the test period I came to realize that Subaru may have been economical with the interior materials but they give a lot in technology and safety features. The Infotainment system: AM/ FM/ CD/ MP3/ WMA audio system with a seven- inch highresolution touch screen display with GPS navigation system, STARLINK smartphone integration ( including Aha radio), dual USB port/ iPod control, auxiliary audio input and SMS text messaging capability.
Besides the two main gauges on the instrument panel, there is an info display between the speedo and tachometer and a secondary display mounted high in the centre of the dashboard. There is driver- chosen sets of info available from fuel mileages to traction levels of the AWD system. This is all great, but for some reason setting the main system to English left the secondary display stubbornly remaining French no matter how many times I tried to achieve linguistic harmony. Maybe it’s a Canadian thing.
Among the many safety features Subaru has built in, this model had the optional EyeSight advanced driver- assist system. This active safety system is like a second pair of eyes watching out for you, warning and even aiding your ability to avoid potential danger. Utilizing two cameras mounted high on the windshield to monitor activity in the road ahead, EyeSight provides four types of preventive assistance to the driver when it is needed most. There is Adaptive Cruise Control, which can keep a constant distance behind traffic, Pre- Collision Braking if it senses an obstacle in front, Precollision Throttle Management will cut engine power if it detects a potentially hazardous object is in your way when starting from a stop, and Lane Departure & Sway Warning with a chime sound if your vehicle crosses a line without the turn indicator activated. Subaru’s latest TV commercial shows a car speeding toward a wall on a typical test track and it brakes safely to a stop before the expected crash. ( No, I did not attempt to recreate this test.)
This leads me to my final conclusions about Subaru, safety and technology in general. Subaru has garnered several awards for their advances in safety and this is without doubt a good thing. My personal experience in realworld circumstances was annoying at times and the EyeSight system in particular causes me some concern. My week of driving saw an ever- changing, messy mix of road conditions typical of a Montreal winter reluctant to leave. There were bone- chilling temperatures and then sloppy roads with melting snow. The EyeSight and similar optical systems rely on a camera or two to see the lines on the road and obstacles. Dirty or snow- covered windshields or snow on the road reduces the camera’s ability to “see” and the system will give false readings, no readings or even disable itself completely. These obstacle detection systems do work well for adaptive cruise control but the engineers have added lane departure warning and “lead vehicle start assist” that is essentially your own car beeping at you when you fail to move soon enough instead of the impatient driver behind you laying on the horn.
When driving through a curve such as a highway on- ramp, the EyeSight cameras would not always notice me cutting over the solid line on the inside of the corner. That is due to the limited angle of vision ahead of the car. Sometimes the system would mistake a strip of snow or salt as a line and beep at me. At other times, the system would shutoff due to dirt, snow, etc. on the windshield, then maybe come back online. The EyeSight works well in straight lines and in good weather but as a safety device it is not reliable enough and drivers may come to depend on it.
The Subaru Impreza driving experience was good but not great. The Lineartronic CVT ( Continuously Variable Transmission) suffered from the sensation of a slipping clutch, even in the sporty Manual Mode. The manual gearboxes and even the “regular” automatic transmissions of the past are a joy to drive. The boxer engine was quite smooth but 148 horsepower is not much to work with, especially when the car is fully loaded with people and cargo. The AWD manages itself and is so good you forget about it.
I love the built- in passive and active safety features like the “steel cage” surrounding the cabin and the always reliable AWD, the engine that slides under the floor in a collision, ABS brakes, blind- spot detection and so on, but I’ll rely on the world’s fastest adjusting ocular cameras ever made — human eyes — and the organic computer in my head that processes the information in the blink of an eye.
Overview: An all- weather AWD hatchback with a sensible interior and nice exterior styling
Pros: Symmetrical AWD, Boxer engine, heated seats
Cons: Modest horsepower, CVT transmission, EyeSight System has limitations, sliding centre armrest blocks seat heater buttons Value for money: Excellent
What would I change?: More power, some softer interior plastic surfaces