Locked down with an Impreza
The level 4 lockdown saw us spend a lot of time doing a few small trips in a facelifted Subaru, writes Damien O’carroll.
We haven’t run a longterm car here at Stuff since the return of our Holden Acadia awhile back. Well, not intentionally at least – meet our latest, albeit inadvertent, long-termer, the Subaru Impreza 2.0 Sport.
So how does a car become an ‘inadvertent long-termer’? Did you forget to take it back?
Not quite – we have the coronavirus pandemic to thank for our long-term date with the Impreza, because it was the car I had when all this kicked off.
I had travelled to Australia for thebmw2 Series Gran Coupe launch, landing back innew Zealand two days before the Government closed the borders.
So when the request went out for anyone who had travelled within twoweeks of the closure to self-isolate, I jumped at the chance.
I did so because I don’t have much patience for society in general and have for years searched for the perfect excuse to simply never leave home without looking a bit mad (freelancing for years was perfect).
Anyway, I also had a slight head cold and it was decided by Subaru New Zealand that rather than risk it being something more Covid-ish, I should just hang on to the Impreza for the duration. However long that might be.
So that is why we now have a road test of a long-term car that sat in my driveway for roughly sixand-a-halfweeks only occasionally popping up to the local supermarket to pick up essential supplies.
So how do you road test a car that you hardly drove?
That iswhere the fact that I have been doing this for a long time comes in handy, as I amvery familiar with the Impreza.
But mainly, the 2020 modelwas just a veryminor facelift – the Impreza basically got a redesigned front bumper and grille, as well as a new design of alloywheel. Yeah, so that’s easy to test in the driveway.
However, it also now sports the company’s ‘Subaru Intelligent Drive’ (SI Drive for short) which adds a Sport drivemode to the Impreza.
Like other Subarus that feature SI Drive, ‘Intelligent’ is just a ‘normal’ mode, while ‘Sport’ sharpens up the throttle response and holds the CVT up higher in the revs for longer.
However, it does lack the ‘Sport Sharp’ mode of more performanceoriented Subarus.
So how was that Sportmode pottering around town then?
Actually, it was my preferredmode around town.
Not because I was desperately overcompensating for not being able to go for a back road thrash, mind you, rather it was the sharper throttle response that made the Impreza sprightlier around the supermarket car park.
For a car costing $32k, the Impreza comes impressivelywellequipped with the latest technology, featuring Subaru’s Eyesight driver-assist system that includes a pre-collision braking system, adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, lane sway warning and brake light recognition.
And, of course, unlike virtually every other car in its segment, the Impreza also comes standard with all-wheel-drive.
So it’s nicely sure-footed around the supermarket car park then – wouldn’t AWD make it thirstier than its rivals though?
Traditionally Subarus have been a bit thirstier than they should be and the added weight of an AWD system should be a penalty, but it doesn’t seem tomatter to the Impreza, which returned some impressively frugal numbers during our extended timewith it – particularly considering it was literally all urban running and only very short trips.
While the Impreza is rated at 6.7L/100km in the combined cycle, it has a claimed urban figure of 8.4L/100km and we honestly didn’t see that at all, with the little white Impreza barely climbing above 8 during the six-and-a-bitweeks.
The 2.0-litre boxer engine is a refined unit with a subtly gruff boxer burble under acceleration, and it is happy to rev. Which is just as well, because it is hooked up to a continuously variable transmission.
It does have to be said that Subaru’s CVT is one of the best on themarket, but that is like saying that Donald Trump is the best reality television star to become the president of the United States.
Still, the engine puts a brave face on things and never sounds unduly strained or desperate.
By the end of six weeks, I would happily argue that the Impreza was close to being the perfect car to be locked down with.
Small enough to be easy around town, but big enough to be comfortable. It was impressively frugal, had an eager, flexible engine and was simply delightfully easy to live with.
Any other cars to consider?
While the Impreza represents excellent value formoney, there has been a sharp rise in the bang for your buck equation among its rivals lately, with the most obvious leap coming from its most obvious rival, the Toyota Corolla.
The Corolla largely matches the Impreza for equipment and you can have a super-frugal hybrid Corolla for around the same price as the Impreza now.
Other obvious rivals include the Ford Focus, Mazda3, Skoda Scala, Honda Civic and the like, but of course, none of them come with the Impreza’s secret weapon of allwheel drive.