DRIVER'S JOURNAL

DAY 1

The six-speed manual transmission is crisp and easy to shift from gear to gear. The “performance-tuned” suspension is stiff at low speeds, looking forward to seeing how it changes with other environments and speed conditions. My wife and I picked up the kids from school. My son, Alexander, loved the look of the car, as did my daughter, Emilia. It is truly a driver's car. Looking forward to spending the week with the WRX!

DAY 2

Spent time with the centre-console infotainment unit. At 11.6 inches, the screen is huge. I easily paired my Android phone to the car and made some adjustments to the sound system's positioning, treble, middle and bass ranges. To be honest, the sound system may be a weak part of the car. I am just not getting what I expected out of the “Premium 11-speaker Harmon Kardon sound system with a subwoofer and amplifier.”

DAY 3

Tried some hard cornering on a short exit corner I am familiar with that starts with a long radius then tightens on the exit. It is a difficult corner to enter and exit if you want to maintain speed through the apex to stay in the lane while exiting. I entered it wide like normal, dropped a gear and hit the throttle. The car railed through it with minimal body roll and great hook up from the all-wheel drive.

DAY 4

I hopped in the rear seat and noticed several things to like including leg room adequate for an adult, heated seats, two USB ports, and pockets on the front seat backs. I also noticed some not so good. Specifically, the finishing. There are things in the rear sitting area that Subaru cheaped out on and I doubt will be durable, including the flimsy plastic USB covers that I suspect will break if used repeatedly, and the vinyl tabs on the rear seats covering the child seat anchors and around seatbelt anchors. I pulled the tabs covering the child seat anchors and what I saw was completely surprising. First, the tab is made of vinyl sewn to the seat with Velcro to close the cover. The biggest surprise, though, is Subaru didn't finish the cut-out for the seat anchors at all. They simply cut or punched out the area where the anchor is. No stitching around the cut-out to protect the seat cover and the seat foam is totally exposed. They could have at least finished this with plastic or proper stitching but nothing at all. Finally, water bottle and cupholder capacity. There is simply nowhere to put a standard refillable water bottle.

DAY 5

Road trip to Elbow Falls. The motor is super fun and has no issues gaining speed up steep hills, even in higher gears. My son raised another issue with the rear seating when he said, “it would be nice to have air conditioning back here.” I said, “What do you mean, the air conditioning is on.” He said, “but there are no vents back here.” Sure enough, upon further investigation, there indeed appeared to be no vents in the rear seating area.

DAY 6

The suspension needs to be less stiff for everyday city driving, as this is where most driving will be or there needs to be an option to dampen the suspension through the infotainment console. Sadly, this is not an option. I didn't check the tire pressure but it could be part of the issue.

DAY 7

I find going up the hill from 16 Avenue N.W. along Stoney Trail to Country Hills Blvd is usually a pretty good test for many cars. The WRX effortlessly climbed this hill and easily gained speed even in sixth gear at lower RPMS. Coming home along Sarcee Trail was the next good test. There is a big bump on the exit from 16 Avenue south on to Sarcee Trail that just keeps getting bigger. For the WRX, this bump was barely noticeable as it smoothly went over at 70 km/h. The car is a fun drive but the back seating area needs some attention.