Had a recent trip of a few weeks in Japan and took the opportunity of driving a rental Impreza. Had the car for a trip from Shinagawa, Tokyo, to Osaka and back. Going via Nagoya.
The car was an almost brand new Japanese-spec 2.0 150PS (non-turbo) model.
I expected to be very impressed with the car - but unfortunately it didn't meet expections.
Car looks a bit better in the metal than in pictures - but the styling is not distinctive. Interior is not too bad (many aspects borrowed from the Legacy).
The car is wider inside and the front seats didn't 'nip' me like the ones on the 2007 model do.
A fair bit more legroom in the back.
The engine is more muffled than in the old model, but it does feel a bit 'remote' and didn't sound as nice to my ears as the outgoing 2.0RX. You prod the pedal and there is a well-muffled roar from somewhere in front.
On the move the clutch and gearshift are fine. This model has electric PAS and unfortunately has that slightly wooden feeling that many of these systems have - it feels a bit like a BMW Mini in that respect, to be honest. Not nearly as nice as the steering of the old car.
Japanese roads are very smooth and well graded - so its hard to comment on the ride as it would be experienced in UK.
Handling is definitely set up to work with the (standard) stability control and it feels a little 'dead' - - with the expected gentle understeer. There is a lack of interactivity between throttle and steering and you can't balance the car on the throttle, as you could with the old car. If you switch the ESP off then the car feels decidedly light at the back end and does not inspire confidence in fast curves.
Brakes are much as per the current model and fine.
Overall its a car that the Focus/Mazda3/Astra driver will be more than happy with. IMHO it lacks the interactivity of the current ('old') version and does not feel as fluid on a winding road. Bit of a disappointment really.
|
How depressing Aprilia. But that's new models for you more often than not.
I imagine they interviewed a sample of consumers carefully selected for absolute normality, and they complained that the old car was noisy and had an unacceptably harsh ride and unacceptably direct and mechanical-feeling controls compared to their friends' Toyotas and so on.
|
|
|
Oh dear, Aprilia.
As a fellow Subaru fan and former owner, it saddens me that Subaru appear to have lost the plot so badly in terms of making cars that people want to buy. Let's hope the forthcoming diesel lives up to everyone's expectations and signals the start of a fightback.
|
Well, the old Impreza was rather an icon but it didn't really sell in large numbers (not in comparison with Mazda, Honda, Toyota small-med size cars). I suspect that Subaru have tried to make the new Impreza rather more 'mainstream' and a viable competitor to the Mazda3 and Civic. I notice that UK prices are a little more reasonable than previously. Be interesting to see how it does.
More worrying for Subaru UK (or IM group) I see that in the recent NFDA survey of dealers they came bottom of pile - below even Chrysler UK.
|
There were 4 adults in my car tonight coming down the A1, one of these new subarus passed us and we were all underwhelmed by it in the flesh.
As said however it is trying to appeal to the masses and not a small bunch of enthusiasts
|
|
5th Gear reckon they want to compete with Astra and Focus for sales and build up a following and a cache like that. There will be a limited number of very fast versions.
|
There will be a limited number of very fast versions.
Really! I bet stocks already in Malta & Cyprus for parallel import into UK at under UK list!
Anyway, Toyota are on board with Subaru now and I suspect will want to see some volume and profit - 'halo' cars like STi are OK so long as they result in sales further down the range, but for some odd reason that never happened with the old model in the UK. In fact I reckon Subaru marketing has been pretty weak in general and Subaru UK simply weren't bothered. Probably stems from high UK mark-up from the days when would-be Impreza owners had to 'form an orderly queue' while the nice salesman took your order at full (inflated) list price, then rang you 18 months later when the car arrived from Japan.
|
I thought Mike Rutherford wrote an interesting (but brief) article on the Japanese car industry in Saturday's Telegraph:
tinyurl.com/3ywqa9
The upshot being that the Japanese car industry had "lost the plot" and Korea was building superior cars. I suppose any major car manufacturer can't afford for its products to become niche models but conversely that's what many of its "enthusiast" customers like to see.
|
sq
Thanks for that link PST, very interesting indeed. Mike forgot to mention though that many of the Ford, GM and Renault cars are sold at huge fleets, the Japanese don't do much of that.
Edited by Pugugly {P} on 22/10/2007 at 00:30
|
Having recently returned from Japan I have to say that the Rutherford article is a load of tosh - must have taken him all of 10 mins to knock that piece out - nice work if you can get it!
I don't think the Japanese are losing much sleep. The UK is a relatively small and somewhat atypical market for them and with Toyota having overtaken GM, Nissan doing well and Suzuki newly resurgent with the Swift selling like hot cakes, they are far from losing the plot. Its also worth recalling that most current Ford petrol engines were designed in Japan and the Japanese now supply most of the world's automatic transmissions (via AW and Jatco).
|
A road test of the new Impreza in the paper last week, thought it was the Times but maybe not . Very underwhelmed, spoke of poor fuel consumption, below parr performance (this was a Top of the range n/a 2litre), so-so interior. Liked the brakes & handling. Certainly everyone I've known of with non-Turbo
versions of the old ones have had problems, fuel consumption being one of them. Reliability as they get older has been average as well.
|
Very underwhelmed spoke of poor fuel consumption below parr performance (this was a Top of the range n/a 2litre) so-so interior. Liked the brakes & handling.
The one I had in Japan seemed fine on fuel consumption (around 30-35mpg equivalent). Performance was quite acceptable and much the same as any other 2-litre hatch. It was the handling I was less keen on.
>>Certainly everyone I've known of with non-Turbo versions of the old ones have had problems fuel consumption being one of them. Reliability as they get older has been average as well.
The 'non-turbos' were fitted with a variety of engines, but the old SOHC EJ20's have been incredibly reliable - you can't kill them. Crank sensors about the only thing that gives problems. The turbo's tend to be a little more troublesome simply because they are under a lot more stress and are quite a bit more complex, but all are very reliable by the standards of most other brands.
The newer (post-06/2005-on) non-turbos use a version of the quad-cam EJ204 (also used in Legacy and Forester) which is a very good motor and well proven for many years on the Japanese home market, although latest version, being Euro-IV, has a lot more sensors on it. They are much better on economy (at least in the Impreza) and not heard anything bad yet about reliabilty, although most will still be under warranty.
EJ25 as used in Legacy 2.5 had problems 1999-2002 approx due to liners fretting the head gasket - probably Subarus only 'problem' engine. They claim it was fixed 2002-on, although the jury is still out for another year or two I guess.
|
|
