Reader Review: 2022 Subaru WRX Sport-Tech

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Larry Lalonde is happily married to his wife, Felicia, but he’s also married to his manual transmission vehicles. Because the Calgarian likes to row his own gears, Lalonde was eager to put the all-new 2022 Subaru WRX, with the close-ratio 6-speed standard gearbox, through its paces.

“I’ve owned manual-shift vehicles my entire time driving,” Lalonde says. “I enjoy shifting for myself and have always had one in the household vehicle line-up to keep proficient driving one.”

Just on the other side of 50, he isn’t sure he’s Subaru’s target market for the sporty WRX. He thinks the car does, and will likely always, appeal to a younger demographic looking for a performance-oriented, all-wheel drive four-door sedan that’s fun yet practical. Lalonde spent time in the well-equipped ’22 WRX Sport-tech, finished in Magnetite Grey Metallic, and the car would have cost less than $42,000 to drive off the lot. Available in five trims, a base model WRX is just over $33,000 – all plus taxes, of course.

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Initially based on the Subaru Impreza platform, the WRX, which stands for World Rally eXperimental, was launched first in Japan in 1992. With rally racing success in its DNA, the WRX was a performance car other world markets got to enjoy before it arrived in North America in 2002. Now in its fifth generation, the ’22 WRX is all-new, and is powered by an enhanced 2.4-litre, 271 horsepower, turbocharged horizontally opposed four-cylinder boxer engine. Also new is the availability of an automatic ‘Subaru Performance Transmission,’ or SPT. The exterior has been redesigned, and that includes the addition of quite a bit of plastic cladding to many areas of the car. A functional hood scoop directs air where it’s needed, and the rear spoiler is now a subtle lip on the trunk lid.

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Lalonde says, “I like the real hood scoop for the turbo, and I prefer the low-profile spoiler lip on the back compared to the gaudy ones on some of the previous editions of this car.” He adds, “The metallic dark grey is quite nice but darker than I was expecting, but a good thing about this colour is that it helps to blend the dimpled plastic cladding that surrounds the wheel wells, running boards, and front and rear end.”

While it might be a bit distracting, Lalonde is not opposed to the cladding. For a number of years, the family owned a cladding-laden Volvo XC70, “and we drove it everywhere in all kinds of conditions and the cladding lasted forever – so personally, I think it’s fine.”

Lalonde says the WRX garnered a lot of attention. With the car parked in front of his house, he noticed people pausing to inspect it, or walking across the street to look at it, “and another time when someone took out their phone to take some pictures of it,” he explains.

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Opening the door and settling into the cockpit, Lalonde said driver comfort in the eight-way power-adjustable sport bucket seat instantly felt good. It was simple and intuitive to set up, and the telescoping steering wheel was easy to position. “The throttle, brake, clutch and dead pedal are nicely positioned, and look good, too,” he says.

After starting the 2.4-litre engine, Lalonde says the gauges and centre multi-media console came to life, and he liked “that there is both analog instrument gauges as well as a digital one.”

He says the clutch offered good feel and was neither too soft nor too heavy. “The friction or engagement point is easy to identify, and the car didn’t require you to be too heavy on the throttle to get going which was nice for a sporty car like the WRX,” he says. “The shifter throw is nice and tight, and I drove it both economically and a little bit harder.”

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An aspect of the WRX Lalonde thoroughly appreciated was the visibility. Sightlines out all windows and in the power-adjustable side mirrors was exceptional, and he says the blind-spot assist system never really told him about anything he wasn’t already aware of.

To test the WRX’s highway manners, Lalonde and Felicia loaded up their two children, daughter Emelia and son Alexander, and headed west toward Elbow Falls in Kananaskis Country. “I decided to take the car to Powderface Trail,” Lalonde says, “to see how it handles on a twisty, hilly and rolling gravel road.”

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Powderface Trail is a 34-kilometre-long road that connects Highway 68 to Highway 66 in the Rocky Mountains. There’s a sign at the start that reads, “Road Not Recommended For Travel. Use At Your Own Risk.” Lalonde says, “It is one of Canada’s highest roads topping out at 6,082-feet and requires serious respect. So, where better than that to take a rally machine like the 2022 WRX? The WRX shone here.

“On power going uphill it was stellar. Where the gravel was loose and the car wanted to drift from being off the throttle, the AWD and Active Torque Vectoring predictably hooked the car back up when you went back on throttle to apply power. The car instilled a lot of confidence on this road.”

The WRX was practical, too. Lalonde loaded Alexander’s hockey bag in the trunk, which was an easy proposition thanks to a convenient lift-over height. He believes not everyone needs a CUV and suggests there’s still room in the marketplace for a sedan – especially one that handles and performs as well as the WRX.

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While he found the suspension on the almost-too-stiff side at speeds below 50km/h, he did say the WRX is a driver’s car. He managed to see an average 10.6L/100km, something he thought somewhat thirsty, but not unexpected with the turbo powerplant. “The power band on the engine and manual transmission is impressive,” he says. “The AWD is excellent and will likely perform as well on icy roads as it does on loose gravel ones.”
He concludes, “You don’t need to red line this car to get the power out of it that you want for daily driving.”

Driver’s Journal

DAY 1

The 6-speed manual transmission is crisp and easy to shift from gear to gear. The “performance-tuned” suspension is stiff at low speeds so 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!

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DAY 2

Spent a bit of 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.”

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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

Spent time in the car looking at the interior in more detail. 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 over the long-term, 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 seat belt anchors. I pulled the tabs covering the child seat anchors and what I saw was completely surprising to me. Firstly, the tab is made of vinyl sewn to the seat with Velcro to close the cover. The biggest surprise though is that Subaru didn’t finish the cut-out for the seat anchors at all. They simple 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 cup holder capacity. There is simply nowhere to put a standard refillable water bottle anywhere in the back seat.

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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 an additional 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 but sadly this is not an option for this model. 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 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 which was quite impressive. The car is a fun drive but the back seating area needs some attention.