2019 Subaru WRX CVT Review | AWD legend or not?

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kingr
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2019 Subaru WRX CVT Review | AWD legend or not?

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Intro
Every car brand that has high-performance models in their range usually also has slightly watered-down versions for mortals who don’t want a double espresso. The new Subaru WRX or “Rex”, is the little brother to the WRX STI, it still packs a heavy (197kW/350Nm) punch with performance and will satisfy most petrol heads. It’s less raw overall and more frugal on juice compared to the thirsty 2.5L boxer engine in the WRX STI. It boasts all the characteristics you expect from a performance Subaru car. The new car is a mild face-lift from the model introduced in 2014. Upgrades on the 2019 model are mostly cosmetic on the outside, inside a new infotainment system can be found. The only significant addition is Subaru’s new EyeSight technology that is fitted as standard to aid with safety, more on this new tech later. We drove the new Subaru WRX ES Premium 2.0T CVT for a day in Joburg to find out precisely what this rally-bred WRX is all about. Let's see how it can stack up against other all-wheel-drive competitors.

Fast Facts

Engine: Turbocharged 2.0 litre 4-cylinder boxer
Drivetrain: All-wheel-drive
Gearbox: 6-speed manual, CVT Automatic
Max Speed: 240kph
Acceleration 0-100kph: 6s (manual), 6.3s (CVT)
Fuel Economy L/100km: 9.2 (manual), 8.6 (CVT)
Power/Torque: 197kW/350Nm
Warranty: 5 Year/150 000km
Maintenance Plan: 3 Year/75 000km
Service Intervals: 15 000km

Price

Subaru WRX ES Premium CVT: R638 000
Subaru WRX Manual: R588 000

Interior
Before jumping in, you have keyless entry to open the doors, once inside you are greeted with a luxurious, spacious interior that looks very sporty but also grown up at the same time. All the buttons are firm to the press, easily accessible and built with high-quality plastics. The red stitching on the leather materials like the gear knob, seats, and steering wheel creates a sharp contrast and sets the tone that this is not just a run of the mill sedan. Inside the driver's seat is a very comfortable place to be, the cushioning of the seats is on the firm side, but not overly harsh and highly usable daily. The electronic hand-brake assists to keep the inside looking minimal. The driver's seat is the only one that’s 8-way electrically adjustable. The settings are customizable with lumbar support allowing you to set up your ideal comfort position for driving.

We really liked the fact that the driver seat can be dropped very low, this is ideal for achieving a sporty seating position in the car. Seating at the back for passengers is roomy, two adults will be able to travel with ease sitting in the back seats with ample leg and headroom. The transmission tunnel in the middle does eat into some of the rear space, so middle row seating will only be comfortable for small kids. Interior space is ample, with space to store items both inside the door cards and center armrest compartment. The boot size is generous at 460L in space. It can handle dad's golf clubs, holiday trips with the family and the occasional big items can be transferred by folding the 60/40 split rear seats forward.

The multi-function steering wheels found on the new generation of Subaru models are becoming more busy and cluttered with buttons, as can be seen on the steering wheel of this WRX. The multifunction steering wheel houses all the necessary controls. What makes it really driver-focussed is the fact that you can set different driving modes directly from the steering wheel. This is extremely convenient and makes it quick to switch between normal and sport mode driving. Behind the steering, flappy-paddles have also been subtly installed on CTV models. These can be used to toggle the gear ratios of the automatic CVT gearbox. With the CVT gearbox set to manual mode, this is the only way to change gears. Although we know, there are no actual gears, and it’s only the ratios of the CVT that is actually changed.

How does a CVT gearbox work?
A CVT gearbox is made up of a pulley system, with cones at each end of the pulley with a chain belt running in the middle. The cones then move together or apart to increase or decrease the diameter at which the belt operates. So instead of having physical gears with teeth like the manual and automatic. When a CVT needs to transfer power to the car, all it does is increase and decrease the space between the cones to change the diameter at which the belt turns. It works with sensors that detect the accelerator pedal position, engine speed, as well as vehicle speed to decide how to control the movement of the pulley.

The push-start button and traction control switch is located on a control panel located on the lower part of the dash trim, all these buttons effortless to access.

A race-like instrument cluster is a basic necessity for any performance car, and the WRX doesn’t disappoint in this department. The italic fonts used for the rev and speed counter is sharp and visually appealing. The center of the cluster displays essential information to the driver, including the selected driving mode, the active gear, and the status of the adaptive cruise control. When the traction control is switched off, you see a “trac mode” (not misspelled) icon as well, just to indicate that the WRX is ready to be thrashed.

Enjoying good music while stuck in traffic is an enjoyable pastime. The WRX is fitted with a fantastic Harmon Kardon sound system, possessing 7 speakers and amplifier, the sound quality is crisp and well balanced without distorting at high volumes. Inside for the infotainment, the car is fitted with 7” touchscreen that has all the modern features you expect. Navigation, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, Voice Recognition, and newer tech like Siri Eyes Free. It was comical to use the new Siri Eyes Free to respond to WhatsApp messages with voice input. Our message receivers complained that the text was slightly mangled, so the input algorithms still have plenty of room for improvement with this new feature.

An additional 5.9” color display is also fitted in the center of the dash towards the bottom of the windscreen. This display presents the driver realtime geek information about the car, like the current turbo boost pressure and the current rate of acceleration. The screen is also configurable with a host of information available to the driver, it also doubles up as the display for the front view camera that’s fitted on the grill. This is ideal for tricky parking situations, we also found it useful to gauge how far you are from the car ahead of you in bumper-to-bumper traffic. The flaw we found with this screen was that it’s not easy to toggle between the different views while driving. Maybe this was intended? The button used to change the views resides below the hazard switch, out of reach for the driver without a big stretch.

Our gripes with the interior were that the gear knob feels slightly loose and the carbon fiber look-alike panels are plastic. These should have been ditched for real carbon goodies. With Subaru’s experience on the rally circuit, we are confident that they’ve learned a few tricks on how to work with an advanced composite like carbon fiber, it’s a shame the WRX misses out on that know-how.

Exterior
Outside the Subaru WRX looks hot as hell! This is one sexy sedan, it sticks out like a sore thumb on SA roads. Even if you don’t like the styling of sporty Japanese cars, this is one good looking sedan. It maintains the intimidating road presence like it’s big brother the STI. Stand out features like the massive bonnet scoop that can swallow smartphones, a rear diffuser with quad exhaust tailpipes and 18” 10-spoke gun-metal painted wheels wrapped in wide 245/40 R18 tyres front and rear. The red brake calipers add a sporty look, a sunroof is standard, and the ride height is low enough to create a forward pinning stance. We still drool over the vents in the fender to cool the brakes even if this feature is not new.

Upfront a new bumper can be found, we have daytime running lights and response headlights installed. The headlights will change direction in sync with the steering input. Improving your night driving visibility, especially when coming around blind corners where you might not see what’s ahead. These also have high beam assist. This function will decrease the brightness of the light being emitted for oncoming traffic so that you don’t unintentionally blind other motorists.

Passive safety is also part of the new body shape design. All pillars, side frames, and cross-members on the body are connected to form a robust ring-shaped reinforcement frame cell. This engineering has been developed to absorb accident damage and divert energy away from passengers on impact. This is all part of Subaru's DNA to place safety at the highest level at all times for passengers and the driver. The boxer engine is also positioned to slide.

Safety
Subaru as a brand is very obsessed with safety, and this a good thing. All models within their range come with 7 airbags and sport 5-star safety ratings. The new WRX comes standard fitted with Subaru’s new EyeSight technology. A buzz-word used to summarise a host of pre-collision safety features that have been added to the car to prevent you from making an accident. These include adaptive cruise control, lane departure and sway warning, lead vehicle start alert, and pre-collision throttle pedal management. The EyeSight technologies really do aid you on the road and is not a marketing gimmick. The adaptive cruise control is likely the feature you will use the most. We found it easy to use and enjoyed the fact you can set the sensitivity of distance, relative to cars ahead of you. The blind-spot monitoring can become annoying on the highway. Especially if cars are flying past you, it continually flashes an amber icon when these cars get too close to you, luckily you can switch this off. Other notable standard safety kit includes a rearview camera, front view camera, and rear cross-traffic alert. This feature aids you while reversing so that you don’t bump into impatient motorists in the mall parking lot.

Engines & Gearbox
The 2019 model still utilizes the same FA20F direct-injection boxer twin-scroll 2.0L turbo engine from the 2014 model, all power figures and specs remain unchanged. Interestingly this is the same engine range that was fitted to the now discontinued Subaru BRZ. Only with improved parts (camshafts and rocker arms ) to increase peak power output to 197kW@5600rpm / 350Nm@2400rpm - 5200rpm. It’s still no slouch. With only down 24kW and 57Nm from its big brother the STI, the Subaru WRX still offers respectable performance and is definitely considered a performance sedan.

We’ve haven’t yet driven a Subaru boxer engine that’s frugal on fuel, claimed fuel consumption on this WRX is 9.2L/100km combined. We couldn’t get the consumption below 10.3L/100km as displayed on the trip meter doing town driving. Mixed driving yield 11.5L/100km. The worst we achieved was 14.5L/100km while extracting maximum boost from the turbocharged engine. Of course, all Subaru’s are permanent all-wheel-drive, so a fuel consumption penalty for the luxury of AWD comes with the territory.

You can buy the Subaru WRX in both manual and automatic, but Subaru SA doesn’t import manual models. To get a manual model, you specifically need to order one. This is due to the demand for manual cars diminishing by the year. Many other car brands have stopped selling manual models entirely too.

We drove the automatic CVT model on our test. It’s one of the better CVT gearboxes out on the market. It’s not very noisy on idle, and it’s also not programmed with very long ratios that sees the engine screaming at high RPMs.

Drive
Driving the “rex” communicates that this is a driver's car. If you don’t get excited when seeing an excellent twisty road ahead, then this car might not be for you. On idle the boxer engine sounds superb, it rumbles and has a growl you can only get from a car with its pistons in a horizontal configuration. Once you get going the suspension encourages you to push it a little more. The chassis and symmetrical all-wheel-drive drivetrain offer immense grip, like a train on a railway track type of grip. Compared to Audi’s Quattro Haldex system that’s more front-wheel-drive biased, detecting slip and then sends traction to the correct axle. Subaru’s AWD suspension is permanently activated and understeers much less.

You really need to put in the effort to crash this car around a bend. There is just so much grip, even at high speeds. You can place the car into a corner and have confidence in the permanent AWD suspension and active torque vectoring system. Together these elements offer you a driving experience that’s difficult to match by competitors who split the traction between the front and rear wheels as required.

Acceleration is very quick off the line, and the turbo keeps it’s boost throughout the rev range with no noticeable turbo-lag at lower RPMs either. It’s easy to get up to illegal speeds with your right foot, this car is rapid!

Cabin noise is minimal, but the dampening of the drive is much firmer compared to other sporty German sedans. The WRX’s suspension is suited for tar and gravel surfaces, so the ride comfort was never ended to be on the softer side. We never drove it on gravel, tar performance was excellent, and we could compromise the harsher ride for excellent handling.

We were left less impressive with the JURID brakes that are fitted to the car, stopping power from high speeds were not as sharp as we expected. We anticipate brake-fade quickly while out doing track days. The WRX should have borrowed the brakes from its big brother the STI, considering it’s not making that much less power anyway.

The different driving modes offered all pre-programmed, you can toggle between “Intelligent”, “Sport” and “Sport Sharp” and set the traction control completely off. “Intelligent” is essentially what we all know as comfort with other cars. This is the setting for normal daily driving. We found that it offered enough performance to only need to activate the “Sport“ modes when more aggressive gear changes were required. “Sport” mode mimics a six-speed gearbox and “Sport Sharp” is the most hardcore setting and only available once the engine temperature is warmed up. It’s a fun zone! Gear changes with the paddle shifters become faster. The CVT is now set to have an eight-speed gearbox impression, instead of six-speed in “Sport”. When switching to a higher gear at max revs, there is a real thumb pushing you back into your seat. The CVT gearbox also climbs higher up the rev range, and the turbo feels like it’s more eager to boost from lower RPMs.

What left us mildly disappointed about the drive was the fact that the WRX does not have launch control, for a performance focussed car this should have been standard. This will surely be a challenge when testing the capabilities after work against a boy-racer at the robot. After playing around with the different driving settings. We found “Sport Sharp” was the best setting to launch the car from a standstill, there is virtually no wheel spin, and the car just goes as hard as it can from the line.

Verdict
The new 2019 Subaru WRX is one of the few cars on the road that is still a real driver machine. Built for tearing up mountain passes, back roads and then do the school run with the kids. The interior lacks a few touches in the premium department. The "rex" makes up for this with multiple 5-star safety ratings, pre-collision technologies, and cornering abilities that will give a novice driver confidence to partake in a track day. We enjoyed driving the WRX and look forward to reviewing its big brother the STI!

Competitors
The only head-to-head competitor in this segment is the Mitsubishi Evolution “Evo”, this car is no longer sold in SA. This leaves mostly non-off-roaders as potential competitors.
    Honda Civic Type R 2.0 VTEC Turbo, R691 000 (228kW@6500rm, 400Nm@2500rpm)
      Volkswagen Golf 7 R 2.0 Turbo 4-Motion AWD, R681 000 (228kW@5000rpm, 400Nm@2000rpm)
        Audi S3 Sedan 2.0 Turbo Quattro AWD, R662 000 (228kW@5500rpm, 400Nm@2000rpm)

        Subaru SA occasionally runs excellent specials on demo deals, so take this pricing with a pinch of salt because you can get some great deals from them

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