Five-Point Inspection: 2012 Subaru Impreza 2.0i Limited
Welcome to this week’s Five-Point Inspection, where we take the five main positive and negative points of a car, and wrap them up in one neat package.
This week we have the 2012 Subaru Impreza 2.0i Limited. A small family oriented car, the Impreza comes equipped with either a CVT or five-speed manual transmission, and a 2.0-liter Boxer engine that produces 148 hp at 6,200 rpm and 145 lb-ft of peak torque at 4,200 rpm. This five-door Impreza jumps right into the compact segment costing $17,995. The Limited trim comes to $22,095
Read on for our thoughts on the Impreza.
Unfortunately the redesign of the Subaru Impreza brought with it a completely mundane look. While the previous generation may have caught your eye, the 2012 can easily go ignored. Boxy, bulky body panels were placed on the rear of the car, giving it a made-from-Lego look. Inside and out the Impreza fails to excite, and is truly not easy to love, or hate.
In the Limited model we drove, the infotainment system is a Pioneer AVH-P3300BT display audio system. The sound is good, but the system looks completely different from the car, offering a from-the-factory aftermarket feel. It also uses a few very small buttons, and a ton of very small on-screen icons. It is hard to figure out, distracting, frustrating and, well, you get the point.
Stereo aside, for a car worth $22,095, the interior of our Impreza 2.0i Limited tester, boring as it may be, feels upscale to the touch. The soft, comfortable leather seats along with the dashboard and center stack materials all lend to a very posh appearance. Simple luxury is the Impreza’s game, and at this price point it delivers.
Plain and simple, the loud raucous noise emitted from the engine compartment is nothing like the enjoyable hum a boxer normally emits. The high revs needed to keep the CVT peppy are truly not enjoyable at all on the ears, with the poor engine wheezing for breath from being overworked. Factor in some considerable cabin wind noise, and your ears are assaulted in the Impreza.
Enjoying a 200 lb. weight loss from the previous model, the Impreza also lost considerable power. Moving from a 2.5-liter 4-cylinder to a 2.0-liter output is 22-hp lower to 148-hp. With these factors effectively cancelling each other out, the Impreza idles in the boring zone.
Lighter-feeling in the corners, powering out can be hard, a fact that isn’t helped by the CVT transmission. Paddle shifters do little to excite the car, and only after a double downshift can a little extra torque be found.
At least it’s a functional little family-oriented car and gets impressive fuel economy for an AWD model with 27-mpg city and 36-mpg highway. And those factors are about the only reasons to consider it.
Interested in shopping for a 2012 Subaru Impreza?
Check out AutoGuide’s new car buying section here. Or skip right to Subaru, or straight to the Impreza.
Stephen covers all of the day-to-day events of the industry as the News Editor at AutoGuide, along with being the AG truck expert. His truck knowledge comes from working long days on the woodlot with pickups and driving straight trucks professionally. When not at his desk, Steve can be found playing his bass or riding his snowmobile or Sea-Doo. Find Stephen on <A title="@Selmer07 on Twitter" href="http://www.twitter.com/selmer07">Twitter</A> and <A title="Stephen on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/117833131531784822251?rel=author">Google+</A>
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Very different from almost all other reviews. Great car
On a side note, does any body else hate the way autoguide.com set up their stupid website... gotta click through slides to get to the next paragraph? I possibly could handle if the next slide put me where the article is so I only have to click the next slide button but when it loads and you try to scroll... it's a jacked up. And besides, I have an ad blocker... WON'T BE BACK!