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2015 Subaru WRX: Introduction

"As far as street-legal rally cars go, there's still nothing better than a WRX." I wrote that line following my first drive of the 2015 Subaru WRX late last year - one of the better motoring experiences I had in 2013. Sure, a particularly involving drive route helped, but I don't want to sell the new Subaru short: it's a seriously good car - easily one of the sharpest, best-driving little turbos available today.
When I drove the even hotter 2015 WRX STI in January, it was a similar love-fest. The STI is infused with all of the WRX's greatness, but it's sharper, meaner, and on good roads (and race tracks), the winged wonder is really outstanding. But because of its higher price tag, less forgiving suspension tuning, and only marginal performance increases, I'm convinced that the STI isn't the best WRX for the money. And much as I love it, I just don't think I'd ever buy the STI over its more sedate sister (though I totally understand why others might).
So when it came time to add a new long-term car to the Autoblog fleet, many votes were cast in favor of the WRX. There was a lot of debate about whether or not to get the standard version, or the mightier STI. But at the end of the day, my argument that the basic WRX is the better daily driver - nee, one of the best all-around, all-weather performers money can buy - carried the day.

Revisit the charms of the 1978 Subaru Brat

The Subaru Brat is the automotive equivalent of a teenager with a mullet: weird, a little reckless but brimming with enough self-confidence to make it cool.
The Brat came from Subaru's desire to compete in the burgeoning light pickup market of the late-1970s. To get around the so-called Chicken Tax that added a 25 percent tariff on imported pickup trucks, Subaru threw two seats in the bed, which technically allowed it to be classified it as a passenger car. The result was a great, weird combination of a complete lack of safety, with a low price and lots of driving fun.
In the video below, Motor Trend's Johnny Lieberman takes a 1978 Brat through the desert and shows just how much fun a little pickup can be.

Subaru might build WRX hatchback after all

The 2015 Subaru WRX is awesome. Really awesome. We told you as much in our first drive of the new sedan back in December. Honestly, our only complaint about Fuji Heavy's new performance machine is that it's no longer offered as a hatchback - the new WRX is a sedan-only affair, despite the more functional five-door variant accounting for some 50 percent of sales in the car's last generation.
But there's hope on the horizon, if a report from Australia's Motoring.com is to be believed. Speaking with Masuo Takatsu, Subaru's general manager for the WRX, the company is now re-considering putting the "hatch" back in its hot hatch.
"We have received strong interest from the US, where the hatchback was 50 percent (of previous-generation WRX sales), so we're now considering," Takatsu told Motoring, noting that the United States is Subaru's main target for this car. Additionally, Takatsu said the company's decision to only offer the sedan was the result of limited engineering resources, echoing statements we've previously heard from Subaru's US arm.