27 Sep 06
Take away his zillion-dollar arsenal of post-production trickery, replace it all with a Super 8 cine camera and one furry boom mic, and Steven Speilberg would still be able to make a better movie than pretty much anyone on the planet.
In similar vein, if you take away the Subaru Impreza WRX's whipcrack bazooka of a 230bhp turbo engine, you're still left with a very sweet-handling car.
That's not new, as the Subaru range has traditionally included versions of the Impreza that aren't aiming for rally-car performance, such as the current 2.0-litre non-turbo model.
But what is new about the latest non-fast Impreza, the 1.5R Sports Wagon, is the low, low price. When you can get permanent four-wheel drive with high and low ranges, plus five-door practicality (there's no saloon version) and some of the best suspension in the business for £12,495, you start to see the Impreza in a different light. That's the same price as the cheapest Fiat Sedici and seven tankfuls of petrol less than the cheapest front-wheel-drive Skoda Octavia estate.
