Category: Small Family 
Price Range: £12,995 to £26,595
Great handling, good ride quality, four-wheel drive, unique feel, smooth engines.
Anonymous styling, cheap-looking cabin, not particularly practical, noisy engines.
Still a bit of an oddball, and that's no bad thing.
There have always been two sides to the Impreza: the rally-bred, super-quick and extravagantly bodykitted turbo models, and the often overlooked workaday naturally aspirated versions. With this third-generation range, Subaru hopes to sell more of the latter - and to attract buyers from the Ford Focus, Vauxhall Astra and Honda Civic. It's abandoned (initially, at least) the former saloon and estate body styles in favour of a conventional five-door hatchback format.
First versions on offer (from September 2007) are 1.5- and 2.0-litre petrol models, developing 107 and 150bhp respectively, both keeping the familiar Subaru flat-four Boxer engines and four-wheel drive. The muscular rally-bred WRX is also now available, to be followed in March 2008 by the flagship 300+bhp STi that is primed to send enthusiasts into a mad frenzy. A first for the Subaru range arrives towards the end of 2008, the arrival of an all-new diesel engine - a 2.0-litre flat four developing around 150bhp that should, for the first time, make the Impreza attractive to business users. There are hints of an upcoming diesel WRX, as well.
Subaru UK is also currently deciding whether to bring a four-door saloon (as offered in North America) to British dealers, and a new-generation estate is still under discussion.
