Category: Small Family 
Price Range: £12,730 to £30,350
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.
The Impreza is good value to buy - although the entry-level 1.5R is £1,495, it's one of the cheaper ways to get into a four-wheel-drive vehicle. Fuel economy's nothing special, however, with the 1.5 returning 37.7mpg (manual and auto), the 2.0-litre managing 33.6mpg (34.4mpg auto) and the WRX 27.2mpg. Tax bandings are correspondingly high - the 1.5 emits 176g/km of carbon dioxide (177g/km auto), the 2.0 199 g/km (194g/km auto) and the WRX 246g/km.
Nothing much should go wrong - and if it does, Subaru UK now offers a full three-year/60,000-mile warranty with three years' paintwork and 12-year anti-rust guarantee - though Subaru servicing is not as cheap as at more mainstream franchises, and parts more expensive. Insurance can also be dear, depending on the owner's risk factor.
