They got the "deep dive" part right, the car surely took a deep dive in the looks department. And they put the exhaust on the wrong side of the car!
I don't think it's a "deep dive", but it certainly drops it in to the mainstream and no longer feels like an impreza. I can understand why they did it to the Legacy (hell, that's part of the reason I bought one instead of another STI), I don't understand why they would do it to the Impreza. They already hit that sweet spot once and covered the "every man" demographic. Why aim to capture the same demo with the Impreza too?
I'm curious to see if the WRX/STI end up with some differentiating styling cues so they don't abandon the core demo for that platform. It's "fine" by me too but I can barely tell it apart from a Legacy. That strikes me as an odd marketing choice.
Whats this fun little creature? http://www.autoblog.com/2011/04/19/subaru-xv-concept-crossover-unveiled-in-shanghai/
Best buy the 2011 WRX/STi. One of the greatest Impreza WRX/STi's to date..... but we'll see what Subaru comes up with for the 2012. 2011 FTW!!!!
Ish! Looks like a Maz-Hond-ord (Mazda/Honda/Ford). Thumbs down on that 2012 style. Also included in this same style is Acura, Chrysler, Chev and just about every other manufacturer. All these sedans look more and more a like every day. Sad.
It's like most new body styles on most cars for me, I won't like it until it's been around a few years.
Wow, what the **** happened? How did the next generation Impreza go from this: To the abomination found in that link?
I find it interesting that the WRX and STI information or even speculation is non-existant in that article. I'll wait for the announcements to come out for the sport versions before I make any judgements just yet.
Why? They could style the wrx/sti in the likeness of God and it still won't change the fact that the base model is fugly as ****.
Good god this thing is ugly. I thought it was a Dodge Caliber at first. The headlights are tolerable at max. The taillights i'm confused about. So they just completely forgot about the rear? Some of the angles make this look like a mini-van. As for the XV.. the 2012 Impreza and the XV look very similar.
it looks nice and it also remind me of this http://www.egmcartech.com/2008/10/01/2011-chevrolet-cruze-makes-paris-debut-interior-revealed/
Sorry, BUT I THINK IS UGLY AND BORING... Whats wrong with Subaru they are going back in time... They should hire some new designers!!!
Everyone complains about the looks of the *insert subaru* every single model year update, yet every single year out-sells the years prior, just sayin.....I personally think it looks great, but we all know subaru has NEVER made attractive cars, they make goofy looking quirky cars, which is what makes them subarus. It gets 36 mpg, and is the fastest base impreza to date, maybe if you cry hard enough they will make one that gets 40 mpg and is even more bland looking, and it will set sales MORE sales records.....
It's either all about cargo space and interior enhancements and family appeal styling...I think the Subaru marketing department has concluded that the US subaru target market loves to have an AWD car that can fit their cats and dogs along with 4 passengers. Or, it is competition that is steering them towards this direction more "family appeal styling". If the base impreza looks like that, then less will be expected from the WRX/STi as far as styling goes...I already have a visual in my mind. Tee hee hee
Yes it's ugly, and I expect a Subaru to be ugly regardless. It's what they do, it's what they're known for. The thing I'm hoping is that there are some more exaggerated aggressive cues on the sport versions. Then it will be ugly, but with character. That's what I love about my car, I'm just hoping that design philosophy will continue into the newer generations.
The enthusiast market doesn't dictate the industry, I understand that. But they're setting up to pull a Toyota, where they completely remove themselves from the enthusiast market by making bland boring cars. It isn't that the new design is quirky or ugly, it's that is boring. Which is sad, because the concept pics that I posted earlier lead me to believe they were stepping it up a notch in the style department. It wasn't ugly or quirky, but it wasn't boring either.
I mean, you can tell the lines from the concept are there, but they sectioned the windows into little pieces and made the lines more bland and boring.
I wouldnt be suprized if they dont have a WRX or STI anymore, there is basicly zero reason to keep making it.
Those are the only two cars i was ever interested in. I mean I'd still tell my mom to buy one, but no WRX/STI means I wont even walk into a dealer unless it's for parts on my older one. I'm sure my post will have an effect on the decision...
Ford continues to push their styling further with flawless, nice and smooth designs...2013 Taurus Much better looking than this transformers concept.
Yeah this... except for the rear of the hatch. Look at the tail light then follow the lines out from there. It's a kaleidoscope of weird curves and boxes. If nothing else it's going to be a detailing nightmare lol
They had to put the mirrors there because the place they normally go now has those tiny useless triangles of glass. And yes, since the S2000 rules came out, Subaru pulled support and funding to the WRC. Subaru rally is officially over. And as such, there's no need for a WRX or STi model since they both are "inspired" by the cars they field in the WRC. No WRC = no WRX model. They may field a STi modified version, for posterity's sake. But what's the point of a Subaru Technica International performance tuning wing to your vehicle manufacturing company if you don't compete in any current racing series? Toyota has Toyota Racing Development. They now develop parts for their NASCAR Truck series vehicles. But Subaru doesn't have any series they compete in at this point. If they don't put their vehicles in some sort of A League event, they will likely dissolve their performance division.
subaru has continued to homologate group n cars and is now homologating the new group r4 cars (R4 was approved by the FIA in late 2010 so their involvement in rally is still ongoing) http://www.sti.jp/e/competitor/index.html they also were an official manufacturer in IRC last season http://www.ircseries.com/html/Manufacturers.asp
You all are a bunch of crybabies. Did you really expect the production car to be as radical of a departure from Subaru reality as the concept car? A concept car is a prototype, nothing more, nothing less. A few pictures from a base model car and most people are throwing out the facepalms, crying, or borderline temper tantrums. Is sounds a lot like EVERY new bodystyle released for the Impreza. If you want a more aggressive looking car, go buy something else. Last I heard, Subaru is trying to sell more cars. They are not going to do this by designing cars to satisfy the boy-racer F&F crowd. Business is business. Mitsubishi's Lancer is aggressive, you say? They aren't exactly flying off the lots...
I would expect at least a visible departure from the legacy. It's one thing to go with the mainstream sweet spot. It's another to not even differentiate within your own model lineup. That's just weird.
It might not be a Japanese thing to have parity, but look at all the domestics. Malibu/Cruze, Ford everything, etc.
It doesn't have to be boy racer bulging at the seams tough. But it also shouldn't look boring and lazily designed. For instance, that front door window. Look at the concept car, then look at the actual car. The front window on the concept car doesn't work....I get that, you likely couldn't roll it down. But the engineers likely said, "Well, that wont work, it has to be more square to be able to fit it in the door cavity. So we'll put one of these plastic window divider eyesores in there to correct it. There we go! And we can just leave a useless piece of static glass in that triangular space we made. Perfect. OH, crap! There's no side mirror on the concept either...hmm, well, we can't put it on the forward section of the window area because we've already put that useless piece of glass in there. I know, we'll just bolt it to the top angle of the door. That should work." Why not simply do like you've done in the past and put the goddamned side mirror on a triangular plastic mount that fits that triangular "hole" you made by dividing the window? By doing that, you wouldn't have that sloppy side mirror on the damn door. And you wouldn't need to stick ugly pieces of plastic and useless chunks of glass everywhere to make the lines fit the contours prescribed by the concept. Little plastic window dividers make cars look cheap. They break up visually appealing lines and shapes into hard edges and use cheap materials to do so. I get not wanting the car to look all pissed off and muscular to appeal to the average driver that doesn't want a boyracer look. But ruining the flowing lines of the design with even more visually appalling cues like mirrors bolted to door and right angle window divisions take the beauty out of the design.
And for reference, I STILL don't like the 06-07 front face. It never actually grew on me. And I still don't like the hatch version. Not because I think it isn't boyracer enough, but because I don't like the flow of the designs. The 06-07 is based off the body of the 02-05, the basic profile is exactly the same. And that design was very boxy. The pointy lines of the headlamps and the pointy lines they created when cut into the fenders didn't flow right. And the 08 hatch was never my thing. But I can deal with it. The re-intro of the sedan style was nice. I think they should have kept it for a bit longer honestly.
I don't know that I've seen a Cruze. I can tell Ford's apart. They all look like Fords but I can tell the difference between a focus and a taurus without much trouble. This looks like a straight up shrunken 4th gen Legacy. I would have a hard time telling them apart at first glance. I don't understand the logic in doing that. It's not like the Impreza is an ultra sub compact and the legacy is a gigantic luxo-barge. They're practically the same car at that point aside from a marginal size difference. What's the point? Maybe they're going somewhere else with the Legacy?
OK. I'll re-phrase it a little bit. All you whiners should be hoping to get an STi model. If Subaru knew what was good for their bottom line, they would get rid of it. Waah waah waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah...
