2022 Subaru WRX Premium (6-Speed Manual) – POV First Impressions

MSRP: $32,105

Hey guys today we’re driving the 2022 subaru wrx premium we have a six speed manual transmission all-wheel drive and a new 2.4 liter turbocharged boxer four-cylinder that makes 271 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque i did a brief track drive in this wrx around road america it was in the wet it was pretty nasty out but i was really impressed with this car on

First impressions uh gone does the rev hang we have a lot more torque we have a much better tune to the engine and drive train in this new wrx shifts are quicker this gearbox still feels really good honestly from the driver’s seat it just feels like a much better previous gen wrx they fixed a lot of the issues that i had with that car let’s walk you around this

Real quick we’ll show you what it looks like inside and out and then we’ll take it for a drive and get some impressions of what this is like on the road so this premium starts around 32 000 pretty neat package reasonably priced very spacious quite practical and usable as your only vehicle it can rally you can do track work it’s comfortable as a daily driver super

Wide opening 60 40 folding rear seats no spare tire but you know what i bet you could retrofit one in here from a previous gen wrx like you can with the brz just get rid of all this foam stuff you already get a jack and tire iron and all that stuff in there too so you might be ready to go with just a little bit of creativity quad exhaust tips a little bit of a

Throatier lower guttural sound from this boxer four cylinder it’s still pretty quiet definitely could use an exhaust but you can leave that to the aftermarket i do like the looks of the front end though looks a little bit like the levorg subarus that we see out in japan i like it honestly you get behind the wheel of one of these you drive it and all the all the

Chatter about the plastic fender cladding kind of vanishes because this thing is so good to drive kind of second guessing my brz purchase honestly after spending some time on track with this top mounted intercooler we have an oil cooler right here gets about 22 miles to the gallon combined not the most efficient car but we get hood struts and just a nice subaru

Boxer motor looks like an engine relatively easy to work on got a functional hood scoop here a lot to like let’s take a look in the back seat and then we’ll go head out on the road with this one thing i’ve always been really impressed with is just how spacious the rear seat area is in the wrxs there really is a lot of room back here it’s pretty amazing we get a

Couple usb ports a center arm rest i like these cloth seats too they feel nice and rugged you got red stitching everywhere and even though this is just the premium you still get a decent amount of features auto up down windows in all four corners you get heated seats no eyesight systems which i think is fine for a driver’s car for the manual that’s a pretty good

Way to go honestly if you’re considering a cvt wrx i would even look at something like the outback or forrester wilderness similar powertrain similar levels of power but more ground clearance and more off-road capability so yes subaru has gotten rid of the sti in this latest generation for now but honestly i think this wrx with this new updated 2.4 liter turbo is

About 90 to 95 of what an sti could be 271 horsepower goes pretty far in this car the tuning is excellent yes we don’t get the trick differentials that we can control with the sti or the stiffer chassis or the trick suspension but i don’t know for most people’s use i think this is a really good value an sti would be significantly more expensive and at this point

The performance from this wrx is so good that i really think you’d be getting into diminishing returns with an sti so that’s kind of my thoughts i’m sure they’ll come out with an electric or plug-in hybrid or something some type of sti in the future but for now this wrx i think will satisfy most people i’m excited to drive this out on the street it’s one thing

When you’re just hammering around on track you get a decent idea of what a car is like at the limit but on street there are some other nuances that we can learn clutch is light shifter is light i like the driving position we have a lot of adjustability with these seats all manually operated same with a steering wheel clutch is very easy to operate nice engagement

Bite point we have a dual pinion power steering rack in this wrx makes for a really sharp turn-in and a lot of response from the steering system brakes are still warming up they’re pretty wet still after uh sitting in the rain for a long time still a little bit of turbo lag from this engine but i will say there’s a lot more drivability to this 2.4 liter than

There was in the previous two liter boxer this interior still feels pretty bargain basement a lot of plastics a lot of hard surfaces but at the end of the day for the price i can’t really complain there’s so much value here with this powertrain and this is just a driver’s car when it comes down to it it feels wonderfully agile kind of light to the touch which i

Appreciate honestly i’m not the biggest fan of this infotainment but it works you do get used to it look at those shifts zero rev hang at red line between gears those rpms drop immediately a lot of throttle response here too especially for a turbocharged motor yeah i like the six speed it’s a little bit lighter of a throw still about the same feel as previous

Wrx is maybe a little bit sharp a little bit crisper allows for pretty quick shifts it’s a very satisfying manual transmission to drive just down to the responsiveness of all of your inputs i like that a lot it’s quiet but the noise that it does make i think is a good one there’s not the same droniness to this exhaust that there has been in previous wrxs that i’ve

Tested rides on the firm side not as not even as soft as my brz is it’s where my brz rides like a camry on those 17-inch wheels and this is a little bit more buttoned down a little bit stiffer which i think is fine it’s still very livable we do have some physical controls in this wrx center stack which i appreciate we get a volume and tuned scroll knob physical

Buttons for temperature there is a constant climate menu down here at the bottom of the screen that will always be up and we get a mechanical handbrake so you can do rally turns in your wrx i love it i kind of like the sound it makes it’s subtle but it makes subaru boxer engine noises which is ultimately what we want you could throw an exhaust on here make it

A little bit louder if you really wanted to but in its current form oh this sounds pretty good fun to drive on a back road really the big win here with this new wrx is this 2.4 liter engine there’s more torque more usable power throughout the power band a little bit less turbo lag and it’s just a more satisfying experience it’s much more refined i feel like

Subaru re-tuned this whole engine this whole powertrain and it’s one of the best tuned manual transmissions that i’ve ever driven some from subaru so i just want to keep shifting this six-speed manual nice this is genuinely fun controls are a little bit lighter i’m not completely convinced on this shifter’s action if it’s better than the previous generation but

Honestly all wrx shifters have been a little bit rubbery there’s just a ton of grip here though so easy to heel toe down shift and rev match it’s one of the more fluid and natural manual driving experiences on the market these days really got to give subaru props for the tuning here they’ve done an excellent job with this new wrx you guys can just tell by how

Much fun i’m having shifting this thing cool hopefully i can spend some more time in one of these really see what this thing can do in the in the dry i bet there’s just a ton of grip from this chassis and uh of course maybe next year maybe next winter we can get one of these on winter tires see how it does in the snow that’s a bit of a surprise got some pops

And bangs there from the exhaust that’s cool fun fun car boy this would be a great daily driver okay guys that’s it for this one thanks for watching let me know if you have any questions in the comments we’ll be posting some more videos from this midwest automotive media association rally but for now that’s a quick drive with some first impressions on the wrx

If you haven’t already check out the track drive on this um combined with the street drive i think we’ve got a pretty good first take on this and a good idea of how it drives but yeah i want i want some more time behind the wheel this is this is an enjoyable one so well done subaru i think uh they’ve got a good wrx on their hands this time curious to see what a

Cvt drives like but honestly this six-speed manual is so good this is the way to go alright that’s it for this one thanks for watching we’ll see you guys later take care you

Transcribed from video
2022 Subaru WRX Premium (6-Speed Manual) – POV First Impressions By TheTopher