Turbocharged 2.4L flat-four. That is the heart here. It doesn’t matter which trim you pick. Base? Sure. Top-shelf tS? Also sure. The hardware is the same. You get 271 horsepower. 258 pound-feet of torque. That is the baseline. Every single model carries it.
The only outlier is the GT trim. It forces a CVT on you. No manual there. The rest of the lineup keeps the six-speed manual. Standard equipment. Across the board.
So how good is it really?
We flew to England. Specifically, Oulton Park. Legendary touring car circuit. The kind of place that eats underprepared cars for breakfast. We wanted to see the base car sweat. To find its limits.
It has them. The suspension tuning lets you feel a little bit of body roll. Just a hint. Enough to tell you when the tires are slipping. You find the edge. You don’t fight it.
“The WRX’s suspension tuning allows you to find the limits.”
Price point? $33,690 to start. For the base model. That’s not a rounding error. That’s real money, but not crazy money. We promised we wouldn’t miss the extras. The leather seats. The heated everything in the WRX Premium? Miss them. We did not.
It feels raw. Focused. No chrome distractions.
Is it enough? Probably. You are buying a car. Not a garage fit-out.
The steering wheel is plastic. The buttons are plastic. It doesn’t care if you know. You know the torque curve. You know the gear stick clicks right into place. The rest is just noise.
Do you really need the Premium package to feel the rush? We think not. We left England with a smile. And some mud on our shoes.
