Ha! The guys from BBC's Top Gear were just saying they were pretty sure this car wouldn't be 'a looker.' British sensibility wins again.

Well top gear gets it wrong again. Alas it's always going to be a car you buy for the way it drives rather than the way it looks

Nice to see Subaru have stopped taking inspiration from the Toyota Corolla and are now borrowing styling cues from an old Nissan Almera.

Still looks cool in a completely out of date way...

@rognbrow
Yeah, but surely it can't be that hard to have both? Or have Subaru made it hideous because "that's the way we've always done things?"

The new WRX STI design is more refined, mature, practical, sophisticated and grown-up - a description which sure-as-shit doesn't describe me. Who is supposed to buy this now? Meek, responsible hoons with societal obligations?

>Meek, responsible hoons with societal obligations?

*Raises hand.*
I have a golden retriever, too. Does that make me the hoonti-christ?

There are so many things wrong the the styling of this car. Since I've got nothing to do, I will let my inner car stylist take over:

The crease that runs down the side of the car abruptly transitions for no reason from slightly down sloping behind the A-pillar to up and down again on the wheelarch, completely breaking its flow.

The door latches are placed seemingly arbitrarily on the car, especially in relation to the side crease that I just mentioned. They should've either centered the latches on the crease or put them somewhere else entirely.

The wheel arch extensions are not consistent in style: the front one is squared off at the back, the rear one is more ovular.

It has the frosted aftermarket-look tail-lights of the Ford Mondeo, one of the worst features of that car.

The transition from C-pillar to D-pillar has a strange and unnecessary surface transition, which makes the car appear taller than it actually is (surely undesirable in a performance vehicle).

They somehow managed to make the front end both bland and overstyled, by keeping the Camcordima overall shape and adding useless styling pieces that show up nowhere else on the car. See the horizontal strakes surrounding the foglights, the foglight's faux chrome surround and the side aftermarket-look brake cooling intake.

All that aside, I rather like the new hood scoop and the rear spoiler. I really hope that this and the EVO X will rekindle the Mitusbishi/Subaru rivalry, both in WRC and on the roads.

Oh, also, we should come up with something about the car that looks like a sexual organ so we can embarrass the Subie corporate brass to change the look of the car, like Farago apparently did with the "flying vagina" grill on the last car's last facelift.

i don't get it- minus a couple of minor styling cues, the WRX looks *exactly* like every other hot hatch on the market...yet everyone hates the way it looks.

i mean...seriously. remove the hood scoop and spoiler, and you've got a '92 Honda Civic.
[en.wikipedia.org]

it's got gobs of go-go-go, and a six-speed manual tranny. in STI trim, it'll probably outrun most anything that costs less than $50k. who cares if Fuji can't figure out a way to differentiate their hatch from everyone else's?

That car is just so wrongly styled. It looks like an abortion from Chris Bangle's drawing board that was brought to reality by Fuji/Subaru.

At least it is missing a rear wing and the scoop does not obscure the drivers view of the road.

@rusty68: In general shape, sure, but the details on this car are just so wrong. A car need not be extraordinarily shaped to be extraordinarily ugly. Witness the Chrysler Sebring: [evenements.caradisiac.com]

And we're not debating the car's performance credentials, just the looks.

Wow. It looks like a horrible accident between an X3, a PTCruiser, an Infiniti crossover and an 80's Conquest TSi. If we all keep bitching about Bangle, why does everyone keep raiding his dumpster?

The side mirrors are pretty, tho.

:-)

This looks as bad as the Evo X looks awesome.

I'm fairly certain that the US won't get the 2.0 but another 2.5 instead.
I hope. torque FTW!

It's not pretty, but it's a damn sight better than the base WRX. Widening and lowering the car was just the ticket. The worst features are those C3 Greenwood Corvette front fenders and that whole collection of crap affixed to the front bumper cover.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: this STI looks (to me) WAAAAAAAAY better than any of the last several monstrosities with the hideous rear spoiler. "Yes, please Mr. Officer, pull me over and harass me - I beg you!" No thanks.

@Taco Jack: @rognbrow: @Rust-MyEnemy: @goatrope: @imoody: @cgarison: @imoody: @lemondriver: @jvandrew: @badco: Sorry, I disagree completely. This STI is WAAAAAAAAAAY more attractive than the prior several versions (with the hideous cop-magnet spoiler). "Oh yes, Mr. Officer, please pull me over and harass me like a teenage street racer - it makes me feel so, so good!" No, thanks.

If I want to be noticed I'll by a Lambo. If I just want to have some occasional fun in my daily motoring, this car will suit me just fine.

The world needs more cars like this - with substance over "look at me" styling.

I really don't think its that horrible. The only thing really bugging me is the front bumper; the vents seem just slapped on and the two little horizontal lines in the lower grill just feel too ornate.

Of course, you can't see any of that crap when you're driving it... so who cares?

@brownie: nice double post... way to go, smartie.

The whole entire impreza redesign makes me want to cry.

I will have to buy all the low milage 04'-05' wrxs I can find (post bug eye, pre shnozzz) and put them in a time capsule for the future. I'll just hoon them to death and then get a new one from the stash. I could do a pricer version of the same concept with E39s.

It's an Mazdaspeed3 with AWD and fender flares. WOW! [/sarcasm]

C'mon Subaru... we waited how many years for THIS??? At least Mitsubishi tries to put some styling effort into the equation.

@jvandrew: are you implying "not very"?

It does look to have something similar to FAST-key and an 8kRPM redline though.... (too bad that the topend was never usable on the subies so far due to a tiny ass turbo, especially relative to the 2.5L displacement)

Previous two gens were much better looking, and they were both kinda ugly. The ass of this new one looks like a scaled down Lexus RX300. Yuck.

Unfortunately, this car DOES have "look at me" styling... in the most horrible way possible. It says, "hey, look at me--I don't know what the hell I want to be when I grow up and become a real car! In the meantime, I'm going to look like a shoe with wings and holes and such."

It's not at all "grown-up" (at 33, I wouldn't be caught dead in one... hell, at 16 I'd only take it if it was given to me).

Most horrible styling since the Bangle-up BMWs... but even those are starting to look good compared to this. Please excuse me while I go puke in my mouth.

@brownie: So you're saying you like this car because it doesn't have a big spoiler, and that's it? Well, you could get the previous gen STi without the spoiler: [images.google.com]

I reckon Subaru have tried to jump on the whole retro design thing of the Mini, Ford GT and new 500. Except they have taken their inspiration from about 8 years ago.

I can't believe a car can look so dated before it's even come out.

Why do I secretely like it though?

It reminds me of the kind of pumped up overstyling that people avoid these days that I liked. Remember the escort cosworth and late integrale's. I like those cars. Still can't work out what is going on with the grill and lights though.

F**k it - I'd drive one if you gave it to me.

In the picture above the rear of the black one looks like a Lexus RX... hope that's just a quirk of the shot

You know what, I hate the taillights and the grille, but I imagine that there will be aftermarket solutions for those kinds of things. I think it's great we finally get an STI that has a hatch instead of a trunk.

Typical hideous Subaru styling. People are aghast at this for what reason?

If Chris Bangle ever threw out a design for Baby Sneakers based on the Speed3, this is it! :)

@grzydj: People are aghast because expectations were high. They expected Subaru to continue the STI v. Evo showdown.

But nobody expected this tangent...a vanilla styling job on a practical 5-door hatch bodyshell. The car looks more like something Citroen would build...an unimposing shape with just enough discordance to inspire emotions ranging from compassion to disgust.

On paper the Subie looks the business, but at this point I'm more interested in a Haldex-equipped Saab.

Well I, for one, think it looks great. But that could just be my overwhelming Subie bias coming through. But I don't care. I want this car.

Plus, it looks a lot better than my Matrix. And we all know its about 86 times faster.

@pmindemann: I disagree completely, but I did laugh at the shoe comment.

@imoody: The spoiler, and the fact that the hood scoop looks like an aftermarket bolt-on as well. At least on the new hatch the scoop doesn't stand out as much and doesn't look like an afterthought (to me).

As for the spoiler, that link is to a Japan-spec model. As I understand it, you could get it without the wing in the US only if you bought the "STI Limited", a whopping 800 of which were made in 2007. Also, the Limited was only available in white and gray. Admittedly, the gray looks kind of hot (but for the hood scoop, of course).

Well, it doesn't look great but it has three things going for it:

1: It looks 100x better than the stock WRX
2: It's a 5-door, and unless Mitsu brings out the EVO sportback or BMW ships the 135 5-door to the states, it's running pretty much uncontested in that area. (the A3 3.2 and R32 are not even close, sorry).
3: It's more than likely going to be faster than sh*t.

I'll probably get one, but I'll get it in a nice dark grey or black to hide the ridiculousness of some of those curves.

Dear Mr. Spinelli,

I believe you got confused, and posted a picture of a 5 door Escort to go along with this article on the Subaru WRX STI. This is nothing to be ashamed of, as we all make mistakes, and I thought you'd like to know before too many other people notice the mistake and point it out to you.

Sincerly,
FreeMan

@brownie:

Somebody has to say it, so why not me. "You're doing a heckuva job Brownie!"

@brownie: Interesting logic...
Saying this is better looking than the previous generations is like saying Wendys' tastes better than McDonalds.
The point is, surely, that other manufacturers seem able to make cars which drive brilliantly AND look nice.

I'm really excited about this. It looks very pumped-up and athletic and I've no doubt that it'll drive brilliantly and go like a rocket. Who cares if the styling details are a bit off? Most modern cars look like a cat's arse anyway.

@Rust-MyEnemy: I think it is good looking on its own. The only reason I compare it to prior versions is that the concensus seems to be that Subaru somehow "ruined" the STI with this version. I think it's quite the opposite - the prior versions were inexcusably hideous, this one looks good.

To use your food analogy, I think I'm saying that, to me, Nobu is pretty good, and everyone else prefers rancid meat.

@brownie: Lets forget about the food and just have a beer...

@AndyDuncan: What about the 5-door GTi?

@imoody:
The 5-door GTI is a great car but it's not really trying to compete with the STI. Even the R32 isn't really competitive from a performance standpoint and they only brought the 3-door over, the A3 3.2 s-line is basically the 5-door R32, but it's underpowered relative to the STI and the haldex AWD system on the A3 just can't compete with the DCCD plus a torsen LSD in the rear (and some form of LSD in the front) on the STI. And I'm a proud owner of a 20th AE GTI, so it's not like I'm biased.

Look, it's ugly, but after staring at it for a while I think it looks better than the STI it replaces. It's going to be fast as sh*t and you can fit a crapload of stuff in it.

@AndyDuncan: Well, you're right about the A3 3.2 and the R32. That V6 just doesn't hold a candle to the STi's turbocharged four.

@IppoJ: Amen, brothah!

I like this one, for some reason. Must be because it's a wagon. I also hope we get the 2.5.