DEPENDING on your starting point, the Subaru Impreza 2.5 WRX STi is either the most advanced hot family hatch on the market or the cheapest real supercar. On the other hand, you can buy a tracksuit and baseball cap, pay a customiser to trim it out in Burberry tartan and you find yourself in the ultimate chav wheels.
In fact, I got so many strange looks from trackie-clad lads during my time with the car, I tended to keep the windows shut and the doors locked. At least I thought I had them locked, but with the remote-locking system fitted to the test car I could n
ever be totally sure.
Sometimes when I pressed the remote button just the driver's door would unlock, and then when I pressed it twice, the driver's door would unlock and the rear passenger door would half unlock. To get it open, I had to press to lock the car, setting off the alarm with the half-opened rear door, then press twice to unlock.
Such a minor glitch with the remote locking may not seem the end of the world in a 25-grand car but it becomes a bit more relevant when you consider the technology Subaru used to transform what is basically a shopping car into something that can tango with Ferraris and, perhaps more relevant, the small Lamborghinis on any tarmac you care to mention.
Headline figures for the SRi are just over 300bhp from the turbocharged, 2.5 litre flat-four engine which takes it to a mile a minute from rest in 4.8 seconds and onto a top speed just short of 160mph. Yes, I know that the Gallardo is marginally quicker to 60 and a good 40 mph faster at the top end but the difference in acceleration is no more than a sneeze, while the top end isirrelevant unless you're driving in the desert.
But there's a lot more to the Scooby's armoury than sheer brute force. You also get a sophisticated, permanent all- wheel drive system and, using a selection of switches plus a knob mounted behind the gear lever, the ability to fine-tune the suspension setting while on the move and even play the settings for the transmission differentials to increase or decrease the drifting capabilities of the car.
This is OK on a rally surface, or more likely in a computer game, but I'm not so sure of its validity on a road car whose technology, as I explained earlier, can be open to question.
But before exploring the technology, buyers will have to decide whether or not they can live with the looks of the car. Previous generations of the Impreza, the ones made legend by the late Colin McRae, were always individual and recognisable, especially in trademark rally blue.
This latest car, which was launched in the spring, reminds me of an original five-door Ford Focus that has spent a couple of weeks in the custom shop. Plain white is, according to my sources, the in colour for souped-up cars at the moment and the test car certainly seemed to exude the proper level of menace. Take away the bonnet bulge and vulgar rear wing, though, and it looks like a bit of an old Ford.
Inside, Subaru has done a lovely job of the dashboard, with most of the bits in the right places and just enough metal trim to make it look classy rather than gaudy. Sadly, the radio controls are back to front, with tuning on the left and volume on the right, while the non-cloth part of the trim felt more like plastic than the leather it is supposed to be.
The equipment level is pretty lavish considering how much performance car you are getting per pound: big alloys, climate control, electric everything and the toys I've already mentioned.
But all this equipment in a car with this performance makes for a serious thirst. Subaru claims just over 27mpg and the standard built-in computer just over 24mpg, but my credit card informs me that the car only achieved a few hundred yards beyond 20mpg.
That sounds pretty drastic in these times of high fuel prices, but when you check the asking price and the cost of the real opposition, I suspect plenty will decide it's not too bad.
The full article contains 736 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
