As the weather turns cold and snowy for a good chunk of America, those looking to drive something with moxie often take a glance at all-wheel-drive. In the past, a litany of manufacturers offered the surefootedness of all-wheel-drive with the engagement of a manual transmission. We’re talking Audis, BMWs, Mitsubishis, Volkswagens, and even a recent Ford. However, this niche has been dwindling, and the entry point — the Subaru WRX — is about to get a hell of a lot more expensive.
The base model Subaru WRX is one hell of a deal, even if its price jumped $2,260 between 2023 and 2024. While this $33,885 cloth-seat special isn’t the best-equipped 2024 WRX you can buy, it still gets single-zone automatic climate control, LED headlights, an 11.6-inch touchscreen infotainment system, and a fantastic drivetrain. Not only is the 2.4-liter turbocharged flat-four well-calibrated, it’s paired with a six-speed manual transmission with delightfully close ratios, and puts predictable power down to all four tires.
We’re talking about a sprightly winter warrior for downright sensible money, and it seems to hold resale value well, and it’s an IIHS Top Safety Pick, and it’s just as practical as any compact sedan. The rear seat is genuinely adult-sized, the trunk is capacious, and if it weren’t for the slabs of black cladding, it would slip nicely under the radar. Sadly, trimflation has come for Subaru’s four-season performance car, because the base trim is dying for 2025.
Instead, the cheapest 2025 WRX you’ll be able to buy is the WRX Premium, which starts at $36,920. That’s $1,165 more than the 2024 WRX Premium and $3,065 more than a base trim 2024 WRX. In a media release, Subaru of America Car Line Planning Manager William Stokes offers some insight into the move, stating that “Few buyers opted for the base trim level last year, while nearly half of all WRX buyers opt for features found on the Premium trim level, which is why it’s the entry point this year.” While trimming low-take-rate trims from a lineup is often a logical move to maximize profits, a delta of more than $3,000 means a lot over a financing term.
So, if you’re looking to stick to a budget and have your eye on a WRX, you might want to act now while base 2024 models are still in stock. In addition to saving $3,065 over the cheapest 2025 model, Subaru’s currently offering 0.9 percent financing for 48 months on a base 2024 WRX. A quick inventory search on Cars.com shows 689 brand new base-model WRXs available nationwide, so if you’re looking to score a deal, you aren’t exactly starved for choice.
Oh, and if you’re wondering about the WRX tS, with its adaptive dampers, big brakes, multiple drive modes, and manual transmission, that thing starts at $46,875 including freight, the same price as a CVT-equipped WRX GT. Keep in mind, that’s firmly in Toyota GR Corolla territory, and the WRX is a bit of a harder sell at north of $45,000.
(Photo credits: Subaru)
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If it wasn’t so ugly and if it was a hatchback maybe.
I’ll be interested when the amount of plastic increases commensurate to the price increase.
But that’s impossib…
Oh, I see.
Golf 7 TDI’s got 3 years left on warranty, but I’m already horny for a hot hatch. Naturally I should be chasing my TDIs younger sib the Golf 8 R, but put off by the whole nanny state of screens and touch steering wheels. So been sniffing the Mustang EcoBeast and Corolla GR boyracer, but with the Mustang’s loss of a decent gearbox of DIY or automatic persuasion and the Corolla GR being a literally overheated hot hatch we’ve yet to celebrate even a casual date.
Had a too quick date with a Golf R, has enough torque you can drive it like a diesel and it’ll be happy. Then Ford and Toyota dumped on my gay community (Mercedes, here’s your story line) so looks like I’m headed for another VW relationship… Golf R or GTI?
I think $37k is pricey, but I don’t think the base one was an amazing value for its price either. Below 30 sure, but at $34k I’d still expect some of the Premium’s features – heated seats and mirrors, keyless access/start – which a Premium was that price 2 years ago. I imagine most people spending that money expect the same. What’s the take rate auto vs. manual again? The base went manual only for 2024, so either take rate on the base was heavier to manuals prior to then or perhaps things shifted so more WRX buyers did want the auto for whatever reason.
The $1200 increase on the Premium without any apparent content differences for 2025 is more notable to me. The price jump into 2024 can be explained from the addition of Eyesight (finally pairing it with a manual so they can have get that IIHS rating) but for ’25 that’s an increase more like we saw on cars a couple years ago.
I’d be close to interested if it were $5k more and had a hatchback. But then I’d have to overcome those stupid fender trims and the screen that looks like someone glued a children’s tablet to the center stack.
Nope, probably still wouldn’t buy it. With those changes it may get eliminated at a later round, though.
So you’re saying raise the price and I am in??
I’m saying I’d be in at a higher price if they made it into a car I wanted.
I could overlook some of the general Subaru-ness of the thing if they didn’t go to great lengths and cost to make it actually worse than it needed to be.
Hah, a 2025 base Mustang starts at 32k, pay 5k more for a Subaru. No thanks.
Not many people cross-shop the two. I’d rather pay $37K for a Subaru (just not as currently offered) than $32K for literally any Mustang, base or otherwise.
You can daily a WRX or other performance compact even if you have a family, furry friends, need to haul stuff occasionally, etc. A Mustang is incredibly impractical as a daily. A closer comparison would be an Ecoboost and a Toyobaru. The Toyobaru is slightly cheaper, way lighter, more engaging, and the standard transmission is a 6 speed manual.
An Ecoboost Mustang is much more powerful, much quicker in a straight line, and has slightly more space but that’s pretty much it. It also gets much more expensive when you add options that you probably want and is only available in automatic…which is made worse by the fact that the automatic sucks. The consensus amongst journalists is that the 10 speed is so awful it basically ruins the S650 Ecoboost.
I could see the point of the 4 popper S550 Mustangs because they were much cheaper, available in stick, had some interesting performance variants like the HPP 2.3 with the Focus RS engine, etc. But now? It’s painfully obvious that Ford wants enthusiasts in the GT because they really nerfed the Ecoboost.
And it’s a shame, I actually looked at an HPP Ecoboost during the before times. There was a blue one with the handling package nearby that was discounted to 35kish. It was a very cool car for that price. But now? I wouldn’t consider anything but a GT, and it’s kind of a shame.
Trimflation, baby. Other than the vape crowd and people who insist on all wheel drive (yes commentariat, I am aware that the Midwest gets a ton of snow and if you need all wheel drive it’s fine) I’m becoming less and less sure of who this car is for anymore. At the previous base price it was a very good buy if you could live with the low rent interior, especially after discounts. People were getting these in the high 20s which is in fact an excellent value proposition.
But at $37,000? That’s base GR Corolla territory and is roughly the same price as a well equipped GTI or Elantra N. The well equipped GTI will have a much better interior and hatch practicality and if you’re willing to roll the Korean reliability dice the Elantra N will absolutely shred the current WRX in pretty much every situation other than in a foot or more of snow…not to mention its track capable out of the box which one of these isn’t until the top trims.
At the high end we’re now in loaded GR Corolla, CTR, Golf R/S3, etc. territory. I genuinely have no idea how or why someone would choose a loaded WRX over literally any of those options. You have to really, really like Subaru and consider a DCT or front wheel drive to be dealbreakers…and even then there’s still the GRolla problem.
Anyway the WRX has always struck me as a car you buy in the basest spec possible. Loading one up is missing the point. These are blank canvases and if you’re not going to mod one and make it your own you’d probably be better served by an option that’s factory hot rodded already. To me a WRX is a sub $30,000 car with a rental spec interior, a decent but not ridiculous amount of power, and a manual transmission.
They’re cheap thrills and are basically designed to take mods at this point. $37,000 is a big, big ask, especially compared to the competition that offers more for the same money. If you really love Subaru then go for it I guess but even then I’d spend that money on a previous gen STI.
WRX lost me when they dropped the Wagon. I had a Bugeye wagon and while it was ugly inside – t’was a wagon. I loved it. Only thing missing was a sunroof.
And yet it’s available in Mexico. Not sure what Subaru US are thinking. If I was in the market for a new WRX and knew someone would be able to do an OEM level transformation to a wagon for $10k, I’d smash them on the counter screaming and foaming at the mouth.
But a WRX sedan has always been one of the saddests sights imaginable, knowing that the wagon exists.
Exactly. Everything I wrote below could easily be remedied by adding a longroof version, or, hear me out x2 – making it wagon-exclusive.
Although that infotainment has still really got to go. I’d much rather have a blank space there to which I could attach a phone holder or my own aftermarket solution than whatever that thickly-bezeled POS is.
When I got a new job two years ago, I needed (OK, wanted) a new car. I said fuck it – awkward wheel well plastics and all, I’ve got to finally get me that ‘rex I’ve wanted since I drove my first one in 2002. I left a deposit for one sight unseen (decent deal, below MSRP, though not as good as the high-twenties you’ve mentioned). And then, a couple days later, I came to my senses and thought…hey…let me actually drive one.
It was…fine. Nothing in the driving dynamics had changed in twenty years, which was both good and bad. Still gobs of power once you got past that Marian Trench of turbo lag, but it kind of makes it fun, I guess? But the problem was, all the other shit stayed with it, as well, not least that god-awful interior and shifter better suited for an International Harvester. “Premium” trim, my left nut. The ride was Fiesta ST-level harsh (I’d dailied one in the UK a few years prior and while it was a lovely little thing – it was the generation we never got in the U.S. – my ol’ back was worse for the wear and hasn’t gotten better since). Going over MSP’s light rail lines made it sound like it was going to shake itself the fuck apart. The quality of the seat material was reminiscent of FIAT 500 Abarths (I’ve been low-key looking at grabbing one on the cheap and one of the main stopping points for me has been that horrible-looking fabric on the seats that looks dirty the minute you sit in it for the first time)…think Walmart running shoes. All that for a still fairly princely sum of about $33.5K after taxes.
So fuck this, I figure, as long as I’m actually being a reasonable adult about this, let me test-drive the GTI, as well. A fortnight and $34.2K later I was driving away from Inver Grove VW in an Atlantic Blue GTI S, plaid seats (that’s how you do cheap fabric correctly) and all. Granted, the well-documented haptic controls and overcomplicated infotainment system were probably an even bigger pain in the ass, but at least it felt like I was driving a proper car. Of course, German quality is no longer what it was and I ended up being fed up with the combination of poor paint quality, super annoying interior NVH issues (one buzzing noise in the B-pillar started the day I bought it and literally never went away) and just the overall “meh” feeling (having worked on the original U.S.-market FoST and FoRS, we always treated the GTI/R as the “mature adult” hot hatches and…yeah). But I’m 10000% sure that, had I gotten the WRX, I wouldn’t have lasted even the 20 months that I did with the GTI. Both are way too expensive for what they are. Should have stretched the budget and gotten the base GRC (and would have, if only it was available in that Flame Blue).
Summed up perfectly. For the whole read I just kept wondering who exactly this thing is for. Too much money compared to the competition, and forget the folks burned on grenaded EJ255s. I am going to take a moment to wistfully remember my 2004 FXT.
Thomas’ Mr Bombastic called for FG’s Fantastic. Nature abhors a vacuum 😀
Or, hear me out…don’t. Stop rewarding manufacturer laziness just because they’ve deigned to give you a whole half of what you want in a performance compact. Stop buying “good enough”. If they stop making the WRX altogether – so be it. They will turn it into a Solterra soon enough anyways. Buy a used 2015-2020 model instead. Virtually the same content, half to 3/4 the price.
Any residual desire to buy a WRX I may have had from my early fanboy days has basically gone. I couldn’t justify a $32K Premium two years ago and I’m certainly not paying a 10% markup on it for zero content changes. Questionable aesthetics, tincan quality feel (seriously, could those doors close with a more flaccid noise?), still the same shitty NVH as 20 years ago, trash infotainment and zero incremental content for what feels like half a decade? So, basically, almost 40 grand for AWD and a turbo (with more lag than a dial-up connection)? Hard pass.
And $50K tS and GT are just shroomin’.
Good grief, how much more like a paid Subaru shill could you sound?
This ^^^
Hope more people vote with their wallets and stop rewarding lazy, greedy engineering.
I’m not just angry at Subaru either, this goes across the board with all manufactures like the Maverick increasing year over year, the wildly overpriced 4runner with a 5speed auto (can’t wait to see the price jump on the new ones) and the prices for an entry level 2 door Wrangler (why are these prices for ancient tech still so high??).
Yep. Looked at a new one but hated the plastic crap, poor seats, floppy shifter. Bought a 2019 performance package with recaro seats, STI shift kit, big brakes etc. CPO with 15k miles and a 5 year bumper to bumper for $10k less than a new base model.
That’s a pretty sweet deal. Wonder if I can replicate it…
Ugh, trimflation is sooo 2022…