One of the least desirable occurrences during a winter season in the Northeast is the weather alternating between days of snow and days of freezing rain, creating a hardened and irregular surface of hard-packed icy snow. It’s not good for sledding, it’s not good for walking, and it’s terrible for driving… unless you have an all-wheel-drive car on snow tires with a manual transmission. Then it’s a lot of fun.
The actual least desirable winter outcome, for students and drivers alike, is no snow. Last year was almost one of those seasons. We got a pity snow day here in New York with juuust enough of the white stuff to get in a little sledding, but even then, after a few runs the hill we usually hit got as sparse as the hair on the back of my head.
As some sort of climatological righting of wrongs, a Subaru WRX tS landed in my lap on the week of an actual snowstorm. Even better, I had a reason to drive up to Connecticut, which has had a series of winter storms that made any uncleared road miserable. After a week driving the tS around, I’ve determined I like it, and its charms are even slowly reversing some of my recent grumpiness with the brand.
Why This Car Exists
The better question, maybe, is “Would Subaru exist without the WRX?” The company Fuji Heavy Industries was, for a long time, just another large Japanese company that also made cars. They weren’t bad cars. You got some interesting vehicles, like the Subaru BRAT, and most people seemed to generically like Subis.
If you were an enthusiast of car-buying age in the ’80s or even early ’90s you’d probably get a Honda or a Mazda. Eventually, though, Subaru found its niche. It was the all-wheel drive brand and, even better, it was the rally brand. While the World Rally Championship wasn’t quite as big in the United States, the sport was a huge draw in Subaru’s home market of Japan and in Europe as well, where bright blue Leones and Legacies battled it out with the world’s best drivers. Eventually, Subaru fielded the Impreza in the WRC and, in 1994, won its first ever constructors championship with the help of Carlos Sainz and the great Colin McCrae.
To celebrate this sporting turn, Subaru released a WRX (World Rally eXpirmental) version of the Impreza, which became an instant hit wherever it was sold. Unfortunately, that didn’t include the United States. All we got was the not-quite-close-enough Impreza 2.5 RS. When the second generation car debuted, this oversight was corrected and America got both the bugeye WRX sedan and wagon. Later, we’d get the STi version, so named for the company’s motorsports arm.
We are now six generations into Imprezas (five generations into WRXs), and to make things confusing we’re into the 2nd generation of the WRX as its own standalone car platform. The STI has not yet been announced for this market and, at the moment, the line-topping one in Japan is only sold with a CVT.
To make things even more perplexing, Subaru keeps shuffling the trims. Last year, Thomas drove the Subaru WRX tR. Technically, those seem to still be for sale by Subaru, alongside the WRX GT. Now, though, we get the Subaru tS to slot somewhere in between. It’s some combination of the tR’s big brakes and the GT’s adaptive dampers.
More importantly, to us, is that the tS is the only way to get the GT’s adaptive dampers with a six-speed manual transmission. It’s slightly strange that the most aggressively optioned WRX was, up until this point, only available with an automatic transmission. And not even some robust and fast ZF eight-speed or trick dual-clutch job. A CVT!
Also, a quick note about the name. What does the name mean? It stands for “Tuned by STI,” and because STI stands for Subaru Tecnica International, technically this makes the car the 2025 Subaru WRX Tuned By Subaru.
I had to ask one of Subaru’s reps what tR stood for and they explained it was “Track Ready.”
2025 Subaru WRX tS: The Basics
- Price: $46,875
- Engine: 2.4-liter turbo flat-four
- Transmission: Six-speed manual
- Drivetrain: All-wheel drive (AWD)
- Power: 271 horsepower, 258 lb-ft of torque
- Fuel Economy: EPA-estimated 29 city, 19 highway, 26 combined
- Body Style: five-seat rally sedan
What Does It Look Like?
The “Rally” aesthetic has been well established in the minds of enthusiasts, due in no small part to the work of Subaru itself. A rally car is just a normal vehicle–quite often an economy car–that’s been purposefully modified to plow through snowy berms in Sweden and over the savannahs of Kenya.
What this means is you get flared fenders, tough-looking trim, and a scoop on the hood big enough to consume every gallon of ice cream in Brenham, Texas. My test model was painted World Rally Blue Pearl, which is the best color to get a WRX in, though the optional Galaxy Purple or Solar Orange are also the best colors. Just don’t get a black, grey, or white one and you’ve got the best color.
I have done a relatively deep dive into this ,and I think, on the outside, there are only a couple of ways to distinguish the car. The most obvious way is that the badges on the WRX tS are STI-pink. The other most obvious way is that on the tR the brake calipers are red, on the tS they’re gold, and on the GT they’re just black.
Some automakers charge extra for repainting the calipers, but in the world of Subaru it’s all part of an elaborate semaphore.
Whatever the meaning transmitted by the calipers, I dig it. The best thing about a WRX is that you can beat the hell out of it, and all that hard plastic on the outside is great for beating the hell out of it. Also, now that nothing is a sedan anymore, I’m back into sedans.
What’s It Like On The Inside?
My daughter doesn’t know who Colin McRea is and, yet, as soon as she looked into the car she immediately got it. “It’s so blue!” It’s true, the Recaro seats upfront and the bench in the back are trimmed in Ultrasuede with bright blue bolsters. Cars should be fun, and WRXs, especially, should be a little ridiculous. There’s also blue trim on the center console and bright blue stitching everywhere. It’s like Gargamel finally stymied the Smurfs, killed them, and had a taxidermist remake the interior of his car.
The front buckets are great, with enough bolstering to keep me from sliding out the front door when doing stupid things. I did a long drive back and forth to visit my parents and the firmness didn’t bother me, though my daughter did gripe about the angle of the rear seats.
As with other modern Subarus, there’s the tall 11.6-inch “Multimedia Plus” screen. I do not like this. Volvo does something similar and I’m also not a fan. The difference is that the screen in the Volvo reacts as quickly and intuitively as the phone in your pocket. Subaru’s screen has a weird latency that’s more akin to whenever you ask your kid to clean something. There’s a momentary pause, contemplation, resistance, and then a slow acquiescence.
What’s It Like To Drive
You might know me as the guy who looks good in a suit or, maybe, as the guy you want on your bar trivia team. More likely, you know me as the guy who bitched about his Forester for more than a year. I hope that doesn’t give the impression of an anti-Subaru bias. I am conceptually on board with what Subaru is doing even if, in practice, the brand is sometimes a let-down.
A lot of the annoyance I feel comes from Subaru’s embrace of CVTs, which no one is good at but Subaru is particularly bad at implementing in most of its cars. The company is addressing this both with hybrids and, in the case of my loaner car, a manual transmission. It’s amazing how this one change makes me feel so much better about Subaru in general.
Also, as Autopian writer Thomas Hundal pointed out in the similarly-equipped tR, the gear ratios and engine tune are matched to create a fun and extremely predictable (in the good way) driving experience. The first kid I knew who had a WRX immediately crashed it. A mixture of too much oversteer and too little skill saw him driving nose first into a light pole.
I’m not sure you should give a kid a brand new WRX as a first car, but this thing actually rotates now! They can now hit a tree with the rear of the car, which is a lovely change. This car doesn’t even have the best gearbox you can buy at this price. Like a lot of Subaru gearboxes it’s a little too notchy, especially when cold. A great gearbox sounds like “ca-chunk” as you change gears, and this is more like “ca-ca-chonk.” The clutch is nice and heavy, though, with a wide friction point. There’s even enough pedal spacing for heel-and-toeing.
It would be super cool if I had a tR to test this against so I could tell you how much better the STi-tuned adaptive dampers are than the stock passive ones. I didn’t. My guess is that they’re way better. Dialed up all the way to Sport+ the WRX stays as flat as the brim on, well, the average WRX owner’s hat. Set it back to Comfort and the car feels like a good, modern SUV over rougher roads. Thomas complained of the steering being a bit numb and, either Subaru improved this or my hands aren’t as good as his. Or both!
Is 271 horsepower enough in a modern performance car? The WRX lacks a lot of competition in the “AWD rally-inspired” class, though the Corolla GR and Golf R both manage above 300 horsepower. If only so that it would reach the infamous “gentlemen’s agreement” number, you’d think Subaru would have tried to hit 276 horses. The car is by no means underpowered, it just doesn’t feel as wild as the STis I’ve had in the past.
Additionally, the lack of a trick adjustable center diff like you’d get on an STi is a slight bummer. After getting lost trying to find a truly unplowed section of road, my dad and I followed some tire tracks to a semi-secluded spot to test out the Michelin Pilot Alpins wrapped tightly around the satin-finish 19-inchers. Is there a better and more affordable performance driving experience than just sending it on an icy road? Are sno-nuts the final boss of vehicular jackassery? Yes, and, yes.
In Sport+ mode I was able to toss the WRX around and my dad was quite impressed, though it did feel like the tS was missing a trick without the cool diff. It was a little one note, even if I really like that one note.
Later on we ventured down an icy, choppy hill and I was a bit concerned we wouldn’t make it back up. My fears were quickly allayed as the Subaru did what Subarus always do in these situations and happily brought us back up to a plowed road.
The tires certainly help here, as no all-season formulation I’ve seen will give you this amount of grip across ribbons of undulated ice. More importantly, though, Subaru’s asymmetric AWD system and active torque vectoring always somehow seem to translate what my brain wants to do through the tires and onto the road.
I’d have been an idiot all day if the car wasn’t so conspicuously blue I was afraid a cop was going to notice. Hmm… maybe I get why people buy white ones.
What’s The Punctum Of The 2025 Subaru WRX tS?
Pink. It’s got the little pink symbols. If you care about Subaru performance cars, you want the car with the little bits of pink. This isn’t quite a full STi and it’s not clear when, or if, we’ll get one of those. At almost $50k I’d be tempted to get the TR, which has almost everything you want other than the nice dampers. In a just world you’d have a tR, a tS, and an STi.
Either way, the WRX tS is every bit a WRX and that means there’s no end to the fun you’ll have in it. Comparison is the thief of joy and, since there’s no STI to weigh it against, you’ll be happiest just enjoying it for what it is: a happy, comfortable, reasonably quick AWD sedan with a manual transmission.
“The 2025 Subaru WRX ‘tS’ Fixes The Worst Flaw Of Modern Subarus”
Weird, I still see that hideous plastic cladding on it.
“It’s like Gargamel finally stymied the Smurfs, killed them, and had a taxidermist remake the interior of his car.”
Beats whale penis leather I guess.
I had to do a double take and then check what I paid for a 2015 just 10 years ago. I know, “inflation”, but around $15K more!
I like the lesser GT trim well enough, but I’m out. Still contemplating a Corolla GR, but they are also a little rich my my bank.
For 46k I just can’t take it seriously. I have owned 2 wrxs, and really enjoyed one of them (the older one). The wrx is kind of dead I think. I’d rather have a GR or a type r for this kind of car now. As a life long new englander I think AWD for snow driving on regular old paved roads is really overrated. FWD with snow tires goes just fine. Snow driving is so much more about tires and technique than it is about the actual car you’re driving.
Glad you enjoyed this though. I think the CVT hate is overblown. I’ve driven a regular wrx with the cvt and it wasn’t the problem. The steering was the problem XD.
The issue with the current WRX is that past WRXs were all better, especially at the price point of this current one. At this price, I would get a Golf-R if I wanted a fast, do-everything daily that worked in all weather. If I wanted something that gave me the frantic feels of the old STIs, I would get a GR Corolla. If I wanted the best car to drive during the vast majority of miles that don’t involve gravel or snow (and I live where it can snow 5 months a year), I would get a Civic R.
The sedan only form, ugly design, and 15-year-old performance don’t equate to something desirable.
They lost me at $46,000. And it’s still goofy looking. Subaru ruined this generation of WRX for what reason, I can’t imagine.
That’s just a sedan, my friend. Don’t normalize “rally sedan” as a body style. That’s some marketing speak.
Thank you, Matt, for answering the question of if Subaru had fixed the lag in their infotainment screens. My brother-in-law bought an end-of-year 2024 Outback and his screen has horrendous lag most of the time – the type where you press it a second time, convinced it didn’t register the first press. He at least got a good deal on his, and the rest of the car does what he needs of it, so that infotainment is really his only complaint.
My complain is mostly that the WRX doesn’t seem like the value proposition it was even a decade ago. I want to like the WRX, but not when it is nearly $50k to get one in the spec it should only be sold in (and I’m not a manual diehard, it is that their CVT is simply not fun – ever).
Subaru is just fuming that we’re all complaining that there is no STI when they probably didn’t even want to give us a WRX.
I’ll wait for the branded title south Florida special after it end up in its natural position wrapped around a pole.
Must be a Typo
More like 29 Highway?
Ooops, thanks.