The interior is well laid out. The controls are of good quality, attractive and their placement logical. A power sunroof, power door locks and power windows with driver's one-touch auto-down feature, air conditioning, cruise control, dual map lights and intermittent wipers come standard. Safety features include ABS brakes and dual air bags. The 4-speaker, 80-watt AM/FM stereo cassette audio system sound quality is adequate and comes equipped with a single disc in-dash CD player. Carbon fiber patterned trim and white-faced gauges complete the sporty RS image. Its rear seats are designed for adults, making a long distance journey with four passengers relatively comfortable. As well, the trunk holds a sufficient load, which just might allow you to justify this sport sedan as a practical purchase.
The go-fast bodywork is derived from none other than the most winning rally car in the last decade, the Subaru WRC (World Rally Car). We hate to get you all excited about the adequately powerful 2.5 RS, and then tell you that Subaru is denying us the truly potent version of this dirt demon. Well they are! In its homeland of Japan (as well as other less restrictive countries around the world) Subaru makes a WRC version of the Impreza for the street with 270hp! Can you imagine? This kind of power might do a lot more than stand hairs on their ends! As nice as it would be to have this purebred rally car available in North America, the current race inspired 2.5 RS comes from fine breeding. It looks, handles and feels a great deal like the rally car that inspired it.
Subaru has nurtured one of the most loyal ownership bases in the automotive industry. This says a great deal about Subaru's high level of dependability. Subaru's Engine Control Module manages the fuel injection and ignition systems and features learning, self-diagnosis, limp-home and antiknock capabilities. In the case of the RS, most of its parts have been race tested so the argument of its reliability is a non-issue.
Fuel economy is also relatively good, with 21/28 mpg city/highway for the manual transmission and 23/28 mpg for the automatic.