Review and photos by Haney Louka,
CanadianDriver.com

Subaru’s entry-level model was redesigned for the 2008 model year and soldiers on essentially unchanged. Even so, I was looking forward to taking this one for a week-long spin. The reason for my enthusiasm was that Subaru bravely decided to send through a bare-bones four-door sedan with a manual transmission and exactly zero options. Sending us a base model helps us focus on a particular model’s intrinsic properties without being distracted by more powerful engines or fancy sound systems. And sadly, press cars with manual transmissions are becoming a rare sight in our nation’s press fleets.

2010 Subaru Impreza 2.5i sedan

So here it is, the $20,995 Subaru Impreza 2.5i. You could shell out another $1,100 for the four-speed slushbox, but that would be like placing a sushi order with only cooked ingredients: what’s the point?

The Impreza is one of those rare cars that has actually become less expensive over the years: going back into my road test archives, I found that the 2002 Impreza TS started at $21,995. (more…)