,
The other great things are the cars 4-door practicality, decent interior room and best of all, the low price. We doubt there are many cars with this level of performance and practicality for the same price! The only thing about the WRX that isn't endearing is that it looks somewhat homely, but since we like the overall car so much we can overlook that.
Honorable Mentions
Below are some current Japanese cars that are good and almost great. They certainly don't suck, but they're not quite there in our opinion. Although great cars, they are either not all there as a balanced package, too expensive for what you get or lacking in performance compared to their competition.
Toyota 86/FR-S/Subaru BRZ
The Toyota 86/Subaru BRZ is a joint venture between Toyota and Subaru. Using Subaru's FA20 direct injection 2-liter boxer 4 cylinders and Impreza suspension and brakes, wrapped in a compact and attractive body, the 86/BRZ almost walked into our hearts.
I say almost because I feel that the engine for the car sucks. The little FA20 is too little for a car with such sporty potential and intent. The car looks great and is sort of fun to drive, but it doesn't go anywhere. Somehow the 200 hp 2-liter doesn't feel like 200 hp and everything seems to take forever.
Adding an off the shelf Subaru turbo engine would make the car easy and cheap to get lots of additional power out of it and would wake the car up, making it a giant killer and giving it the performance to match its svelte looks and decently light weight. Come on Toyota/Subaru, what's stopping you?
