Weekend Athlete: 2009 Subaru Impreza GT
For starters, this is a hatchback/wagon, and that alone sends some people into a conniption. Those people need to go breathe into a paper bag for a while, because a hatchback gives you a nice, low load floor and — if you’re the type to put a rack on your car — the roof rack won’t be 20 feet up in the air. Subaru was also kind enough to design the hatch to open high enough to keep tall folks from ramming their head into it.
The flaw is that the hatch is a bit narrow. I had to unload my bike in a hurry and found myself banging the saddle and wheels getting it out. I wouldn’t kick the Subaru out of the competition for that, especially since the bike went in with both wheels on, but it’s worth noting.
The seats fold down with a simple tug of a knob. The only issue is, as with 98% of the cars I test, if the front seats are set far back to accommodate a tall driver (or if you like to really recline the seatback) that gets in the way of the seat folding. Sit up straight, though, and you have no issues.
Camping would be fine in this car for two or three folks — four if you’re extremely light packers – but it should be noted that I find the backseat of the Impreza kind of tight.
Where the Impreza does really well is in the bike/gear test. Despite being a small hatchback with a narrow cargo opening, I had a lot of different options when it came to putting things in place, and it was really easy to load. I’ve no doubt an intrepid athlete could load this thing for a trip inside of two minutes if he were, say, double-parked on a busy street in a major American city. (Ahem.)
That, combined with the best visibility of any car I’ve ever driven, made me love this Impreza. I got to parallel park it on this test and — presto — I was in the spot. When I went to pass on the highway, it was easy to see just how much space I had to make the pass. When you’re tired after a race, this is the type of thing that really pays off.
Oh, and it scoots right along. That’s something I don’t always get with the cars I test, and I kept wanting to find some excuse to goose the throttle a bit. There’s no manual transmission option for the GT trim, and that would bug me if I wanted a performance car. If I were exhausted after a race, though, I wouldn’t mind the simplicity of an automatic. Plus, you can get a manual in the even-faster WRX or in the slower base Impreza.
Now, I maintain that the Honda Element is the best car for a Weekend Athlete because, even though it’s not as much fun to drive as the Impreza — and it does have a wicked blind spot — it can carry everything, give you a nice place to relax and cleans up really easily. It simply does everything this test requires. The Impreza is way more fun to drive and doesn’t have the blind spot issue, but does just OK in the other tests.
I’ll put it this way: In the teen comedies I saw as a kid, there was always a shy guy who had his heart in the right place, was a bit dorky and, in the end, usually turned out to be the hero. That’s the Element. The Impreza is the flashy, good-looking one who makes you forget about that other guy for a while.
Weekend Athlete Scores (out of 10)
Ease of loading gear — 8: You don’t ram your head on the hatch, and your stuff goes in easily.
Ease of seat operation — 8.5: Simplicity always carries the day here.
Bike hauling — 6: The hatch is too narrow if you ride a larger-framed bike.
Locker room cred — 7: It looks fast, but in a subtle way. The wagon styling has always been a favorite of mine.
All-around — Well, the numbers say 7, but it’s higher than that for me. We have an editor here who squeals with delight every time he gets to drive a certain car (cough, Mini, cough). If this car showed up in my driveway — well, I wouldn’t squeal, because I find that practice unseemly, but I would be one pretty happy guy. Test-drive it if you’re in the market.
