SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8
This is the home of automobile road tests in South Africa. We drive South African cars, SUVs and LCVs under South African conditions. It also just happens that most of the vehicles we drive are world cars as well, so what you read here probably applies to the models you can get at home.
*To read one of our road tests, just select from the menu on the left.
*Please remember too, that prices quoted were those ruling on the days I wrote the stories
Pic by Subaru@motorpics
Published in The Witness Motoring on Wednesday June 2, 2010
Bear with me as I get this right: Subaru Imprezas are sedans, unless we speak of the 2,0 litre “R.” That’s a hatch. The 2,5 WRX is definitely a sedan, but the fire-breathing, get-the-hell-outta-my-way WRX STi rally weapon is a hatch. Glad we cleared that up. Now just to show you that I truly like you all and would never dream of confusing anyone – how about the new 2,0 litre Subaru Impreza RS we just tested? It’s a sedan.
I personally think there were some hatchback bodies to use up, so as much as Subaru really wanted to go back to an all-sedan Impreza lineup, practicality prevailed. That’s my private opinion and has zero input from the manufacturer’s or importer’s PR machinery, so if you disagree, it’s just between us, OK?
Anyway, Subaru bills the RS as a “baby brother” to the 2,5 litre turbocharged WRX with which it shares body, suspension and tyres. They would also like you to regard it as a model in its own right and I almost agree. Basically it’s the naturally aspirated 2,0 litre engine in a WRX body, with bonnet scoop, mesh grille and sunroof deleted and wheels that are silver rather than smoked grey. I like the silver rims better, but that’s just me. The seats are a little less flamboyant and a couple of bob seems to have been saved on the radio/six-CD combo as well.
Looking at it from the outside, two chromed exhaust pipes poke out through the rear valence, while big black dummy extractor vents adorn each end of the rear bumper. Side skirts and a deep front airdam tell you this car is all about business – go mess someplace else if you know what’s good for you.
Inside, you sit lower than in the hatch, the seats wrap around you but not cloyingly so, the controls and instruments are exactly where they should be and everything feels good. It’s more intimate than in the plain-vanilla “R” but not as all out sexy as the WRX. The firmness and feeling of cornering as if you’re on rails is all there. You just know that, unless you are a complete clod with no respect for mechanics or the laws of physics, you will never find this machine’s limits. It’s built to handle the power of the bigger turbomotor, so you should be perfectly safe, especially if you’re paying your own way in it.
Like all current Subarus, the RS comes with a five-star ANCAP rating and all the expected safety kit. This includes six airbags, ABS, EBD, BAS and VDC (Vehicle Dynamic Control), hill start assist and cruise control. It also has full time All Wheel Drive. An interesting fact pointed out during Subaru’s 2008 press launch of the then-new Impreza range is that, in the currency of the time, some other manufacturers charged a premium averaging R31 000 for addition of AWD. Subaru includes it free and has been making its own since 1971.
Looking back on my July 2008 report on the 2,0 R hatch, I found rear seat head and knee room, as well as entry and exit to be a bit challenging. The sedan body overcomes these issues although the boot is still wide, long and flat and possibly a bit stingy as regards load space. There is no boot release handle as such, just the usual button on the key fob and a latch inside the cabin.
Other austerity measures include single channel air conditioning, no lights on the makeup mirrors and hard plastic materials on the dash and interior trim. The latter still manages to look fairly expensive despite its hardness, so all is not lost. The spare, although steel, is full-size.
Would I buy an RS? Having driven the real deal WRX with its bad-dog optional sound effects, probably not, but if I were still working up to one, no question.
The numbers
Price: R269 000
Engine: 1 994 cc DOHC flat four
Power: 110 kW at 6 400 rpm
Torque: 196 Nm at 3 200 rpm
Zero to 100: 10,4 seconds
Maximum speed: 193 km/h
Fuel: about 10,0 l/100 km
Tank: 60 litres
Warranty: 3 years/ 100 000 km
Maintenance plan: 3 years/63 000 km
Music: Radio/6-CD/aux
This is a one-man show, which means that road test cars entrusted to me are driven only by me. Some reviewers hand test cars over to their partners to use as day-to-day transport and barely experience them for themselves.
What this means to you is that every car reviewed is given my own personal evaluation and receives my own seat of the pants judgement - no second hand input here.
Every car goes through real world testing; on city streets littered with potholes, speed bumps and rumble strips, on freeways and if its profile demands, dirt roads as well.
I am based in Pietermaritzburg, KZN, South Africa. This is the central hub of the KZN Midlands farming community; the place farmers go to to buy their supplies and equipment, truck their goods to market, send their kids to school and go to kick back and relax.
So occasionally a cow, a goat or a horse may add a little local colour by finding its way into the story or one of the pictures. It's all part of the ambience!
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SA Roadtests
South Africa
ctjag8