Subaru wasn’t always like this.
The brand’s current place in the American imagination is secure, and plenty of automakers envy it. It has an established appeal as a builder of family cars that emphasize safety and the ability to get off the paved road easily. Its advertisements focus on safety and cute dogs.
Subarus are rugged but with no need to boast about it. If you want to sit in traffic looking like you hit the muddy trails, you buy a Wrangler or a Hummer. If you want to hit muddy trails looking as calm as a hatchback in traffic, you buy a Subaru.
Put it this way- the National Park Service began fining all-wheel-drive (AWD) cars last year for taking trails restricted to 4-wheel-drive (4WD) vehicles. We learned this from the owner of a Subaru Crosstrek who got a ticket in the mail. They caught him with a trail camera. That was the only way to catch him. The car made it through the trail just fine.
But Subaru once had a wild, high-speed side. It built a name for itself racing. Subaru was once known for great, rally-inspired cars that fed a tuning community so dedicated it kept its own magazines afloat.
The Subaru Impreza WRX STI was once the snarling king of the World Rally Cross racing circuit.
Subaru has de-emphasized racing in recent years. This year, its motorsports division will build a small number of rally cars based on the 2025 WRX platform, but they will not be for sale in dealerships.
Still, the company is starting to toy with its old hobbies again. Case in point – the 2025 Subaru WRX tS. Subaru says tS stands for “tuned by STI.” This car isn’t quite the WRX STI of old. But, like a middle-aged former athlete getting back in the gym, it knows how to do this.
All-new for 2025, the tS is a modern, dog-friendly Subaru with a Top Safety Pick score from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), like the ads say. But it has an edge to it. A little of the old rally racer hot sauce.
In a week of testing on urban and suburban streets, I found the WRX tS a thoroughly enjoyable car that mixes traits of the new, comfy, family-friendly Subaru and the old high-attitude one. My tester was a pre-production car, but nearly identical to the version Subaru retailers will stock soon. It will start at $46,875 (including $1,170 for delivery). The WRX tS comes standard with a 6-speed manual transmission.
Subtle Hints at its Performance Nature
The WRX tS doesn’t shout about what it can do. From the outside, it looks almost like a normal WRX.
The WRX is a bit of a performance-oriented vehicle to begin with. It’s a roomy compact sedan suited for commuter duty and hauling the kids to daycare, but with more power than you’d get in a Civic or a Corolla, plus the added benefit of Subaru’s excellent symmetrical all-wheel-drive (AWD) system.
The standard car shows its athletic intentions with scratch-resistant plastic-armored wheel arches and an air-sucking slot in the hood.
Subaru neatly decided to signal, rather than shout, that the tS is something more. There are two hints for those in the know.
One is bronze brake calipers – an old STI signature. The other is cherry-colored badges, another STI touch.
The Cabin Pulls off Magic
Subaru designers deserve special recognition for what they’ve done in the cabin.
To look at it, it has all the attitude you expect of a 1990s boy racer. Blue-and-black trimmed seats and a thick, flat-bottom steering wheel look the part. There’s something distinctly fun about opening a car door and finding an unexpected burst of color.
But, if you knew those old WRX STIs, you know the seats were built for lightness, not comfort. These wear the Recaro brandmark just like those. But they’re actually quite comfortable. My mid-40s backside found nothing to complain about.
Middle-aged drivers pretending to be teenagers again will love these seats. Grippy Ultrasuede holds you in place if you decide to throw it into a corner.
This is still a compact sedan. The rear seats are best for kids or tolerant adult friends. A fully digital gauge cluster is new for 2025.
A nitpick — Subaru built in heated seats but not a heated steering wheel. I’d pick the wheel over the seats if I had to choose. No wireless charging pad is a little surprising in 2025, too.
Growls and Grips Like No Other WRX
The tS uses the same turbocharged 4-cylinder engine as other WRX models. That’s no complaint. A throaty boxer with a flat torque curve and 271 horsepower, it’s fun at legal speeds and snaps and snarls like few other engines available in its price range.
The 6-speed stick has wonderfully short throws, but the clutch is light for a performance car. In other words, you can enjoy using it and won’t cramp up in a traffic jam.
But the “tuned by STI” the tS moniker refers to is about the corners. Subaru says it refers to “a new STI-tuned suspension featuring electronically controlled dampers and revised suspension tuning.” It shows up best in Sport mode.
The STI suspension holds the car nearly flat in tight cornering. All WRX models boast enormous grip. But you feel more confident testing it with this balance. Bridgestone Potenza S007 tires won’t let you break traction in any reasonable maneuver – I didn’t get to test this on the track.
Brembo brakes – six pistons in the front and two in the rear – are nicely balanced and suited to a performance car but not too grippy.
A Car for Your Younger Days, or for Reliving Them
Automakers have been showing some nostalgia for the 1990s in 2025. There’s an Integra for sale again. A Prelude is coming soon. And this — not exactly an STI, but something close.
The WRX tS is a great example of how to do nostalgia. It reminds you of the grunty dirt-racing Subarus of two decades ago. But, in important ways, it isn’t like them. It’s more forgiving and more comfortable.
If you buy this car, you’ll have a comfortable commuter that hints at speed. If you stretch its legs, it’s an impressive performance car for a mainstream price. But you don’t have to. You can drive this like a family car or like a memory.
All it needs is a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution to pick fights with. Let’s hope Mitsubishi engineers take this as a challenge and start to remember their old hobbies, too.