Motoring Middle East: Car news, Reviews and Buying guides

All-new STi shows rally reps aren’t dead yet
By Imthishan Giado

About time, really. Subaru’s last STi really hasn’t set the world on fire (and neither has the new Impreza, if we’re being honest) so it was past time for the boys from Fuji Heavy Industries to unveil their flagship all-wheel-drive rally raid replica.

Available exclusively as a sedan now, the new STI has a ‘bold personality’ according to Subaru. I still think it looks blander than a box of Hanes’ briefs but it’ll certainly be quick: 305bhp from a 2.5-litre turbocharged boxer four, going to all four wheels solely through a six-speed manual transmission. Sales potential in the auto-lazy Middle East: limited, then.

Used to be with these rally replicas that you can drive them purely on their delicious chassis balance and addictive turbo thrust. No more, as this STI is laden with more electronics than a mall-based branch of Sharaf DG, chief among which is the Multi-Mode Driver Controlled Center Differential which can use information from approximately a metric tonne of sensors to best distribute power to each of those four wheels. There’s also a basic form of torque vectoring on tap, ensuring that no power is wasted to a scrabbling outer wheel.

Expect better plastics in the interior, a new gauge cluster and better legroom (> 2 inches) in the back, though the cabin fails to move the game in any significant fashion from the old forgettable one. Underneath, this is still an economy car and while that means that cost of ownership should not be too horrendous (apart from the turbo motor guzzling all your gas money, that is) it also means that Subaru can do very little to really make this a special place in which to spend time apart from moving some trim bits around.

I’d really like to drive this car someday but it’s as unlikely to happen as me getting a call to join Sandy Bullock in her next film; Subaru’s local dealers simply don’t do test drives. If one of you lot buy one, let us know if it’s any good!