Jul
03

The Subaru WRX name – is the beginning of the end here?

Posted in News By: Admin

Subaru fans around the world are wondering whether the WRX name is on the way out after Subaru dropped more than a decade’s worth of branding effort by renaming the Impreza WRX in Japan the S-GT. Also, the neither the WRX (or the S-GT) is being offered to Subaru’s third largest overseas market – the UK. The only turbocharged Impreza to be offered there is the Sti, due in 2008.

According to the company, the name change is because the hand that feeds also has an itchy trigger finger. Product planning viscount Naoyuki Yamauchi says the company aims to take some of the perceived edginess away from the midline sports model. Apparently customers were being scared away by the rally connection, which was at odds with the company’s plan to make the WRX model a volume seller. The ride feel, Yamauchi says, has also been retuned to be less rigid and thus having more mainstream appeal. But alluding to the STi, Yamauchi says the company won’t leave its strong enthusiast base in the lurch. The next year looks like it will be interesting . . .

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