A Value Beyond Price: Does The 2024 Impreza RS Have The Subaru Spirit?

Prior to the arrival of a 2024 Impreza RS finished in "Pure Red" for the week, my experience with modern Subarus had been fairly limited. Plenty of time behind the wheel of a 2006 Subaru Outback — that now belongs to my mom — and a 2015 Subaru Impreza did set a benchmark, for the little over 600 miles I spent driving this newest version of the Impreza in its most expensive form. Given Subaru's noted longevity (or at least the owner's sentimentality), 600 or so miles is hardly a drop in the bucket compared to the 150,000-200,000 miles some Subarus may endure over its lifespan.

I didn't go mountain biking with my dog, or even get anywhere near camping. I just daily-drove it where it touched adverse weather and snow exactly once. I did drive to a church conference in Philadelphia, which was firmly within the use case of really any car, much less a bright red Subaru with about a dozen "RS" badges festooned over the interior and exterior. 

Over the course of the week, one question circled around my head: "What makes a modern RS?" Subaru has a long history of rally-ready RS models. However, given today's automotive tastes and Subaru's own lineup skewing towards crossovers, this RS-badged all-wheel drive hatchback is a bit of an oddball in 2024.

Most automakers seem to have their own respective meanings for "RS" badging, these days. On modern Chevys, it's essentially an appearance package that makes a Chevy Cruze or Equinox look exactly 15% more aggressive. On Audi's line-up, sometimes an RS badge will get you a heck of a lot more horsepower over a regular Audi. It's not an exact science with regards to what consonants adorn your car. 

For this specific Impreza, the RS badge signified a 2.5-liter "boxer" four-cylinder (non-RS Imprezas get a 2-liter), 18-inch alloy wheels, and a "Lineartronic" continuously variable transmission that allows to you "shift" between 8 "speeds" through the use of paddle shifters behind the steering wheel.

Alex Hevesy

You also get additional features through Subaru's "EyeSight" driver assistance technology which includes automatic emergency steering, rear cross traffic alert, and lane change assist. The interior of the RS greets you with an 11.6-inch screen for all of your infotainment needs, and a Qi wireless phone charging pad to boot.

Perhaps it goes without saying, but you also get a number of "RS" branded floor mats, badges, and red accents. This Subaru also had an optional Harmon Kardon sound system, 10-way power driver's seat, and a power moonroof. Given the fact it never climbed above 30 degrees during most of my time with the Subaru, the power moonroof didn't see much use.

Alex Hevesy

With the RS badging and the 182 horsepower of oomph the 2.5-liter provides, you'd think it would offer a few more performance chops over the regular Impreza (with 152 horsepower on tap). It's definitely louder than you would expect, with the exhaust doing its own impression of performance-related howls, cracks, and pops. But it really isn't a bona-fide rally car like the RS Subarus of the past, or indeed how the aggressive badging might have you believe. 

On the fuel economy end, Subaru estimates you'll get 26 miles per gallon in the city, 33 miles per gallon on the highway, and 29 miles per gallon combined. Over my tenure driving the Impreza, I achieved just over 30 miles per gallon, granted that a lot of my driving was on the highway.

Subaru's EyeSight was a point of contention during my time of use. It was mildly convenient at best with adaptive cruise control and annoying at worst with its overzealous lane assist technology. Fairly often, it just disabled itself when anything blocked the camera located behind the rearview mirror. If anything got in the way of that camera, be it rain, snow, or just glare from the sun, EyeSight shut off and took another few minutes to come back to life. The EyeSight system might need a few redundancies equipped if drivers want to make full use of its features, regardless of the weather.

Alex Hevesy

This might not be much of a problem if weather and the sun didn't exist, but I live in Southern Pennsylvania and adverse weather is just a fact of life. In fact, EyeSight really did not know what to make of the snow storm I trudged through, and was disabled for a significant portion of that particular drive in a winter wonderland.

Sticking with technology quibbles, Subaru's Starlink infotainment system tried its best at making the mere task of switching from Apple CarPlay to SiriusXM a chore, and navigating through seemingly a dozen menus, especially while driving, isn't my idea of fun. Although once you figured out the particular taps and menus, it wasn't too hateful. Still, with the admittedly very good Harmon Kardon sound system, you might want to have an easier time navigating your particular source of music.

As for actually driving it, the Subaru is competent and comfortable. The interior is a nice place to be when you're not fighting with the infotainment system, and the 10-way adjustable seats certainly went through the paces as I figured out exactly where to set the lumbar support and how far away I sat from the steering wheel. The controls were intuitive enough, and the heated seats in particular were a lifesaver when the temperature started to drop. Subarus in the past have garnered a reputation for weak climate control systems. Fortunately in the dead of winter just outside of Philadelphia, that was not the case with this 2024 Impreza. It got warm quickly and stayed that way every time I got in the car.

Road noise was almost negligible and the Yokohama all-season tires it wore weren't really anything to write home about. However, don't misconstrue that as a bad thing. The tires made almost no noise and were nothing but compliant, even when the weather got sketchy (all-wheel drive definitely helps matters quite a bit).

The 2024 Impreza, even with its RS badges and premium audio system, is a humble car. It's not a WRX STI screaming through the streets of Tokyo, or a World Rally Championship car flying around the woods in Finland. It's a sub-$30,000 hatchback with cool badges and a little extra flair. It's important to temper your expectations given the segment we are working with. But that doesn't at all mean it's a shame to the RS badging or Subarus from yesteryear.

19th century English theologian Charles Haddon Spurgeon said "Humility is to make a right estimate of one's self." I think that's exactly what Subaru did with the Impreza. It's not turbocharged, it's not particularly fast or bone-rattlingly exciting to drive. However, it will get you to work safely and on time when the weather gets dicey, and you should get exactly 30 miles per gallon no matter how you drive. The extra bells and whistles just make it a less hateful place to be during your commute.

Unless you live inside of an REI or North Face commercial, you likely aren't going to be camping somewhere in the Rocky Mountains all the time, or go "off the grid" in Alaska with your labradoodle and $10,000 mountain bike. You're going to be using this Subaru to sit in traffic behind a Mercury Grand Marquis driving 15 miles per hour under the speed limit. That's an average use case scenario for people all over the country.

Lastly, there's the economics of owning a 2024 Subaru Impreza RS. The base model Impreza starts at a pretty reasonable $22,995. The privilege of RS badges, a bigger engine and 18-inch wheels will set you back $27,885. With destination charges and optional extras, the Impreza RS I drove totaled up to $31,045. Given its hatchbackness, the Impreza has few current competitors within its price range. 

The Honda Civic Sport Touring hatchback starts at a comparable $31,450, but it doesn't come with all-wheel drive, which the Impreza gets fitted with as standard. The Toyota Corolla Hatchback XSE falls into the same category at $27,900, also lacking AWD. The newest Toyota Prius is one of the very few other all-wheel drive hatchbacks available; even then, the MSRP starts at $29,350, and going up to the Limited trim you're throwing down $36,365 for the car. For what it is, a slightly spicy all-wheel drive hatchback with most of the premium options checked, it's hard to beat the 2024 Subaru Impreza RS.