THEY are the iconic pocket-rockets of the factory performance car market, steeped in history and built with pure rally performance as part of their DNA, and now the Subaru WRX and WRX STi are safer than they’ve ever been before.
Greater safety and more driver assistance inclusions are the key components of the 2016 model year variants, released late yesterday, with 18-inch alloy wheels also adding to the look and feel of Subaru’s marquee excitement machines.
The WRX Premium and WRX STi Premium, will also get a suite of new Vision Assist technologies as standard including blind spot monitoring, lane change assist, auto dimming rear view mirror, high beam assist, a side view monitor (built into the passenger wing mirror, it allows hard to see parts of the vehicle to be checked).
Also in the top-end models will be rear cross traffic alert, a system that detects passing vehicles when reversing from parking spaces, and power folding wing mirrors.
Entry level WRX gets a sleek new 6.2-inch touchscreen infotainment system, while WRX Premium and WRX STi Premium add a fully integrated 7-inch system, introducing a wide array of new functions, including pinch/zoom, voice recognition and Pandora compatibility.
Meanwhile, pricing of entry-level WRX STi drops $500 to $49,490, while for those fitted with a rear boot spoiler it is down $200 to $49,790 (plus on-roads of course). The WRX range starts at $38,990 for the standard manual model (up to $46,890 for the WRX Premium Lineartronic CVT), while the STi range tops out at $55,690 for the WRX STi Premium with rear spoiler (as pictured).
