- Increase this score considerably if you’re looking for a track-ready car you can also daily drive
- Very rare as a highly equipped sports car you can still buy with a manual transmission
- WRX remains the all-weather, everyday-use sport compact champ
- For this money you’re looking hard at the more refined, faster Civic Type R
- The TR can’t quite fill the STI-shaped hole in our hearts
- Poor fuel economy even for this class of car
Overview
– Grand Rapids, Michigan
The Subaru WRX is a fan favorite for some good, elemental reasons. The formula of a potent, sweet-handling compact car with enough comfort and utility to drive every day, is still pretty bulletproof. If you care about the act of driving, you’ll value what a WRX brings to the table, especially if you’re on a budget and live in a place with four seasons.
The new Subaru WRX TR is, in many ways, the absolute expression of that formula. The revived trim – Subaru used the “TR” surname in the past to describe a stripped, “tuner ready” WRX – now means that you get the highest spec of the car with a manual transmission, in addition to uprated brakes, wheels, and dampers.
The cost for the best WRX you can buy today? How does $42,775 (or $8,920 over the base car) sound? Let’s dig in.
Why It’s Great
I’ve been testing versions of the WRX since the 2002-2003 Bugeye arrived on our shores, and though the model has changed tremendously over the years – mostly adding performance and refinement and subtracting involvement – all of them are a riot. Let’s not get overwrought about the styling or steering feel with the current car; the reality is that this is still a sport compact that will rival anything at its price point when you’re measuring overall fun.
The performance of the 276-horsepower, 2.4-liter boxer-four is still excellent (even if a 5.5-second 0-60 time doesn’t blow you away these days). And the great roll character of the suspension, tighter here with the stiffer dampers and sidewall of the TR but still quite progressive, helps make the car joyful on any curvy road.
In many ways, the WRX TR is made for someone just like me. I live in a cold-weather climate so I appreciate an all-wheel drive sports car that I can drive year-round. And it’s nice not to have to make the hard choice between the package that comes with the WRX GT – including Subaru’s full EyeSight suite of active safety features and excellent, power-adjust Recaro seats – or a manual transmission. The TR gets all of the above.
In much the same way as the Subaru BRZ tS I reviewed recently, the TR is a great option for a WRX owner who might want to upgrade to Brembo brakes, 19-inch wheels, or more aggressive tires anyway, with auto-crossing or weekend track days in mind.
What It’s Missing
Depending on your point of view, the WRX TR is either missing the value proposition of the base WRX model or the added power and performance of the long-gone WRX STI cars.
Not to beat a dead horse with a stack of crisp hundreds, but the base, manual WRX can be had for about $33K. For that money you get a stripped-down cabin, 17-inch wheels, and none of the advanced safety stuff. But you also get the same powertrain with all-wheel drive and the ability to build the car as you like with the money you save. (You can certainly find a lot of Brembo and Recaro products on CARiD.com, for instance.)
There is also a camp (of which I may or may not be the unofficial camp counselor) that would just prefer Subaru go all the way in and build an STI instead of a TR. Back in 2022, the company said pretty unequivocally that there would not be an STI variant for this generation of WRX. And of course, the lack of a model or trim doesn’t have much bearing on the viability of the TR, except that for old heads like us, it doesn’t quite measure up to our historical reference point for a top dog WRX.
Is It A Forever Car?
Despite all of that, the answer here is probably “yes” more often than not. For a compact sports sedan, the WRX sells pretty well for Subaru, and people tend to hold on to them. Just a glance at your local Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, or national auction sites will tell you that owners value Rex in the secondary market. Clean, unmodified examples and limited edition cars are both hard to find and expensive when you do.
The WRX TR is just special enough then, especially after the pain of monthly payments starts to fade, that I think it’ll be held in high regard by enthusiasts. I’m not sure about forever, but I’d guess that if there were a TR in my garage, I’d need to think long and hard about the need to replace it with something else.
Also Try
Options at this price point with equal or better performance abound these days. There’s the similarly all-wheel-driven Toyota GR Corolla, but if you’re not picky, cars as varied as the Honda Civic Type R, Hyundai Elantra N, and Volkswagen GTI are worth a long test drive. The Type R is more money, the GR far less forgiving, and the GTI a bit inert, but we’re actually in a bit of a bloom for the sport compact segment – don’t miss your chance.
Base Price: $41,655 + $1,120
As-Tested Price: $42,775
Engine: Turbocharged 2.4-Liter H4
Output: 271 Horsepower / 258 Pound Feet
Transmission: Six-Speed Manual
Drive: All-Wheel
EPA Fuel Economy: 19 City / 26 Highway / 22 Combined
0-60 MPH: 5.5 Seconds
Top Speed: 145 Miles Per Hour
Weight: 3,450 Pounds
Seating: 5
Cargo Capacity: 12.5 Cubic Feet
