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Every neighborhood has one. The guy with the monstrous SUV and a driveway covered in ice. No matter how shiny their brand new snow-blower is (they usually have a snowblower), when the white stuff starts to accumulate, they hop in their Suburban, step on the gas, and let the 4-wheel drive do the rest. The machine specifically designed to clear driveways never even gets primed — why let your hands freeze pushing that contraption around when your SUV isn’t even really stuck?
I wonder why more car companies haven’t built competitors to the Subaru WRX.
There’s a great write-up of the entire history of the WRX over at Road & Track, which I encourage you to read if you’re new to the car’s culture. Established WRX fans are already well versed in the vehicle’s evolution and beyond stoked about the concept for a next version.
Speaking of evolution, the only real competitor to the high-performance Subie was the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, which has recently been discontinued.
While America was introduced to the WRX in 2002, other countries (including Japan, the U.K., and Australia) have known the rally racer since 1997. That’s plenty of time for competition to spring up, but it never really did, save for the Evo.
The WRX is so different because it came from rally racing roots, is all-wheel drive, and can be had in either sedan or wagon form. That makes the car perfect for families that need to haul serious… stuff. Other carmakers just don’t have the pedigree to build a car like the WRX.
Toyota, though, could offer something similar, but with its own twist.