The Base Subaru WRX Is AWD Performance on a BudgetZac Palmer"You're a long way from home," shouts a young Welsh fellow from his World Rally Blue BRZ, as I stand admiring the rolling grasslands of Snowdonia. It's true. The miniature Illinois sticker license plate on the front reveals as much. Subaru doesn't sell the current WRX in Europe, let alone the U.K., so a left-hand-drive WRX sitting on the side of the road in Wales is an extra-strange sight. It also feels like it's exactly where it should be.A small, all-wheel-drive, hot sedan is a choice tool to attack the narrow and constantly changing backroads of Wales. It would seem even more apt if a thick mist was blanketing the hills, making the roads damp enough to need that AWD system. But Europe continues to burn away with sunny 90-plus-degree Fahrenheit days, so I'm enjoying the sticky Dunlop SP Sport Maxx summer tires instead. And the air conditioning. I'm really loving the air conditioning.Zac PalmerSubaru brought back the base trim level for the WRX this year, which is the model I'm piloting for this road trip. I even chose a white one to fit the base-spec vibes. With no upcharge for premium paint, this WRX comes in at a lovely $33,690, or $5230 cheaper than the cheapest 2025 WRX that didn't offer the base model. Subaru heard your pleas for affordable performance cars, and it delivered.AdvertisementAdvertisementOutside the base model making its return, there's nothing particularly new with the WRX this year. It's largely the same car that launched back in 2022 with some fine-tuning of the equipment list. I'm behind the wheel now because Subaru decided it would be an entertaining way to get from Oulton Park Circuit down to the Goodwood Festival of Speed.SubaruI skipped ahead before. This journey really began at Oulton Park, the long-famous British Touring Car racetrack that should be on anyone's U.K. circuit bucket list. The flowy, elevation-meandering track is fast with little run-off, lots of walls, and plenty of blind corners. It takes a few laps to figure out where you need to be, but I fell in love right away. I also quickly learned that the WRX is no track star right out of the box.Thankfully, the fixes should be simple enough. High-temp brake fluid and proper track pads would do the trick to make sending it around Oulton Park a whole lot more fun. The stock brakes run out of stamina after only a few hard applications, not even lasting a full lap of pushing before the pedal goes all soft and mushy. A louder exhaust is deeply needed, too. With a helmet in place, you can't even hear a whisper from the 2.4-liter turbo boxer engine from inside the cabin. There isn't much noise outside the car either. Short gears and a low 6100 rpm redline make it easy to smack into the rev limiter, so I spent an undue amount of time keeping an eye on the tachometer instead of looking ahead to the next corner.SubaruThe 200-treadwear Dunlops are at least up to the task, delivering a shocking amount of adhesion to the surface, progressively breaking away as I find the edges of grip and never over-heating in our continuous four-lap sessions. Steering feel is still completely lacking, even if the steering itself is accurate and easy to judge. This generation of WRX handles better than any before it out of the box, and thankfully the base model is just as capable as the more premium trims. That is, until you get to the spicier tS and Series.Yellow. Those models cost well over $45,000, though.AdvertisementAdvertisementI'm able to mend a line mid-corner with a touch of throttle lift or light dab of the brakes for even more rotation. There's never enough power sent rearward to induce movement from the rear end on throttle. It feels safe. Secure. Effective. But not exactly hair-raising. That's always what the STI's Driver Controlled Center Differential was for.SubaruI left Oulton Park with much less brake pad material, thinking the WRX would claw back some brownie points on the road. There's a level of charm to its simplicity. No auto rev-matching leaves me to pedal dance it myself, and with how many rivers and small mountains run through Wales, there are a ton of corners worth downshifting and hammering your way out of. Acceptable enough pedal spacing makes it easy to tilt my heel over for the big blips necessary to make the engine respond. It's key to keep the revs up and engine on boil. This new 2.4-liter is quicker and smoother into its boost than past WRXs, but still needs to be constantly caned to get the performance you want out of it. The 271 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque are there, but it's not spoon-fed to you.Zac PalmerThe worst part about the WRX's base model is the lack of a feature I wouldn't have touched throughout my hot week in the car: heated seats. There are valid bones to pick with the ultra-cheap fabric used for those seats, too. The pricier Limited trim adds suede center inserts that hold you in a whole lot better than the all-cloth buckets do, but it's hard to do too much complaining at this price point. No matter the trim, you're stuck with the molasses-like 11.6-inch touchscreen infotainment. It's an absolute bear to use, though it's a minor improvement over the split-screen setup found in the base WRX at the start of this generation.By hour four through Wales, the stiff suspension I so enjoyed on the track is a tad tiresome over the violent and unavoidable storm drains everywhere. I don't think I'd trade it for worse handling, however, because every twisty section of road is leaving me smiling at the chassis' agile response. Without the helmet, the engine note is at least audible. It's just not enticing. Annoyingly, the car is loudest at its initial cold idle. I'm sure your neighbors will dislike it just as much as the guests at our hotel the next morning when we all fired them up at once.SubaruThe last stretch before arriving at the Goodwood Festival of Speed is all highway, where I was glad to see adaptive cruise control present, even on this base, manual WRX. It eats up miles with plenty of road and wind noise in the mix. And while the engine is quiet, a little buzz from the boxer remains to constantly remind you of its middling 26 mpg highway rating. There's nothing refined about the WRX, but it's not meant to be either. It's a car that makes you drive it to extract its performance. Nothing comes effortlessly or with great ease. And the price sure is right. Just make sure you save some budget for a few upgrades should track time or serious canyon carving be in the cards. Skip the white, too, because Galaxy Purple Pearl is only $395 extra.SubaruAdvertisementAdvertisementYou Might Also LikeIf You Can Only Own One Car, Make It One of TheseThese Are the Most Popular Cars by State
