The Subaru WRX has a long history as a rally-bred hero car. No other Subaru inspires quite the same enthusiast excitement. Thus, when the Japanese automaker dropped a telling teaser, Subaru fans were quick to notice something important. One detail stood out, hinting that the hatch could be back.
Subaru showed the teaser at a press conference ahead of the Fuji 24 Hours endurance race. It featured a brawny widebody vehicle with pumped arches and an obvious hood scoop. At a glance, it approximated the dimensions and styling you’d expect for a new generation of WRX.
By and large, it just looked like any old concept drawing that an automaker might use to test the waters. Only, Subaru had mysteriously blurred the rear end of the picture. It was obscured enough that you couldn’t really tell if you were looking at a sedan or a hatch. Adding further spice to the mystery were some of the finer details on the roof, which Subaru fans were quick to latch on to.
Eagle-eyed Reddit user Dazzling-Rooster2103 picked up on the protrusions on the rear of the vehicle. “I noticed that there are two bumps on each side of the car near where the back glass would typically start on a sedan,” they explained on Reddit. “Usually those two bumps indicate a hinge for a hatchback trunk.”
Indeed, there are several hatchbacks on the market that have bulges in the roofline, just like these. Not least of which is the 2024 Subaru Impreza, as seen below. It’s a feature that is somewhat characteristic of a hatchback design. Not all hatches have them, but quite a few do. Such protrusions are seldom seen on a sedan, where the roof is typically flat where it meets the rear windshield.
Of course, this is not a surefire tell. The bumps on the roof don’t confirm anything—they could be a weird styling tweak, part of a spoiler mount, or something else besides. Still, it’s a tantalizing hint that Subaru might just be contemplating building a five-door brawler once again.
It’s been a long time since Subaru built a WRX hatchback. We have to go all the way back to the third generation, back when the model was still officially branded as an Impreza. The turbocharged AWD hatch debuted alongside the sedan in 2007, followed in 2008 by the more powerful and aggressive WRX STI.
Come 2015, the new-generation model was rebranded purely under the WRX name. Subaru would only build it as a sedan, despite hatchback models making up around 50% of WRX sales in the US. The Subaru Levorg would come into being as a wagon based on the same platform, but was not brought to the US market.
Conventional wisdom says hatchbacks and wagons don’t sell as well as sedans and SUVs. However, the more practical body styles are having a renaissance in the US at the moment. Indeed, perhaps the best example is the BMW M5. Right now, the German automaker is selling more M5 Touring wagons than traditional sedans.
In any case, we won’t have to wait too much longer to find out what Subaru has in the works. As covered by Japanese outlet Best Car, Subaru’s chief technical officer noted that a reveal for the teased model is planned for the 2025 Japan Mobility Show in Tokyo this October. If a new WRX is announced, it might not enter production for a few years yet, given the current generation debuted in 2021.
In any case, it’s a promising hint at the future of the WRX. People who like driving fast in practical cars could have a lot to celebrate in a few months time.
Top graphic images: Subaru via Car Watch; Subaru
Given Subaru’s addiction to juvenile styling frippery and stick on cosmetic rally cosplay wings and such, those are probably just speed humps. Can any pop-sci-fi fans here identify what fictional spaceship prop they came from?
Part of me just wants it to be fiddly aero bits that make everyone furious, but I want that hatch back.
I predict one of two things (possibly both) will happen if they bring back the hatch.
Any teaser about a manual transmission?
I can dream….
The Bugeye WRX from 2002 was immediately available as a hatch wagon. What’s this debuted in 2007 stuff?
Read the whole paragraph. 2007 was the debut year of the last WRX gen that was available with a hatch.
I’d be willing to bet this is an indication of the demise of the Impreza sedan at Subaru.
That already happened, the Impreza went hatch-only when the current gen debuted for 2024. The WRX hasn’t quite been on the same update cycle, but hasn’t really shared much/any exterior parts with the Impreza these last couple gens AFAIK. Surely a return to an actual Impreza WRX would offer a chance at some cost savings from multiple body designs, not like the Civic Type R, GR Corolla, etc. are worse off sharing the basic design.
The more hatches and wagons, the better. The signature blend of comfort, practically, and sportiness (some, but not all sadly) gets more and more appealing the older I get. I couldn’t afford one when young and then most of them went away. I tried to buy a GTI as my last car, but it sold out from under me. I got tired of looking for the right deal on a used car and bought a new GR86 instead.
I’m guessing there are only so many people who will buy a hatchwagon. They’re built, they sell well, but these are not people who buy new cars every two years. No, they are people who hang onto a good thing for seven, eight years at a time. And when everyone who wants one has one, the sales dry up.
The strategy then is to build hatchwagons every seven or eight years. (Number still needs research and data for preciseness.)
I wanted a WRX hatch in 2017 when I passed my car to my oldest. I’m very happy with my 2017 GTI, but if they do bring back the hatchback it is very good news.
Guess who’s back, back again?
Hatch is back, tell a friend!
We’ve created a monster cause nobody wants to see
Sedans no more, they all want hatches
Well if they want hatches, this is what we’ll give ya
An Impreza more tweaked than Tuco Salamanca
A turbo that throws you back in your seat quicker
Than a crack pipe hit mixed with some hard liquor!
Now this looks like a niche for me
So everybody hatch, backseat for three!
Cause we need a little…practicality
Cause a trunk feels empty without me.
They obviously wanted people to notice that so all of car internet would have this conversation and build some free hype for their product. Nothing wrong with that though.
I don’t care much for the WRX in current form, Subaru’s heart just doesn’t seem to be in that car anymore. The GR Corolla is a much sharper stick (I know they are different classes and price points, but they killed the STI)
I’m convinced Subaru wanted to remind everyone of their agricultural roots whenever you used their manual transmissions. Even the STI 6-speed was pretty mushy from the factory. A short throw shifter and urethane linkage bushings helped a lot though.
My last car was a 2011 STi hatchback and it will always hold a special place in my heart.
But It had to go after 8 years, 100K miles, and its 4th steering rack (3 out of warranty).
If they don’t make the official announcement in a big cloud of white vape smoke, I’ll be disappointed. Flavor: Pope Fiend Berry Blast.
I had honestly never noticed that they dropped Impreza from the WRX name. That has always been a peeve of mine (if the cars are directly related; I won’t lament Accord Crosstour or Pathfinder Armada, but the Passat CC and Impreza WRX made perfect sense). Is it a trim? Is it a model? Is it a brand (coughGenesis)? Yes.
At the time, they said that the WRX (and sti) was moving to it’s own dedicated platform and they gave us a teaser of a REALLY sporty/wide/low concept car. Then they gave us a production car that looked kinda mostly like the Impreza, so who knows wtf happened there.
Pope Fiend… So, a hot dog with ketchup?
On a related note, the last Youth Risk Behavior Survey reported vaping having plummeted among high-school kids.
My theory on that is it had reached a saturation point at which they all become the same scent/flavor: “School Bathroom.” Once an association like that’s made in the deep lizard brain, no amount of influencer marketing can dislodge it.
So true. My wife buys really fancy air fresheners for the bathroom. After about 3 months, you can’t use the scent any more because it suddenly smells like crap (even if no crap was involved). Just the association.
I have 2 middle schoolers (one headed to HS) and they agree that vaping had dropped off rapidly. The school education programs have helped, just showing people how many sketchy chemicals go into those things.
Would have convinced me in 1990, but hey. We still thought smoking was cool. If you wanted healthy lungs, you….smoked American Spirits 🙂
The WRX hatch never should’ve gone away in the first place
I would be driving one right now, had they not killed it. The 2012-2014 iteration was one of my favorite cars.
Possibly the least controversial thing ever uttered on a car site 🙂
As the current owner of a ’23 WRX and the previous owner of several hatches and wagons, I am very hopeful we get another WRX hatch.
However I’m also worried it could be saddled with things like, hybrid-tech/CVT/Eyesight safety nannies, etc.
That would be very Subaru to bring back the wagon, but delete the manual transmission option.
CVT only, double the cladding. Basically just cladding. No back windows to make room for cladding.
I often think about taking current US model butched-up cars with lots of cladding and removing all of it. I’d be curious to see what they look like when they’re down to just the unibody.
Would they look like those pictures of owls where you can see their weird long legs or more like a big fluffy cat or dog that’s been shaved down except for their head?
The WRX has become so bloated, expensive, and boring, that I’ve kinda lost interest. That started when they dropped the hatch version. The only thing that kept me from buying a new WRX hatch in 09 was a scummy dealership experience.
What I’d like to see is a Crosstrek XT. 6MT and maybe the BRZ engine.
Other than price, it might grab my interest again, but if Subaru laid out a series of unicorn choices and said I could only pick one for them to make, a warmer Crosstrek would be my choice too.
By the time I could afford to buy new cars, most of the well-optioned, practical manual choices Subaru once offered were gone. No WRX hatch, Forester manual was on its way out, Crosstrek manual was relegated to lower trims. Impreza manual existed in the prior gen, but the 5MT was regarded as…not great, in a segment with other row-your-own choices.
Here in Japan there’s a Levorg STI, which sounds gross, but is actually a wagon STI and it kicks ass and they keep it to themselves.
The Levorg, afaik, is saddened with only a CVT option (edit: incl the STI version)
Just bring it back. Hell Subaru could call it a crossover or a SUV, nobody would care because words have nearly all lost meaning in 2025. The hatchback just makes a fun car more useful.
I’ll hold by breath until I see it.
Subaru does silly things. For all I know, when it comes to be released, that it’ll be only available with the “subaru performance transmission” or some other garbage way to hide the fact that it’s just a cvt.
The newly redesigned Impreza is only available as a hatch (per the guy that sold us ours’, it gives them a “bargain” option below the Crosstrek that doesn’t require a different set of body parts), so any WRX based on the current model would be expected to follow.
Technically the Crosstrek is just a lifted Impreza with some extra cladding.
Don’t tell the Crosstrek people that! A little extra plastic probably = at least a couple of thousand dollars of profit for Subaru.
Yeah but the current WRX is not based on the Impreza as far as I know. It would make a lot of sense for the next one to be. Spent make a lot of sense to do separate bodywork for something that was traditionally just an Impreza with a turbo.
The SGP underpins all! The WRX will be the only sedan left in the lineup after 2025 so you’d think a hatch would be inevitable…
Woohoo my persistent nagging has paid off! I loved my WRX hatch and after it was totaled I couldn’t bring myself to like the sedan well enough to pay $30K for one so I bought my BRZ instead. The BRZ is fine, but every single time I’ve brought it in for service they always ask if there is anything else they can help me with and every single time I’ve replied, “Yes, please bring back the WRX hatch.” It worked you guys!!! I talked them into it!
“I guess we better bring back the WRX hatch so that one guy in Houston will quit annoying all of our dealer service reps.” – Subaru Corporate, probably.
Thank you for your service. I expect to take advantage of this new freedom (unless something-something surprise tariff/embargo/WTF-Thursday announcement might ruin this for everyone).
Next, would you share the good work on a request for BRZ to have useable rear seats?
I haven’t pestered my service folks with rear seat requests yet but I’ve brought up the BRZ’s need for a rear hatch and T-tops plenty of times.
When the BRZ first came out, someone made a show car for SEMA or something that had a targa top and it looked amazing.
There’s also a shooting brake version out there somewhere that would be awesome to have.
Why does Subaru seem to have these bumps, when most other brands don’t?
I think it depends on the slope of the roof and where they need to put the hinges, the Mazda cx-3 also has them.
Foresters have them, and they don’t have a sloped roof.