Impressive Impreza! Impressive Impreza?

Last June 26, the DSL family trooped to Motorimage in Edsa, Ortigas to test drive a potential next family car - the third generation Subaru Impreza 2.0 R-S. It was a two-months-in-the-making scheduled test drive courtesy of Jesette of Motorimage who arranged it. The unit was color black and if we decide to get one in the future, we're eyeing the lightning red color.

ROUTE
The test drive route was from Motorimage's Ortigas Edsa office to Christ the King and back. DSL drove from the showroom to Corinthian Gardens then JML from there to Christ the King Church. From the midpoint and back to the showroom, the wheel was back to DSL.

PRO & CON
The Pros:
* For P1,2M, you get a fully made up sedan that has a personality disorder...is it a sport car or a family car? It will definitely turn heads esp. the non car nuts. Car nuts would probably say it's a rice car.
* When asked "So what do you drive?" The proud answer is "I drive a Subaru Impreza." If asked if it's a WRX or STI, just say "Next question pls."
* Contrary to popular belief, preventive maintenance cost is within range. A 10,000 kilometer check out would cost the owner between P4K to P5K.
* It's a cult car with serious followers. While the resale value is a scale or two below Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla, there is second hand market for this car. You just have to exercise patience. It's a virtue anyway.

The Cons:
* The 3rd gen was released in the US in 2008 while it was released in the Phils in 2009.
* It's underpowered, walang sipa. Cruising at 40kph, I floored the gas pedal and thought that I was driving a diesel powered full sized SUV w/o turbo intercooler.
* Imagine a 2010 model poging poging ride but sports a 4 speed auto tranny. What that?!?! BMW uses 8 speed A/T for crying out loud. My former ride, a 1993 Mitsubishi Galant MPI A/T had a 4spd tranny!
* If the car breaks down, you better have tons of tissue paper para umiyak ka na lang because there's only ONE SERVICE CENTER in the 7,107 island Philippine archipelago.

It's 23 months to go before we change our primary ride however Mr. Excitement is excited again. In case we do opt for the Subaru, it will be our closest thing to a European luxury car having owned 5 Japanese cars so far since I made my own money. It's still not the Euro dream car pero pwede na.