Wait... so both Toyota and Subaru are going to make a RWD coupe *AND* an Impreza coupe?

OH GOOD GOD!

Someone at Subaru has closely answered my prayers!

*Drool*

300hp4...RWD? ..finally!

Damn, this is an INCREDIBLY good looking hatchback. I love it!

I like the resurgence of RWD coupes coming out in the near future, but I think Subaru still needs to fire all their designers and get a new batch of em to bring their aesthetics around a bit. It's like they took a page out of Fast & Furious for the body kit on this one.

I like the looks of this car. But what they didnt say in this article, is that it is a rendering of what they would like it to be, this isnt a photo from subaru or toyota.

oh my god please let it look like this

Tripping over the near corpse that is G.M. I behold a lovely glimmering light of hope......

and it is good......... it is called Subaru.

I really hope this isn't just a dream.

I LOVE WHINING.... but I can't in this case.

.

Ahhh nice!

I take delivery of my 08 STI in a few days and now they announce this. It does not meet my functional requirements though so I still have a better car for "me".

This definatelly looks better and it will fly in a straigh line. Cornering will probably suffer without AWD however.

Toyota and Subaru. You couldn't ask for a better pair to bring out something inexpensive and exciting.

OMG. That's hot! I want one! keep it under 2800 lbs and you'll have a monster. Who needs displacement when you have brains?

yeah and the toyota model will be japan only while the subaru one will be in the us

I am assuming from the line "The entry level model will have RWD instead of the current AWD system", that upper models will have AWD as an option. I could use a 300hp AWD coupe/hatch. would suit me just fine

Love that hood scoop. Wonder if its functional or like a Ford?

All the STI's have functional hood scoops.

This is just another example how the Japanese makers really get it - and the US domestics don't. This car it hot and it's priced right. I would love to see the domestic makers do the same thing, but they take so long to respond to market conditions it's usually too late by the time they design/build a model.

I would definitely purchase this setup as an AWD, boxer 300hp+, STI 2door hatchback. Hopefully, it'll come in under 3000lbs, and being that it's a 2 door, I hope it'll be cheaper than the current 4 door STI hatch. I really hope this thing is for real. Finally a car I'm really anticipating and wishing. For WRC fans out there, imagine the match up of this WRC spec'ed 2 door hatch going against the dominating 2 door hatches of Citroen and Ford. Exciting stuff! Go Subaru.

Love it. How do I order?

I was just staring at the beatiful rendering and thinking about all the 300hp awd talk, and then it hit me, the base model, 2.0t rwd with 180 hp, thats like a spiritual successor to the 240sx, just better. This thing would appeal to the drifitng crowd, the rally crowd, you name it. Add a convertible model for the pissed off secretarys of the world and it would be the Napolean of the automotive universe. except with awd it would actually be succesful in cold weather situations.

sounds good, they just need to keep the price down. Seeing as how it's going to hail the new celica, i'd imagine the toyota version will be priced in the mid $20k's.

wow..what's not to like?

A few too many line on the rendering, but all in all if it looks close to that and is not a hefty beast this car will be awesome.

It amazes me how many retards here don't even read the original posting.

The TURBO engine is only with AWD.

The BASE 2.0 RWD model is NOT turbocharged.

@Michael83:

Stick around a while and you won't be amazed by much :)

@John Campini:

I'm pretty sure this car (also the Celica cousin) was a direct reaction from Toyota/Subaru to the Hyundai Genesis Coupe. I would have to thank Hyundai for making Toyota/Subaru see the light not just the fact that they're a Japanese car company.

@Michael83

I'm so sorry o King of Blog that I didn't notice that the base was n/a and not turbo, I'm just used to wonderful american engineering that doesn't even get close to 100hp per liter, so when i saw 180 hp out of a 2.0, you know, I was just thinking "wow, it takes like a 3.8 v6 for an american car to do that" so naturally i thought turbo. plus you know, 2.0 is a pretty typical turbo engine size so... I do apologize again for making your blogging so miserable, in the future I'll edit all my posts for accuracy as well as spelling and grammer.

And as for reading the post,
"The TURBO engine is only with AWD.

The BASE 2.0 RWD model is NOT turbocharged"

Thats probably correct, but no where in the post does it say that explicitly, doesn't say there will be an AWD model at all, so you could be incorrect. It's a rumors thread, so it's supposed to be about fun and speculation, so quit ripping people.

How about you casually correct someone rather than resorting to 3rd grade school bus name calling you pompous dick.

Oh wait....

j/k, you know I love you, just tell me I'm wrong, don't tear me down xoxoxo

I have to say it's amazing how much better this looks when compared to the current STi, it's like they managed to beat about 95% of the ugly out of it with a stick.

They say the Entry level model will have RWD, I would be willing to bet that is the 180 hp version not the 300 hp version, Not that it matters Subaru and Mitsubishi have tuned their AWD system to the extent that they handle with the very best RWD cars, and I live in the north where it snows anyways.

I wonder if the horsepower numbers are before or after they put the emmissions stuff on it. They may not have those requirements in Japan.

If you don't have something nice to say, go crawl off in a corner and die... Or at least stop posting in here.

Seriously

so subaru is blowing their rep as a awd only company, on this? a collaboration with toyota? I truly am speachless. not that its a bad car, but seriously! why would they blow their reputation now. after how many years? idk just disappointed

WOW! The car looks great ... but I'm even more impressed at the comments from you guys ... except 2-3 negative comments, it's all positive. I rarely see this on the net and on this site.

I mean ... even for Ferraris, there's always a bunch of "fugly" comments ... like it's a Pontiac Aztek or Suzuki X-90 lol!!!

Well, I'm changing my car in a month or so ... why didn't they think about this model earlier? The STI's engine with AWD, in a coupe model ... my choice would be made already!

For all of you in love with RWD, a have a G35 right now, I live in Canada ... and I'm not spending another damn winter with that car ... I'm going back to AWD!!!

This site is usually the most negative car board I've ever seen... which is fine as long as valid points are being made.

I'd want to see the fuel economy and weight numbers. I'd love to see a commuter version that gets great economy and is light and zippy. Like someone said above... a spiritual successor to all the great handling/low hp compact coupes that have trickled out through the years.

*Sigh*

And here I thought the Scirocco would do well. Se la vie.

This thing is gorgeous, powerful, and RWD; all the things a sports coupe should be. I hope it does really, really well, and we can finally start getting back into more "purpose-built" cars.

Here's an idea - you have a RWD car with an AWD option. Why not make the base model FWD for the commuters?

@ Matt

Why don't the just commute in the RWD? It'd be a lot more fun.

I'm sure the primary reason for not making a FWD is that if the car is RWD centered it's going to have the engine mounted longitudinally, not transversely, like all FWD based cars. It'd take a lot of tooling and work to have two entirely different engine mounting configurations.

Besides, there are already a bajillion FWD cars out there for commuters. This one doesn't need to be focused at all on a highly competitive efficient commuter market. They need to make a cheap rwd car for enthusiasts. The only competition will be the Genesis coupe. If it were FWD it'd be the civic,sentra, corolla, cobalt, fiesta, mazda 3 etc... That list goes on forever.

It's been 10 years now, poor RWD lovers need their attention too.

Id tap that. lol
wait is this the AE86 Toyota replacement. or a different car?
I hope not because i was hoping for an completly new car with new name bage that come from this partnership, to replace the AE86 Toyota not just an Impresa Coupe. Maybe they have 2 rwd coupes? that would be dumb though, okay now im just ranting. sorry :]

Id tap that. lol
wait is this the AE86 Toyota replacement. or a different car?
I hope not because i was hoping for an completly new car with new name bage that come from this partnership, to replace the AE86 Toyota not just an Impresa Coupe. Maybe they have 2 rwd coupes? that would be dumb though, okay now im just ranting. sorry :]

Much better than the bloated Camaro and Genesis coupe. Just the right size and probably will run circles around them.

@ Peter:

Unless Subaru shaves a bunch of weight off the current STI, this coupe won't come in weighing much less than the Genesis Coupe. Genesis is supposed to weigh in about 3400 lbs which is right where the STI is now. It might not "look as big" but it will probably weigh within 100-200lbs. I'm not sure how heavy the Camaro will be but if you look at the past Camaros I'd guess 3400 will be the low end of the weight, so that part of your comment will probably be correct.

@Michael83

I'm so sorry o King of Blog that I didn't notice that the base was n/a and not turbo, I'm just used to wonderful american engineering that doesn't even get close to 100hp per liter, so when i saw 180 hp out of a 2.0, you know, I was just thinking "wow, it takes like a 3.8 v6 for an american car to do that" so naturally i thought turbo.

Michael, The new ecotech 2.o found in the Solstice has 260hp out of 2 liters DI&turbo and its rear wheel drive. Same motor can be found in the cobolt ss(they ditched the super charger) Oh and i am getting 23.5 in town and 32mpg on the road out of an 5speed auto in my Sol GXP So might be you need to get updated, thats 130hp per liter stock with atune they are geting 300-350hp thats 150-175hp per lter not bad for them ol american engineers,

@Doc:

You are right about that engine Doc ... a little jewel. And I haven't heared anything about reliability issues, although you could correct me on that one.

For the Impreza coupe, I would be very surprised if they could go south of 3000 lbs. My prediction: 3300 with AWD.

0-60 : 4.5s

I am very curious though about the powertrain. I am a true car lover and love sports coupe, and never, until this year, have I had an issue with fuel economy. But today the barrel topped 139$ US ... I don't see why this tendency would stop ... so if that car is ready in 2-3 years, there's gotta be some sort of powertrain technology advancement to keep that power and drink a lot less than the 2.5 liter does now! Manufacturers that are too stuburn to acknowledge this reality will be in serious trouble in about 10 years from now.

@Doc

130 hp/ltr is easy to do with a Turbo, show me an American engine that gets >100 hp/ltr N/A and I'll be impressed. Sure the Ecotec is a nice little engine, but in N/A form it's not very impressive. Still 180hp from an N/A 2.0 isn't very impressive either considering what Honda and Toyota have done in the past. This thing will probably still weigh over 3100lbs without AWD and the bigger engine meaning you'll be moving all that wieght with a 180hp and not much torque, putting it about the same as a stock Impreza now, perhaps a tad faster... Not exactly numbers to get excited about though. The Genesis coupe with the Turbo 4 should walk all over the base Impreza coupe, but I could see the STI version of this coupe edging out the Genesis V6 on the track and in the straights.

@Doc

As far as getting better mileage in 10 years, I seriously hope that in 10 years were now worrying about how many MPG we'll be getting. It will hopefully be Miles Per Watt, if not we'll probably be paying over ~$10 per gallon of gasoline. Electric motors have so much more torque and are so much less complicated than internal combustion that I'll gladly take a full electric with some b@lls over a gas powered car anyday.

Google "The Future Car - Skateboard" and you'll see what has me excited about the possibilities of electric cars. If we don't have these in 10-15 years then I will start to believe the conspiracy theories about Big Oil stunting electric vehicle growth.

Gary....I agree with you but even electric cars won't solve the problem. California has already shown that overpopulation also puts a strain on the power grid and we get rolling blackouts every summer because people are weak and have to have A/C on the minute it hits 80 degrees. Having everybody charging their cars will be disastrous. On top of that, since we aren't allowed to increase nuclear energy, we'll just be diverting oil from cars (and refining gasoline) to power plants. Therefore you won't have $10/gallon gas but the equvalent in energy cost each month. Solar, wind, and geo-thermal just aren't that efficient at producing significant amounts of power. They also take up lots of land.

As for the car above...I'll definitely be in the market for one if it looked like that. I don't care if Subaru or Toyota come out with it, either!

Noob! AWD does not make corner better. AWD is inherantly heavier, which makes cornering worse in the end.

subpra:
Ahhh nice!

This definatelly looks better and it will fly in a straigh line. Cornering will probably suffer without AWD however.

when it comes to cornering, it's all subjective. for me, I like to take corners sideways so I prefer rwd on road, or awd offroad (and before you say it yes I know any drivetrain configuration can get sideways or dirt and gravel, but awd is really the only way to go in rally)

so with respect to this car: if you are keeping it on road, get the rwd, if you are going to do some rally stuff, or you live in a place with bad weather, go awd. that is if both rwd and awd can come with either engine option.

They should make a law to limit vehicule size...
the civic was so small compared to now....

the new honda is so big... not as cool as before...
bigger size = bigger engine = $$$$

2Liter with 130 to 150hp is enough (more torque@lower rpm and better fuel economy)
small car are so fun to drive!

Electric cars are a pretty viable medium run solution. These cars may be drawing power from a coal burning power plant, but these large power plants are far more efficient at turning fossil fuel into electricity than an engine inside a car as well as easier clean the pollution coming out of them (think regulating a few hundred power plants vs 500 million cars). Secondly, electric engines are much more efficient b/c there isn't a transmission, the engine powers the wheels directly. Just check out the Tesla roadster, it making around 350mpg if you converted the engergy usage to petrol. The engine also makes no noise meaning we can save weight by using less sound insulating materials. Lastly, most people will be charging the cars during the night when the power grid isn't under too much stress from AC usage. We need to develop better batteries however, before any of this is possible.

This is probably the only hatch I would ever buy!

WOWW!! Definitely a step in the right direction. Small coupe with awd, at least 300hp, and probably will be priced affordably. Should see 60mph in the 4's and quarter in high 12's is my prediction. :)

Sweet idea. Test drive please!

First lets all remember, coupes are almost always more expensive than sedans, look at BMW's, and the like. Next I would almost guess that the STI coupe will be at the same price level as the wagon. What I want to see is the WRX with the new horsepower and torque numbers that they are changing to around the year 2010, 260 hp and 265 ft lb torque. If the pricing stays in the same area as the WRX sedan and wagon, it will be great value. Another thought, keep the RWD to Toyota. Subaru has always been known for AWD PERFORMANCE since the WRX was first built, lets keep it that way.Don't get me wrong, I like RWD, I grew up with it back in the 60's,and other than AWD I prefer RWD. Having a car weigh in at about 3000 pounds with that kind of horsepower and RWD is great, but getting it to hook up will be another story. Why do you think the new Nissan GT-R is out performing the Corvette ZO6 and other cars like it, AWD !!!!!! Keep the AWD for Subaru, and RWD for Toyota. I will go on to say, that if you were to line the same coupes side by side with same power plant and transmission, one AWD and the other RWD, that the AWD would win everytime, given the drivers made no mistakes, were at the same skill level, and conditions stayed the same, and God forbid if the roads got wet or naste. So for no more difference that it will most likely cost for AWD, with that kind of performance numbers, give me AWD !!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's my two cents worth, but it comes from experience of driving both RWD and AWD performance. I currently own a 2007 WRX Impreza Limited with Cobb Stage 2 program, 2007 Forester Sport 2.5 XT, and 1966 Chevy II L-79 ( 327- 350 hp) 2 door sedan as my play toy.
The only trouble, I have, is it's not coming soon enough !!!!!

It´s great looking, this should be the next STI 2 doors. i would buy one today.

i honestly don think this car will make it far...
1 it's rwd... not a subaru nor a toyota.
2 it's a hatch coupe.... not subaru, but toyota yes
3 subaru needs to go back.. back to the old sedan with 300 horsepower big hood scoop and the precious front and rear spoilers.
so therefore i know for a fact my 95 wrx and my 04 sti would smoke this "concept"
sorry for rippin on everones dream...buuuutt this thing will suck and deffinetly be more expensive because in 1995 i baught my wrx for 8 thousand some odd dollars and in 04 i bought my sti brand new for 30k so this thing wll be atleast 30k or more.

TOTALLY NOT WORTH IT, GET A REAL SUBARU.... MAKE IT A 95 WRX not STI WRX COMES OUT WITH MORE HORSEPOWER, OR BRING IT UP TO THE 04 STI... MINE HAS OVER 600 AWHP

95' wrx -
dude u r right. this coupe or whatever that is will probably be equipped with automatic transmision just for the suckers who forgot what a real subaru is.