This is one of the areas of the Evo X that follows a similar theme to its predecessors: large and comfortable, but developed seemingly as a tertiary consideration after the oilier parts and dynamics.
Still, the boxes are ticked; the boot is reasonably sized, there’s room for adults in the rear seats and although cabin plastics are no more than reasonable, they’re still better than an Impreza’s and are seemingly well assembled.
The driving position is good, too. The nicely sized steering wheel could do with a wider range of adjustment but the standard Recaro front seats are excellent and the major driving controls move with well weighted precision. The switchgear and dials are clear and, on our test car, the comprehensive entertainment systems were easy to navigate.
Evos have never been cheap cars to buy and run, and the X is no exception. The £27,499 list price for base the FQ-300 GS manual exceeds an Impreza STi’s by more than £2000. GSR trim adds £2500 and the SST gearbox another £2000. At this level, though, it is at least very well equipped.
Only the ‘300’ variants escape a group 20 insurance tag, though only by one group. The car needs a 1000-mile first oil change, though after that servicing is required once every 10,000 miles.
Evolutions tend to hold their value well, but if you use your Evo hard it will consume a lot of fuel; we returned 6.9mpg in hard driving, but 27.1mpg at a cruise.