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Subaru has added its 2.0-litre Boxer diesel engine to its five-door Impreza range.

The horizontally opposed common-rail engine has not featured in the Impreza range before due to the exchange rate between the pound and the Japanese yen.

See the Subaru Impreza boxer diesel picture gallery

All UK Subaru models are imported from Japan and it has never been economically viable to ...Read the full article

Turbo diesel is the way forward!!! :-)

I'm not sure it is economically viable now with the selling price of £20,000, considering the quality of the rest of the package.  Unfortunately I don't think the car is desirable enough to warrant the high price tag no matter how good the engine is.

 

When I first heard about this a long while back now I was realy excited but with all the delays it now looks very out of date compared to the competition.  For 47mpg I'd be wanting another 20-30bhp out of the engine.  A 200bhp+ WRX-D version might be interesting...

Plenty of other places you could put £20,000 that`s for sure,a bit dated on emissions compared to rivals,maybe expected better after it took so long to develop..

 What I don't understand is the published performance figures...

 

Legacy 2.0 boxer diesel saloon: 0 - 62 in 8.7 secs

Legacy 2.0 boxer diesel estate: 0 - 62 in 8.9 secs

Impreza 2.0 boxer diesel: 0 - 62 in 9.0 secs

 

Why would a smaller car be slower?They all have the same engine.

Interestingly, according to subaru.co.uk, the Legacy saloon Curb Weight is only 5kg heavier than the Impreza...

Be good to see some impartial tests of the performance. Autocar themselves already say the Legacy Estate diesel takes 8.5 sec to 62.

Newer, more-powerful diesels don't seem to be getting any faster either (Mondeo, Accord...). Maybe they are also getting bigger and heavier.

ian0 - good points. The Impreza and Legacy are based on the same platform, I think, which might explain the similarity in weight.

I would take a 6 month old Legacy estate over this - same great drivetrain, but (much) better looking, more space, and a more inviting interior. The next Legacy looks like a dog, so there's little appeal in waiting for the new one.

I wish Subaru offered an auto with the diesel though.

TegTypeR:

Unfortunately I don't think the car is desirable enough to warrant the high price tag no matter how good the engine is.

I believe from reviews of the engine in other Subarus it's not that good to begin with.   So why it would be any more desirable in an Impreza I really don't know.

I find it difficult to figure out who would want to buy this.   It's not quick enough to tempt anybody who would be a WRX buyer, nor economical enough to tempt you away from, for example, a 2l Golf diesel.   The Golf is a better place to be in, and only lacks the 4WD system that in such a car you would have difficulty justifying (although my old WRX PPP was superb with it - but it was sub 5s 0-60!).   And the Golf is cheaper too.

Alternatives to look at:

BMW 1 Series 118d, 5dr, £ 19,940.

Audi A3 Sportback 2l TDI 170, £ 20,310.

VW Golf 2l TDI 140 SE, £ 19,200.

I did have a look for a Ford Focus 2l TDCi 136 Zetec S 5dr to add to this list, but the equivalent was £ 20,695 and that's just madness!!!   However, as we all know you can buy Fords cheaper than this even from main dealers.

That high price is suprising. You can get one new here in Ireland from the start of the year for about €22k before any discount and that's with out huge taxes on new cars. Test drove one and came very close to putting an order in. Nothing could touch it for the price - the cheapest Focus with a similar kit was €4k more

Yes, here in Switzerland it's about the same price as the Focus.  What is more surprising is that even with the current exchange rate - which makes the Swiss Franc very expensive for anyone with pounds - it's just over the equivalent of GBP 18k.  To give you an understanding of how this positions it in the market, if you converted the price of a base M3 using the same exchange rate you'd be looking at GBP 62,000 before any options.

 Subaru's have always been expensive in the UK.  5 years ago when I bought my (then) new Forester Turbo it was the equivalent of GBP 14,000, when they were over 20k in the UK.  Why this should be the case when the home (Japanese) market is RHD I never did understand.  (Yes we have low VAT but that doesn't explain the size of the difference).

chandrew:

Subaru's have always been expensive in the UK.

They dropped the price of the base model by £ 2,500 when it went to hatchback, but kept the WRX price unchanged.   Initially the STi was brought in at £ 25,000 but was under specificed with really ugly wheels which you simply had to change (£ 1,800 with tyres).   Later they upped the STi price to £ 26,600.   Checking the current price is £ 26,040 although I've seen EU imports with 18" wheels for sale as little as £ 22,500.

Checking right now and you can get UK STi models for £ 23,000.   But when I bought mine years ago and was using the supermarket cars as leverage the dealer told me "ah, but those car are imports" I replied "the car is made in Japan - they're all imports!"

I got a healthy discount.

 

ian0:

Why would a smaller car be slower?They all have the same engine.

 

Possibly gearing..?