Impreza and WRX -- official pics at last

The first official images of the new Subaru Impreza have finally broken cover. The shots, posted this week by US website Edmunds.com, come after weeks of speculation and various sets of photoshopped images which each claimed to be official pictures.

Edmunds' pics, supplied by Subaru America, come ahead of the car's official launch at this week's New York Auto Show. They show both the WRX (pictured) and ‘cooking' versions of the Impreza in hatch and sedan variants.

The hatch is a conventional five-door two-box shape that eschews the quirky sportwagon styling of the last generation. The sedan is, well, sedan-shaped -- a traditional three-box compact sedan in the mold of, say, the new Lancer.

Key defining aspects of the new car are a strong body-side swage lines that are reminiscent -- in hatch form at least -- of BMW's 1 Series. Gone is the confronting three-element face of the Impreza -- in its place a somewhat anodyne derivation of the face of the current Liberty. That's right, we whined about the last look -- now we're already having a go at Subaru's conservative response. Hard lot to please aren't we!

Though full details of the car are not scheduled to be released until later this week (Good Friday our time), overseas sources have reported that the Impreza rides on a longer wheelbase and is a substantially more roomy car than the one it replaces. Expect a 90-95mm stretch in the wheelbase but only modest increases in overall width and length. Sources state that despite this there's significantly better shoulder and rear passenger room.

Also evident from the photos hereabouts is the step up in interior quality -- something upon which the outgoing Impreza needed to improve.

No news on whether there will be significant powertrain changes. Persistant rumours of a new all-wheel drive system are still just that -- rumour. However, you can expect the new Impreza to get a significant upgrade in active and passive safety measures -- ESP is a certainty as is a full complement of airbags et al.

The car is tipped to use a massaged version of the turbo 2.5-litre boxer four debuted for 2006 for the WRX version, while the atmo car will likely return to the same 2.5-litre capacity. We don't expect the highly-strung 2.0R engine to be carried over into the new generation -- at least not for the Australian market.

Under the skin, the Impreza is more closely related to the current Liberty, with a new double-wishbone rear suspension. The front suspension is all-Liberty it is claimed.

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