Subaru WRX surpasses 50,000 sales in Australia

The venerable Subaru WRX has achieved a milestone in Australia that few performance cars can or will ever match: 50,000 sales nationally.

Announced today, the milestone follows confirmation of 10,000 sales of the Subaru WRX STI in Australia in December 2020 and the reveal of the STI Final Edition in April.

Replacements for both the long-running current WRX and STI are imminent, with the new WRX due on sale in Australia later this year and the new STI expected to arrive in 2022.

Affectionately known to most as the ‘Rex’, the evergreen rally-bred machine achieved its local sales milestone this week, according to Subaru Australia officials.

The 50,000th WRX was sold to Queensland resident Mark Biegel, who purchased his WRX Premium from Llewellyn Subaru in Brisbane’s south-west.

“We often talk in the automotive industry about ‘halo’ cars – those that attract off-the-scale interest. WRX is a prime example and played no small part in Subaru’s massive Australian growth in the 1990s,” said Subaru Australia general manager Blair Read.

“Its early relatively unassuming appearance – but for the giveaway ‘letter box’ on the bonnet – belied a package that won converts at a massive rate. Not only did it switch many thousands of people on to Subaru, it established a trend that many tried to follow but few got near.”

First previewed locally at the 1993 Sydney motor show, the original Impreza WRX took the performance landscape by storm with its all-wheel drive grip and punchy 155kW/270Nm 2.0-litre turbo-petrol boxer engine.

The WRX pioneered a fresh alternative to the V8-driven performance scene in Australia upon its arrival in 1994, while also allowing Subaru to front an impressive era in the World Rally Championship under the then Group A regulations – leading to three WRC titles.

The first-generation Subaru WRX took its key components from the Legacy/Liberty RS and honed them into a smaller, more agile package.

This included the now-legendary ‘EJ20T’ turbo flat-four, five-speed manual gearbox and permanent all-wheel drive system with viscous coupling centre and limited-slip rear-differential.

Australia received its first taste of the Impreza WRX for $41,990. Deliveries to our shores coincided with the release of the hatchback version, which shared the same underpinnings but offered added practicality.

Meanwhile, the fettled Subaru Impreza WRX STI officially launched in Australia in October 1998 when the 22B STI sent Subie fans into overdrive at the Sydney motor show.

The second-generation WRX followed in 2000, introducing a new ‘bug-eye’ headlight design that divided opinion. The third generation arrived in 2007, while the current fourth-generation WRX came along in 2014, bringing with it the option of an automatic transmission and a separation from the Impreza nameplate.

As it stands, the current WRX sedan doles out 197kW and 350Nm from its 2.0-litre turbo-petrol boxer engine and is priced from $40,990.

The all-new fifth-generation Subaru WRX is set to be revealed imminently, before its Australian arrival in the fourth quarter of 2021.

In the meantime, prices of original first-generation WRXs have spiked over the past 12 to 18 months.

Many in the performance community now refer to the original Rex as the modern equivalent of the legendary Ford Falcon GTHO Phase III – a performance car that everyone has wanted at one time or another.