2018 Subaru WRX Q&A: Your questions answered | Auto Expert John Cadogan

In this report: The abductee’s guide to escaping from a locked WRX boot - that’s a trunk in ‘Merica.
Plus: The compelling case for performance cars - they’re safer. And - how to do a racing-style heel-toe downshift like a gear-changing ninja. All suggested by you. Which is why I love you in that entirely platonic, non-fag way.
I did consider the joy of locking myself, Pulp Fiction gimp-like, into the boot, but happily, the Rex is a poor choice of transportation for the serial abductor of his fellow man or woman. There’s a physical boot latch release inside the boot. It’s a plastic T-shaped handle that’s even luminous (Subaru thinks of everything). Plus I folded the big half of the rear seat down, just in case, and I used the remote boot release on the fob.
And I had my phone, naturally, but I was philosophically opposed to calling the cops and explaining the predicament, and then waiting patiently for rescue with $10,000 worth of camera gear sitting out there on the verge, and the Sons of Anarchy riding past in Shitsville. Risk management - yesssss!
Now: One cannot do a WRX review without some CVT-critical halfwit comment, like this from Studat:
The auto cvt sucks and is slow. I picked up the SSV instead and I am one happy camper I drove 3 WRX CVTs and they all felt gutless. Poor takeoff and a poor 0-100 of around 6.8... no thanks. This ain't no performance car. - Studat
First up, the majority of WRXs sold are CVTs (at least in ‘Straya). The CVT is slower off the mark, but it is wickedly responsive in gear. According to Redbook there’s 0.3 seconds difference to 100 kays an hour. The CVT is brilliant for engaging driving on a winding road. CVT Premium is the WRX I would buy. Every time. (I’ve owned two WRXs - loved them both. Bulletproof and fun cars.)
I also get that Studat here bought an SS-V instead. It’s a muscle car. WRX: not a muscle car. SS-V is $15,000 more expensive. It’s got a 6.2-litre V8. Rear drive. 27 per cent more power to weight. A completely different animal.
Same old argument, though. If a muscle car is right for you, a WRX will be wrong, and vice-versa. Horses for courses. SS-V would hose WRX in a straight line. But I’d give it to the WRX in the bends, and in the wet … game over. WRX every time.
Now: Let us inspect Ray’s Johnson. Correction: Ray Johnson. Sorry about that.
It's funny that the manual is in all versions but the CVT is not in the STI range at all but as mention in your video regarding transmission types the CVT would allow the best part of the engine to be constantly used so i wonder why subaru has not made it a option in the STI range more people would actually enjoy the ride more in my opinion
At the risk of committing STI heresy - I would love to sample the nonexistent WRX STI CVT. I think that’s going to be a tall order any time soon, though - but there’s no engineering reason why it could not be done. Current STI is 407 Newton-metres and the gruntiest CVT Subaru currently on offer is a three-way tie between the 3.6 R atmo engine in Outback, the 2.0 diesel and the 2.0 petrol turbo in the Rex.
Those three engines all max out at 350Nm - that’s probably not a coincidence. It’s probably Subaru Corporation’s internal torque limitation on that CVT transmission. So - to make a CVT STI they’d need to do a spot of re-engineering of the transmission and then amortise the cost of that over the number of units they think they might sell, and see if it’s commercially viable.
Anything’s possible. I know it’d be a blast to drive a CVT STI - but it might not have legs commercially. So there’s that - it’s easy to forget they’re running a business.