Subaru Impreza vs Subaru Levorg

What's the difference?

The 2024 Impreza delivers on all the key things which have made the nameplate so well regarded for the last 30-odd years.

The issue is, buyer expectations have moved on. Hatchbacks need to do more than ever to compete with small SUVs, and with today’s fuel prices it’s far more valuable to offer hybrid rather than all-wheel drive.

This is why, despite the sixth-generation Impreza being a tidy high-tech offering with an admirable commitment to safety, I think it will ultimately continue to shrink its market share. This Impreza really is one for the fans.

The Levorg STI Sport is a niche car that flies so close to true greatness. It’s a bucket load of fun… but not fun enough for the true enthusiast. A practicality, equipment and safety hero… but too brutal to be cross-shopped with an SUV… It’s an awesome car that’s just too narrow in its appeal to find a large audience. One thing is for sure – it will be interesting to see what Subaru does next with the Levorg badge.

Over the years the Impreza has changed in its design and intention so much.

Once known primarily for its sporty sedan variants, today’s Impreza is a far more contemporary hatchback, forgoing the once wagon-like shape for something with the traditional bubble silhouette to align with its rivals.

For better or worse, it also syncs up with the rest of Subaru’s range, with the brand’s current design language on full show, but it also barely evolves from the previous-generation version from the outside.

It trades the chunky square light fittings from the previous car for something a bit more refined this time around, with a similar look and feel to the WRX and Outback.

Inside also gets a similar fit-out to other Subarus in the range, complete with a raised centre console, shapely dash, and the same huge screen from the Crosstrek and Outback which dominates the space and helps simplify things compared to the busy interior and multiple screens of the previous car.

It’s a cosy space with chunky comfortable seats and the signature bumper car steering wheel is a stand-out bit of Subaru design.

Even the base car with its plastic trimmed wheel and basic cloth trims in the door is basic in an almost refreshing way, but unlike some rivals manages to be comfortable, too, thanks to soft trims for your elbows in the doors.

I love the Levorg’s design. It’s slick, low and mean, and also unmistakably Subaru. It also plants itself right next to the WRX in the brand’s stable with that utterly ridiculous and unnecessary bonnet scoop, which does actually lead to a massive intercooler and thus is at least, functional.

The entire front of this car borrows so much from the boy-racer camp it’s just exciting to look at and, like any hot wagon should be, it’s party in the front and business in the back, with a paired-back rear end and side profile which says it’s ready for the family haul during the week.

The only giveaways from the rear are the chunky dual exhaust pipes and the almost aftermarket-style alloys which in our test car’s case were body-coloured.

Just like its WRX sedan brother though, the Levorg’s exterior design does lag a little behind the brand’s all-new Impreza and Forester ranges with it’s last-gen fittings exposing it’s last-gen underpinnings (rumor has it a new Levorg is on the horizon…).

The Levorg’s interior is as plush as it is chunky, with nice soft leather-trimmed bits placed along the doorcards and transmission column, as well as on the thick, purposeful steering wheel. Again, pundits who have helmed a WRX in the last few years will be familiar with all the fittings in here.

There’s little to give away the fact that the Levorg is older than the rest of Subaru’s range, it’s a modern dash design. It also suffers from Subaru’s obsession with screens as you have a TFT screen in the dash cluster, a information display in the binnacle atop the dashboard and a 7.0-inch multimedia touchscreen embedded in the centre stack. It’s just too much information from too many angles.

I will say I love the design of the analog instrument cluster, with its red highlights and the multimedia screen is definitely one of the better ones, with an easy-to-use interface and flawless phone mirroring (for Apple CarPlay at least).

It’s a symmetrical, cosy and aesthetically pleasing place to be.

Living up to the adventure-ready Subaru promise, the Impreza's interior is quite functional.

Even though many controls have moved to the big central screen, there are individual buttons for temperature adjustment and a permanent touch function for fan speed on the lower third of the screen.

It would be nice to see a full set of physical buttons for climate functions, but this seems like a decent compromise.

Elsewhere there are large bottle holders in each door with a small accompanying pocket, two more rigid bottle holders in the centre console, a small tray behind them, and a huge armrest console box.

Under the multimedia screen there is a bay with a wireless phone charger, but like the Crosstrek, it is finished in a hard plastic material, which means your phone will easy slide around and out of the charging area in the corners, which seems like an oversight.

Adjustability is great, even in the base car, with flexible seats and a wide range of movement for the wheel, letting you easily find a suitable seating position. Width in the cabin is okay, but headroom is excellent.

The back seat offers a solid amount of room for myself behind my own seating position, at 182cm tall, but the middle position is no good for an adult thanks to the presence of a large raise in the floor to allow for the all-wheel drive system underneath.

Amenities for rear passengers are only okay in the base car, with a large bottle holder in the door and a further two in a drop-down centre armrest. There are no adjustable rear air vents or USB power outlets in the L, but outlets are added in the R and S.

Boot space is on the small side, with only 291 litres (VDA) on offer. The high floor means a limited amount of space with the luggage cover in place, although I was surprised to find we could fit the full three-piece CarsGuide luggage set once it was removed, so long as you’re okay not being able to see out the rear window.

Under the floor, the Impreza sports a space-saver spare wheel - a must-have for long-distance regional travellers.

Why buy a wagon? Well, for a start, you’ll be getting generally much better boot space than a hatchback or a small SUV (with the handling appeal of a car), but I’m willing to bet if you’ve read this far, you already knew that.

The Levorg’s boot, for example, offers up 489-litres (VDA) with the second row up or 1413L with the seats down. For a bit of perspective, that’s a good 47-litres more (with the seats up) than a mid-size Mazda CX-5.

It’s a big, flat practical space, too with tie-down hooks, and under the boot floor, there is a space-saver spare wheel.

Moving to the second row, passengers will get decent, but not stellar rear legroom as well as good headroom, but where the Levorg shines is the sculpted rear outboard seats which are comfortable to sit in.

The door trims continue the soft-touch surfaces, and have a single 500ml-sized bottle holder on each side.

The middle passenger sadly loses out on legroom due to the large raised tunnel for AWD running gear underneath, and there are no vents, with rear passenger amenities limited to dual USB power outlets and a drop-down centre armrest.

Front occupants score 500ml bottle holders in each door card, a big glove box, a decently-sized centre console box, dual-cupholders in the transmission tunnel and a huge binnacle under the climate controls, where a 12-volt, dual USB and AUX ports exist.

Visibility out of the Levorg is excellent thanks to big rear vision mirrors, a deceptively tall windscreen and the naturally wide aperture of a wagon rear window.

Ergonomics are pretty good for front passengers too, with sporty, supportive seats and dial controls in all the right places (fan speed, temperature, volume, and tuning).

What you will miss out on over Subaru’s SUV range is the easy entry and exit that comes with a taller ride height. You’ll really need to drop yourself into the Levorg’s low-set seats.

The Levorg is expensive. This is not the kind of wagon you’ll be cross-shopping with your value-spec Impreza hatch for example.

We’re talking $52,440 for the top-spec car as tested here. You can get a seriously good mid-size SUV for that money.

A risk of building such a niche vehicle perhaps, and to be fair, it’s not one that Subaru is targeting volume with.

A sad state of affairs for the small wagon playing field, the list of Levorg competitors in this size bracket is seemingly limited to the Skoda Octavia RS 245 ($49,990), Mazda6 Atenza wagon ($51,190), or perhaps the Peugeot 308 Allure Touring ($27,990).

The Levorg’s natural advantage here is that it’s shares its underpinnings with the performance focused WRX (to go with the look), and so is unique among its wagon competitors.

Do you at least get good spec for your money? Well let’s see – you’ll get great kit from the base Levorg up, with our STI scoring 18-inch alloy wheels (with a WRX-esque design), full LED automatic and steering responsive front lighting, dual-zone climate control, an electric sunroof, a 7.0-inch multimedia touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity, as well as built-in nav and DAB+ digital radio, leather interior trim with sports seats, heated front seats and an eight-way power adjustable driver’s seat with memory function, and keyless entry with push-start.

The STI differentiates itself from the 1.6-litre Premium variant by way of a body kit including stamped exhausts and highlight trims, as well as a re-tuned set of coil springs in the suspension.

It’s a lot of gear, and it’s all standard, taking the fight to competitors even without the fact that every Levorg also has all-wheel drive with torque vectoring and Subaru’s comprehensive 'EyeSight' safety suite which you can read more about in the safety section of this review.

So, the Levorg is pricey when stacked up against an SUV, sure, but when stacked up against wagon rivals, is actually impressively equipped.

The Impreza is equipped with just one engine and transmission for its sixth-generation, a 2.0-litre (FB20) four-cylinder horizontally-opposed ‘boxer’ engine mated to a continuously variable automatic transmission, driving all four wheels via the brand’s signature ‘symmetrical’ permanent all-wheel drive system.

The FB series is a development of the successful EJ series engines which lasted from 1989-2021. This more recent engine has new material science, heads, and seals which have helped the brand push service intervals out to 12 months rather than six, and should address issues which the older engines developed over time.

Power is on-par, but not a stand-out in the segment, with peak outputs of 115kW/196Nm.

This section starts out sounding actually very good. Powering the two most expensive Levorg spec levels is a 2.0-litre turbo boxer engine, producing a strong-sounding 197kW/350Nm, power outputs that once would have been in V6 territory.

Where the enthusiast audience is let down though is the rather pedestrian continuously variable transmission (CVT) auto which the engine is mated to.

There’s no option of a manual here, nor is there a more performance-oriented dual-clutch, even in our top-spec car.

All Levorgs use Subaru’s own all-wheel drive system which includes torque vectoring on 2.0-litre variants.

One issue with having a non-turbo, non-hybrid 2.0-litre engine with all-wheel drive is relatively high fuel consumption. The Impreza has an official combined cycle fuel consumption figure of 7.5L/100km which is less than impressive in today’s market of hybrids and downsized turbocharged engines.

In my week of mostly stop-start city driving, the test example drank 11.1L/100km, which is disappointing.

Mercifully, it is capable of running on 91RON unleaded. For those who care, the CO2 output is officially 170g/km which is well above the 140g/km it would need to be at to avoid the wrath of incoming vehicle emissions regulations.

An unfortunate side-effect of the Levorg’s slightly older 2.0-litre engine architecture is a minimum fuel requirement of mid-grade 95 RON unleaded to fill its 60-litre tank.

The Levorg STI’s claimed/combined fuel figure comes in at a not-low 8.7L/100km, against which we scored 9.6L/100km blasting around back-country roads in the Kosciuszko National Park for several days.

It’s a high fuel use figure, but at least a semi-realistic one given the type of driving we were doing. Again, with a more enthusiast audience, a few extra litres here and there won’t shake potential buyers, but there is better to be had elsewhere from lower-capacity engines.

Have you driven a Subaru in the last 10 years? The drive experience here is pretty much uniform with the rest of the automaker’s range.

This means a lot of very appealing traits. For example, the new Impreza has a comfortable, compliant ride, really nicely weighted steering, and solid handling even on slippery surfaces courtesy of the all-wheel drive system.

The FB series engine also has a good bit of pull fairly early in the RPM range which makes it deceptively spritely, although power really hollows out the more you push it.

This makes it nice to drive around town, but less impressive when it comes to overtaking on the freeway.

This is reinforced by the continuously variable automatic which lends the engine a thrashy, rubbery character when pushed, but is nice and predictable at lower speeds.

The rev-happy engine is also quite noisy when a lot is asked of it, and like a lot of Japanese cars, but Subarus in particular, tyre roar picks up in the cabin above 80km/h.

It’s a comfortable and family-friendly drive, and I particularly like the way the plethora of active safety systems sit by the wayside and don’t interfere with the overall experience.

It is just a bit of a shame it doesn’t move the drive experience forward by a huge amount. The current Impreza doesn’t feel meaningfully different from the fifth-generation version which debuted in 2016.

The Levorg is great fun to drive, but it still falls short of that stenciled red ‘STI’ badge that lives on its front and rear.

I’ll explain. There’s plenty of power on offer here, it’s just how you’re able to use it. When you’re as close to the ground as you are in the Levorg it should be engaging, with maximum driver input and minimum interference.

The trouble is the CVT takes that idea of control out of your hands. It’s rubbery and unnatural, and a bit dull when you’re pushing the otherwise-tightly tuned chassis around corners.

It’s a shame because everything else is so close to excellent. The steering is superb, direct and with just the right amount of weight to it, and when you’re enjoying the Kosciuszko National Park’s best B-roads you can really feel all the grip delivered by the torque vectoring all-wheel drive system. It’s a blast and very reminiscent of the WRX.

Setting the drive computer to 'Sport Sharp' mode tightens up throttle response and keeps the CVT revving harder. This is best enjoyed using the paddle-shifters to bring the revs up in corners and hold them for longer in the straights, allowing the Levorg to behave as closely to a normal auto as possible.

It’s the best way to drive it, but demands the right road. It’s also a little less fun because there’s no penalty for getting it wrong. Rev too hard or drop the 'gear' too low and the computer will simply switch the transmission back to auto mode.

The suspension is a lot of fun on a back road, but decidedly less so around town. In the case of the STI with its extra firm springs, it’s best described as brutal, crashing low and hard over road imperfections. It also allows far more sound into the cabin than in other Subaru products, with tyre roar picking up at freeway speeds or on coarse bitumen.

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed the Levorg’s drive experience more than I had even expected to, but it’s not for everyone and won’t please the die-hard enthusiast either.

The Levorg beats out most competitors, and even most mid-sizers at this price with Subaru’s awesome EyeSight safety suite, which is genuinely different from the solutions put forward by other brands.

On the active safety front, this means that you score auto emergency braking (AEB) with brake light detection and forward collision warning (FCW), lane keep assist (LKAS) with lane departure warning (LDW), blind spot monitoring (BSM), rear cross traffic alert (RCTA), and active cruise control.

Unsurprisingly on the basis of that active suite which is still one of the most comprehensive in the price bracket, let alone the class, the Levorg has carried a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating since 2016.

Expected refinements also include stability controls (with the added benefit of torque vectoring). There are also three top-tether and two ISOFIX child-seat mounting points across the rear seats.

Subaru offers its fairly standard five-year and unlimited kilometre warranty on the Impreza, with 12 months of roadside assist included.

There is also a five-year fixed-price service program covering the first 75,000km, although it’s nowhere near as affordable as the Corolla or i30, coming in at an average annual cost of $464.64.

The Impreza needs to be serviced once every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever occurs first.

Subaru offers a five-year/unlimited km warranty across its entire range, which is on-par with competitors, including the Octavia and Mazda6.

Like the Skoda, Subaru also offers the ability to buy service plans in three- or five-year packages at the time of purchase, doing so includes other benefits including a free service hire vehicle and three years of roadside assist.

The 2.0-litre Levorgs, including our STI cost between $319.54 and $671.85 per six-monthly 12,500km service interval for a total cost of $4,540.92 for the life of the five-year warranty.

That breaks down to an average cost of $908.18 which is actually very expensive considering the Octavia RS costs less than half that at $340 per year, and it’s a European car.