Now, on Motor Trend’s FB page and the article’s comment section, several people stated that they thought this comparison was flawed because of the platform difference. Well, I don’t remember anyone saying anything similar last year when the cars were compared…seriously. As well, there isn’t much the WRX is going to compare to, since there aren’t many AWD cars in it’s category (cars that are at or under $30K that have 270 HP that are AWD)…but it’s been like that for years. Someone also mentioned that it should be compared to the Evo…no, the STI is the better Subaru for that.

This WRX may not be as quick as the last generation WRX in the quarter-mile, but I’ve said this several times now: it’s because of the change of gearbox (it now has a 6-speed instead of the GR/GV 5-speed manual). It has a good bit of thrust in the quarter-mile, as well…that trap speed more accurately reflects the car’s HP, IMO. It also sounds better than I thought it would, since it has equal length headers now…that’s the first video I’ve seen of a manual-equipped WRX.

The overall comparison shows that the WRX has been improved upon and is quick (pulling a peak of .96g on the skidpad and 25.3 sec in the figure 8). It bested the Focus ST in every contest of performance and also got decent enough comments in the road portion of the comparison. I’ve the feeling that this car may be getting a lot of such reviews.

Here’s the video that’s within the article. If you get bored, just skip everything and go to the last 2 minutes…you’ll love it!

http://wot.motortrend.com/1401_2015_subaru_wrx_goes_head_2head_with_ford_focus_st.html