2025 Subaru WRX tS Basically Fixed Everything I Didn’t Like About The WRX, And All It Took Was Another $10,000

Back when Subaru last redesigned the WRX, my first drive didn’t exactly leave me super impressed. Instead of leaning into its WRX-ness for the final gas-only iteration, it seemed like Subaru had tried a little too hard to attract BMW 3 Series buyers. The result, at least the version I drove, was a car that felt like something neither the 3 Series crowd nor traditional WRX buyers would be happy with. As someone who was a big WRX fan growing up, I was a little sad.

Enter the WRX tS, a relatively new variant that’s likely the closest thing we’ll get to a new STI. Andy’s first drive was pretty positive, but I wasn’t expecting much when I found out I’d be driving home from the airport in one. Maybe 10 minutes later, though, I realized how wrong I had been to underestimate the WRX tS. It may not be the STI hatchback we’d all love to see, but dang it, Subaru’s basically fixed everything I didn’t like about the WRX, and all it took was an extra $10,000 in performance-focused goodies.

It isn’t a perfect car, but at the same time, as long as you can afford the price premium over the base model, it’s absolutely the WRX to get. Unless you hate blue, because, oh my, there’s a lot of it in the interior. Personally, I love it, but I’ll also readily admit I’m weird.

Full Disclosure: Subaru wanted me to drive the WRX tS so badly, it had one dropped at the airport with a full tank of gas and left it with me for a week. Then they had the audacity to take it away from me so someone else could drive it. So rude.

Before I get too far into it, let’s take a minute to go over what makes a WRX tS a tS. According to Subaru, those two letters stand for “tuned by STI,” and while you don’t get a more powerful engine, you do get upgrades that really count. There are bigger Brembo brakes, an STI-tuned suspension with adjustable dampers, 19-inch alloy wheels wearing summer performance tires, a sunroof delete and a set of faux-suede Recaro front seats with blue accents to match the blue trim in the cabin.

This would have been a great opportunity for Subaru to add a louder exhaust, but sadly, that upgrade didn’t make the cut. The exhaust isn’t quite as quiet as some reviews might have you believe, but you have to remember, we’re talking about a WRX here. Compared to a regular Corolla it sounds fantastic, but a WRX should be a little obnoxious, and the tS’ exhaust only got obnoxious when I entered a parking garage and discovered it can get very boomy at idle, and not in a good way.

It also would have been great if Subaru had thrown in an extra 10 or 15 horsepower as a reward for spending an extra $10,000, but ultimately, the WRX’s stock output of 271 hp and 258 pound-feet of torque is plenty for daily driving. More than enough, even. And you’ll probably be revving it out more often than normal if you want to hear the exhaust note, so you’re more likely to be in the power band when it comes time to pass a slower driver.

Still, the WRX isn’t the car you buy if all you care about is straight-line speed. It’s about handling, and that’s where the tS really shines. The adjustable dampers let you choose between Comfort, Sport, Sport+ and Individual, the latter of which I used for most of my driving. Throw the suspension in Comfort, put everything else in Sport, and you’re good to go. It’s still taut, balanced and sharp without being punishing, and in combination with one of the few manual transmissions you can get in the U.S., it all comes together to provide a truly sublime driving experience.

I know $10,000 for what basically amounts to a few brake, tire and suspension upgrades sounds like a lot of money for not a whole lot of added performance, but the car’s entire demeanor feels sharper. It encourages you to drive it faster in a way I didn’t get with the regular WRX, and I legitimately loved every moment I spent driving it.

If it were my money, I’d go with the blue paint because every WRX should be blue, and it also matches the interior better, but in a way, Boring Old White actually works here, especially with the ridiculous (complimentary) blue and black interior. You get the fun experience for yourself, while all other people see is another white sedan just like all the others. The Recaros also struck what felt to me, a not-wide person, like a perfect balance of aggressive bolstering without excluding too many drivers or making it annoying to get in and out of the car.

Yes, I’m still looking at you, BMW M3 Competition carbon-fiber buckets with the crotch cradle. Those cars sit at wildly different price points, yes, but I’m still allowed to hold a grudge.

Plenty of you will probably think all the blue is too much, and you’re allowed to have your own opinions, but you should also know you’re wrong. It’s fun, and I want to see more automakers do fun things with their cars instead of making them all boring and serious. Boring and serious is probably the better way to go from a dollars-and-cents perspective, but come on. It’s a WRX. Let your hair down and live a little. Embrace the loud interior and adding a little color to your life. As Daryle Singletary once sang, “‘Too much fun,’ what’s that mean? It’s like too much money. There’s no such thing.”

There are a few downsides to the WRX tS, aside from the too-quiet exhaust. For example, trying to load things into the trunk and back seat had me missing the Mini Cooper convertible I had recently, or even that BMW M3 Competition. The trunk is plenty big, but the opening could definitely be larger. Oh, and if you weren’t a fan of the styling before, that hasn’t really changed. Personally I don’t think it’s that bad, especially since the WRX doesn’t exactly have a long history of being the most beautiful car on the planet, but if looks were a dealbreaker before, they’ll still be a dealbreaker with the WRX tS.

Those are all minor gripes compared to my biggest complaint, though — the obnoxiously slow infotainment system. There’s lag, and then there’s whatever’s going on with the WRX’s center touchscreen. I appreciate that you can turn it off for minimal distractions while driving, but that’s about where the nice things I can say about it end. It looks dated, which it is, but I couldn’t even focus on that much because I was so frustrated with how slow the touchscreen was.

Sometimes I use hyperbole to get a point across, but I promise I’m not doing that here. Even if I tried, I don’t think I could overstate how slow this infotainment system was. I’d tap something on the screen, such as the “I promise not to use this too much while driving” pop-up, and it would often take at least five, if not 10 seconds, for the system to do anything. Sometimes, it would be so unresponsive I’d end up hitting the button multiple times because, surely, I’d waited long enough for something to happen, so clearly my finger must have missed.

And don’t even get me started on the inclement weather popups. I guess it could be nice for your car to tell you about a nearby storm, especially if it’s severe, but with a system this slow, all it did was make me wish I could tear the screen off the console and hurl it into the sea. Especially because it decided I needed to know about multiple thunderstorms that were varying distances away, and every time I cleared the notifications, they’d pop up again. If a storm’s coming, a storm’s coming. I don’t need three or four different notifications about three or four different storms, and I don’t need them multiple times.

I don’t know if the weather notification thing is something others will experience with any frequency, but I don’t think I’ve been this mad at a screen since 2016, when I had a Jaguar F-Pace with an infotainment system that was constantly freezing or crashing. So fingers crossed Subaru puts a rush on getting its new system introduced with the redesigned Outback into other cars because, when someone compares their infotainment experience to a Jaguar product, something has gone very wrong.

Still, if I had the $46,875 to spend, including destination, I enjoyed driving the WRX tS so much, the screen problems wouldn’t be a dealbreaker. I’d have to drive other fun cars in the $40k-$50k range back-to-back to figure out which one I’d actually buy, but the tS would be in the running, while I doubt I’d even bother driving the regular WRX if I were looking to spend $30k-$40k. Unless you really want all-wheel drive, the Hyundai Elantra N is still right there.

I also know that for roughly equal money, I’d absolutely rather have the WRX tS than a BMW 330i. So if that was Subaru’s goal, it definitely succeeded. The WRX’s CVT-only GT trim was actually supposed to be the car that drew in all those 3 Series buyers, but I haven’t driven that one, and I can’t imagine it’s nearly as much fun as the identically priced WRX tS. Then again, the last BMW I bought was a heavily depreciated E39 with a six-speed manual, and I love the WRX tS’ colorful interior, so my seal of approval doesn’t mean much. If you’re an enthusiast, though, I’m not going to tell you not to buy the Honda Civic Type R or Toyota GR Corolla, but at least give the Subaru WRX tS a test drive. You may be surprised how much you enjoy driving it. I know I certainly was.