German Car Zone

OMF It's a Mazda!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Damn...I think the leaked pictures looked a little bit more agressive. I'll wait for the sedan to truly state my opinion.

Dunno why, but the car reminds of this cute beaut':



In my honest opinion the front of the car is a step backwards in terms of dynamic design. I know not every car maker 'needs' to have a dynamic looking car, but the WRX is a dynamic car as it is,.. so it should have a look to match. Although the controversial 'pig snout' is out, they've gone way too cautious with the look.

Also, there seems to be confusion in the design style of the car. You have the front face with curves swiishing and swooshing left right and centre, but the rear has a more chiseled and edgy look to it.

Found some photos on the net. I am sure the bronz colour Impreza is the jap version with a different front bumper and grill to the US version. Check out the little phot of it in the 1st photo, i think it looks way better than the US version.






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It bums me out. Poor Subaru is like the perpetual deer caught in the headlights when it comes to styling.

It's a real shame, because the company deserves an image equal to their engineering achievements. I always want their product to succeed, but when I see stuff like this I can only shake my head.

I blame management. You can tell, just looking at their product portfolio over the past 6 or so years that the brass have been nervous and schizophrenic when it comes to styling direction. The somewhat recent acquisition of what's his name from Alfa didn't help things in the slightest. The WRX's styling in particular has been like the abused foster child of the company, being pulled from home to home, never afforded enough time to set roots.

On its own, the new WRX doesn't look bad, it just lacks a hook, and it doesn't relate much with any Subaru, past or present. The Koreans are starting to work better with how they approach styling, you think that Subaru could have done the same, with the modest success they've enjoyed over the past years.

It seems pretty obvious that the 5-door hatch-like Impreza is a direct stab at the Mazda 3, with the 5-door Impreza WRX version posted up against the Mazda 3 MPS... but do you think that they went for the hatch-like look to have a better proportioned chassis for the World Rally C'ship ?

The size of the cars in the WRC has gradually shruken. Subaru used to run with the Legacy/Liberty, then sized-down the the Impreza sedan... maybe they've developed a hatch-like Impreza to the dual purposes of firstly targeting the attractive market that the Mazda 3 has had a lot of success in.. and also to be more competitive in the WRC.

What do you guys reckon?

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I do have to admit though, the bronze colored Impreza there does look quite swell. Definately not what first comes to mind when I think 'Impreza' .. but it has this fresh 'happy to serve you' look to it. To boot, the rims in that image work nicely with the car.. although a BMW 330i-like wheel design (the concave bowl look, I think it's called Ellipsoide) would be perfect for it.

That front is so ugly...

My god, is everyone in Subaru's styling department blind? That has to be the ugliest new car I've seen in quite a while. I wouldn't care how good it drives of how fast it is, I couldn't stand the look of it long enough to find out. The sedan version is particularly revolting, gruesome even from the front.

M