Faults:

Nothing so far thankfully.

General Comments:

This car is great when it comes to comfort and handling, but acceleration and top speed, that's when it all goes wrong.

All that Subaru did was sell itself short by making such an engine 1.5L on a four wheel drive without any kind of boost. That's not good at all. Acceleration goes out the window, and you can't expect straight line speed, being an AWD.

Its handles like a dream, but that's just not enough; you can't just make a car that can corner, then on the straights it needs, well a coffee, so it realizes that you actually welded your foot to the floor, then it would start to accelerate gently till it reaches 4.5 thousand so, where it would accelerate like a normal car, and that's just till probably 6 thousand; over that it's just torque.

I would seriously consider trading in my car if it had some kind of boost, turbo, whatever it needs just respond like a proper well made car from Subaru. I really think they went all out to make a economic car regarding fuel consumption, quiet, comfortable, and four wheel drive, and then totally blew all of that with that engine. I mean, come on, clearly it's missing something, a huge something when it comes to acceleration.

Anywhere else, it's fine, a proper car.

I had a BMW E36 1.6, year 1992; tried both on a test drive, needless to say the end of that story...

Faults:

- The suspension is very soft compared to the 07 & 05 Impreza. This makes the car more comfortable, but the driver feels a bit of under steer at speeds over 140 km/h on hard corners.

- The hand brake position will annoy you for some time, then you will adapt its strange position near the driver's leg.

- It's not (eye-catching car) like the previous Impreza models (2005-2007).

- Subaru needs to give more attention to the Impreza's keys (really, the 2009 key looks cheap and a shame compared to Chinese cars and other European cars like the Focus).

- The 1.5 models are not available with sunroof models, and there's only one color trim for the interior.

- The new technology (AVCS automatic valve control system) reduces the fuel consumption on city roads, but it makes the car acceleration not good (I have the manual transmission gear box).

--- For me, no other issues till now.

General Comments:

- Subaru really made this car more comfortable than previous Impreza models.

- The 1.5R engine is very quiet under 3000 k RPM, and very aggressive over 4000 k RPM, with a really strong unique Boxer sound.

- The stock CD-MP3 player really cool and strong regarding the 4 stock speakers.

- The sedan looks more luxurious, and the hatch looks more sportive and stylish.

- The AWD gives the car more stability and pretty handling compared to other Japanese cars in the market e.g. Civic, Lancer, Corolla and Mazda3.

- The interior looks cool and uses good materials of plastic (not a cheap ones)

- The only car in this price category with AWD boxer engine.

Faults:

Nothing unusual (I have changed timing belt, the 4 shock absorber, and shaft at 150000 kilometers for first time).

The engine goes noisy at speed of 90km/h, but it is normal at higher and lower speeds!

General Comments:

First of all I`m SUBARIST, I love the shape and style of all SUBIES.

My Impreza ran 160000 kilometers,and still runs well.

However it is a reliable car there are 3 mistakes. First and biggest problem for me is the position of the gas pedal. To operate the vehicle, the driver needs to position the foot slightly angled to right. With long driving time, the leg gets tired.

Second problem is that the air condition is too strong for a 1600cc engine, so when it is turned on every thing goes noisy inside and outside the car. besides the engine loses too much power.

Third and last headache is coming from behind this time. the noise which comes from the plastic parts in the inner back side of the car! (mine is wagon).I will solve this problem someday.

Except what I mentioned above, the car is excellent, funny to drive, and so well designed.