With the introduction of the redesigned WRX in 2022, Subaru's performance sedan continued its evolution into more of a lifestyle vehicle. More comfortable than ever, the latest flavor of the formerly hard-edged sedan quickly failed to earn the respect of die-hard purists—despite being a genuinely excellent car by all accounts.
With the WRX TR, Subaru is adding and removing a few things, making its performance sedan slightly edgier. But is it enough to win the respect of those who always want more? I headed to a rain-soaked island of Sicily to see how the new TR stacks up to the many WRX and STI special editions that have come before.
Photo: Tim Stevens
For 2024, the Subaru WRX sedan will start at $33,855, including the $1,120 destination charge. Next up is the WRX Premium at $35,755, the Limited at $40,135, and the top-shelf WRX GT at $45,335.
Meanwhile, the WRX TR starts at $42,775. For that, you get a few new things, most notable being a subtly stiffened suspension. Subaru says it uprated the springs by approximately five percent, with the dampers retuned to match.
That may not sound like much—and indeed, it isn't—but the extra stiffness is there to help the car deal with the additional grip from its new, stickier Bridgestone Potenza S007 tires, mounted to new, dark gray 19-inch wheels at every corner. Those wheels make room for slightly larger brakes—13.4 inches up front and 12.8 at the rear—up from 12.4 and 11.4 inches, respectively.
Subaru also says it tweaked the WRX's electronic power steering for the TS to deliver more feel. A deleted sunroof saves weight, and Subaru also kindly fits the higher-end Recaro seats formerly available on WRX sedans with an automatic transmission.
The TR also inherits several quality-of-life upgrades that all 2024 WRX sedans will receive, including full-featured EyeSight on all versions, which were previously limited to only the automatic WRX sedans. Subaru also makes a few minor tweaks to the software and, finally, adds wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
The 2024 WRX TR hits dealers in early 2024, and though I drove a pre-production example in Italy, it was a U.S.-specification car, costing $42,775.
Photo: Tim Stevens
The 2022 WRX redesign brought the car much more in line with the current Subaru aesthetic, which means pert lighting elements inset front and rear and black body cladding on the fenders. That gives it a more off-road look than in years previous, in some ways keeping close to its rally roots.
The redesigned look didn't change the fundamental practicality of the car, which has always been a hallmark of the WRX. With 12.5 cubic feet of storage behind the folding rear seats and, of course, the standard all-wheel drive (AWD), it's a perfect machine for an extended getaway to somewhere with bad roads and worse weather.
The WRX TR doesn't mess with that formula in any way. In fact, there's very little to distinguish it from the other WRX trims at all. Rear-seat accommodations are as roomy and comfortable as ever, while there's even more generous headroom up front thanks to the omitted sunroof.
Materials are generally good throughout, and the layout is excellent. The fat steering wheel is comfortable to hold, and the tall 6-speed shifter is well positioned in relation to the armrest and everything else in the car.
In short, it's easy to get comfortable in the WRX TR, and thanks to the snug Recaro seats, it’s easy to stay that way even when driving hard.
Photo: Tim Stevens
The 2024 WRX TR features Subaru's Starlink infotainment system, deployed on the same 11.6-inch, vertically oriented touchscreen as on the regular WRX, now offering wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Beyond that, user interface changes are subtle, with a few performance and usability updates, like toggling the heated seats without having to bring up a submenu.
On the active safety front, Subaru has finally enabled its EyeSight active safety system even on manual-transmission-equipped cars. That means all WRXs, including the TR, have adaptive cruise control. That system can bring the WRX to a complete stop, and it's worth noting that Subaru has not added any kind of active clutch activation.
Allow EyeSight to bring your car to a stop without putting in the clutch, and it will stall. That's a far preferable situation to not having adaptive cruise control on a car that costs more than $40,000 in 2024. EyeSight also brings active lane-keeping assistance and automatic emergency braking to the party.
Subaru also made some additional structural reinforcements to improve the WRX's crash-test performance. However, at the time of writing, neither the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) nor the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has rated the crashworthiness of the 2024 WRX.
Photo: Tim Stevens
For the launch of the 2024 Subaru WRX TR, Subaru chose Sicily as the place where journalists would first get a go behind the wheel. Specifically, Subaru picked the 92-mile route of the Targa Florio, the historic road rally that saw race-ready machines running on open roads at speed until it was shut down in 1977.
What Subaru didn't choose was the weather, which on the day of the drive was cold and rainy—treacherous conditions that turned Sicily's already challenging roads into a low-grip nightmare. In other words, it was perfect for testing Subaru's all-weather, all-terrain performance machine.
The rain was properly coming down when I slotted into that Recaro seat—the first rain these roads had seen in some time. That meant all the accumulated diesel and oil on the surface of the asphalt was fresh and slick, resulting in a surface so slippery that even walking was risky.
Driving at speed through the rain and fog with such little grip took commitment, but at all times, the WRX TR felt poised and planted. When it did lose grip, which was often, it did so in a predictable way, making it easy to catch, correct, and keep things moving in the right direction.
The 6-speed flavor of the WRX TR still relies on Subaru's tried-and-true viscous center differential to provide AWD. This system ensures a 50:50 split of torque between the front and rear. The differentials at front and rear are both open, but up front, the WRX TR uses its brakes to provide a torque-vectoring effect, helping to pull the nose of the car through the turns and fighting the understeer that such a drivetrain system can often induce.
Powering it all is the same turbocharged 2.4-liter flat-4 engine found in the base WRX. There isn't even a token power increase here, so you get the same 271 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque delivered to all four wheels. In the grand scheme of modern sports cars, that's not an awful lot, but the power delivery of the WRX is still quite satisfying.
The torque comes on early, and the throttle response is reasonably sharp despite the turbo, resulting in a car that feels eager to go, even when the grip is as low as it was in Sicily that day. It's only when you run higher in the rev range that the small-displacement 4-cylinder starts to feel a bit light when it comes to power.
It also sounds a bit weak. The stock exhaust of the WRX could be more engaging. While it's easy enough to say that enthusiasts will swap that out anyway, having something more evocative on Subaru's most performance-oriented car outside of the BRZ would be nice.
But, realistically, for everyday driving, especially through town and from stoplight to stoplight, the torque of the WRX TR shines and makes it a lot of fun to drive.
On the one hand, the WRX TR is a bit disappointing because it doesn't add much more to the mix than some stickier tires and an ever-so-slightly stiffer suspension to ensure their grip isn't squandered. For someone wanting a genuinely higher-performance WRX, the TR isn't really it.
But, it delivers subtle tweaks that all nudge the car in the right direction, combined with some desirable options and often asked-for tweaks that all conspire to make the WRX an even better car.
Nothing is missing or wrong with the WRX, so the WRX TR doesn't try to fix it. It just makes a couple of snips and adjustments, resulting in a car that will better satisfy an enthusiast's wants without compromising its ability to fit in with the rest of their lifestyle.
Tim Stevens is a veteran automotive and technology journalist with over 25 years of experience covering everything from smartphones to supercars. In addition to JDPower.com, his expert perspectives have appeared in numerous national and international outlets, including print, online, and broadcast television.
The Ford Transit is the automaker’s full-size cargo and passenger van offering, designed to serve a wide range of commercial and lifestyle applications. With 37 available configurations, the platform ...See More
Read the Full Article
The Chevrolet Tahoe is a full-size, three-row SUV with a standard V8 engine and available diesel power. Built on the same platform as the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 pickup, the Tahoe benefits from its ...See More
Read the Full Article
It is the end of the line for the Ford Escape. After 25 years as a fixture of Ford’s lineup, 2026 will be the compact SUV’s last model year.
Read the Full Article
The Colorado is Chevrolet’s midsize pickup. It ranks among the segment’s most capable trucks for payload and towing, and can be configured for both work and off-road adventures. For 2026, the ...See More
Read the Full Article