2004 Subaru WRX - Eight Great Rides

This is the third year in a row the Subaru WRX is an Eight Great Ride, which is impressive considering the car has only been on sale in the United States for three years. Well, four years if you count the 2003 model, which only existed for about five minutes. For some reason Subaru decided to come out way early with the 2004 model, which is what you see here.

Anyway, for the 2004 model year, Subaru has made a few changes to the WRX. Changes we like. Lets start with the bodywork, which is identical to the WRX STi. That's an all-new nose with new larger headlamps, bumper cover, hood, larger hood scoop and front fenders. Subaru says sharp edge character lines that start at the headlamps and grille area and extend onto the still aluminum hood maximize airflow and were added by the Subaru World Rally Team designers.

The rear end is also freshened up with new taillights, bumper cover and decklid.

Inside, Subaru has finally put the tach in the center where it belongs, added some classy silver trim rings around all the gauges, and redesigned the seats with integrated headrests and new fabric. Personally, we like the old seats better, but what do we know?

Mechanically, Subaru left well enough alone. The STi probably had the engineers more than busy, so the 227-hp, turbocharged, 2.0-liter, horizontally opposed four-cylinder and five-speed manual are unchanged. Same for the all-wheel-drive system, which uses a viscous limited slip center differential built into the transmission case. The diff divides engine power 50/50 between the front and rear wheels, but if wheel slippage is detected, the system sends more power to the tires with more traction.

Suby engineers did find the time, however, to add new retuned struts with multi-phase valves to the '04 WRX. Subaru says the new valving improves compression and rebound characteristics. Our test car, which also wore the optional 17-inch wheels and tires, showed no real improvement in our handling test over last year's model, running through the slalom at 67.4 mph (last year's car managed 67.7 mph) but the ride feels just a tick better.

Basically, we continue to love driving the WRX on any road in any conditions. It's fun, fast and practical. It's also incredibly durable, and takes to tuning like Pam Anderson takes to rock stars. Sure, if we had increased the price cap this year, you'd be reading about the 300-hp WRX STi on this page, but the fact remains that the basic WRX, the standard WRX, is one of the greatest performance car buys of all time. And we're proud to call it an Eight Great Ride.