According to 19 April Autocar the new shape Impreza will be a 5 door also.

The 4 door will be 'muscular looking' and 'wide bodied' while the 5 door will be 'slimline and conservative'.

There will be a 280bhp 5 door but it won't be called WRX, thats for the saloon only.

The new cars will be unveiled in Japan in August and shown at the NEC in October.

Autocar's new computer image looks a little better than some of late.

Looks like all you 5 door boys are going to face a difficult choice.

Hunty

 

If the picture is anything to go by , I think P1 residuals have just improved a fair bit.

D

(Just my opinion of course)

 

Could sombody post the pic for us?

Lovejoy

 

The info I got from a sales guy that claimed to have come back form a regional meeting about the Impreza. He claimed that the new model will be unveiled in Japan on August 23rd, then be shown at the next auto show there, and be on sale in Japan and Austraila around December. The US version would begin production in Januaray and be on sale in the states in late March early April. There would not be an STi for the US market for a while due to cost of certification, and the new body style would have _blister fenders_. I have send him some pictures in hopes he will give me a clearer picture of what he ment. I would paste the entire message, but the US board is down and I dont have the file. You can ckeck on usenet for the entire post.

Lovejoy

 

Just found it:

Have just completed our meeting with the General Manager of Production, Planning, and Management from Fuji Heavy Industries and the Vice President of Sales Planning & Coordination for Subaru of America. After the conclusion of the established agenda, we asked for and received the following update. The new Impreza will be announced in Japan on August 23rd. In January of 2001, production of the US version of this car will begin in Japan with arrival scheduled for March. The model line up is 4 door sedan in 2 versions, RS with 2.5L 4 cylinder and WRX with 230 HP 2.0L DOHC Turbo charged 4 cylinder, Station Wagon in two versions also and OutbackSport. The 2.2L engine goes away. There will be a brand identity switch on the Impreza away from its current cheap economy car image in the US to a performance and sporty image as it has in the rest of the world. Transmissions for the US will be 4 spd auto and 5 spd manual with potential or a 6 spd manual in the next model year.

Regards
Ken Irvine from Becker Subaru

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My assumption is that the UK will get the new version early 2001.

Lovejoy

 

From memory, the Autocar news article also said that the WRX Impreza would be unveiled in Japan around the same time as the standard Impreza was shown in the UK (ie October).

Also IIRC, the article said all 4 door Imprezas (even the 1.6) would be wide-bodies(60mm wider than the 5 door), so I guess what's shown here at the NEC will give us a good idea of what the hot versions will look like.

Paul