You buy a Subaru WRX for its performance, or its handling, or maybe both, but not because you can travel so far between gas stops that you need a stint on a dialysis machine at the end of every journey after holding in your pee so long.
But in this day and age you’d hope that a relatively ordinary-sized 2.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder motor in a simple four-door sedan would be capable of some reasonably strong mileage numbers. What you wouldn’t expect is for the Ford F-150 towering over you at the stoplight to be capable of eking as many miles from a gallon in the city, and almost as many on the highway.
But as Motor Trend points out, the EPA’s 19/25/21 mpg rating for the new 2022 WRX equipped with the CVT transmission is separated from the 19/24/21 achieved by the F-150 equipped with the 2.7 EcoBoost V6 by one solitary freeway mpg. And even sticking with the stick-shift transmission instead of opting for the CVT, the Subaru’s mileage improves only marginally to 19/26/22 mpg.
Related: 2022 Subaru WRX Engine Has The Same Output As Before, But Dyno Run Proves There’s More To It
In mitigation, Subaru told Motor Trend that the EPA tested the WRX with its Sport mode engaged, which almost certainly doesn’t show the 271-hp boxer four off in its most economical light. But there’s no getting away from the fact that the also-all-wheel drive VW Golf R manages to offer 44 hp more, and yet comfortably beats the WRX in everything but strict city driving when it comes to fuel economy with a 20/28/23 mpg rating.
And while the front-wheel drive Honda Civic Type R is now out of production, we’d be surprised if the next one currently undergoing testing doesn’t improve on, or at least match, the 22/28/25 mpg of its predecessor.
Would the WRX’s less than impressive EPA showing put you off buying Subaru’s hot sedan and send you across the street to a rival brand’s dealership? Leave a comment and let us know.
