and the flat 4 engine has a personality- much better sounding engine than most pedestrian vehicles available today.

darcy

The driving experience of the latest model of wrx is really impressive to me, I love everything about it, there is very little that I would change. I don't know what the next gen changes will bring, I could have waited to see but this model is perfect for what I expect out of the vehicle. Not a single complaint.

except BRZ...

I never gave much attention to the BRZ due to it's mediocre engine output. But when I purchased my WRX I spent a lot of time in the showroom looking at the BRZ, and I have to say that I was really impressed with the interior appointments and design, and outward design as well. If I didn't need a 4 seater daily driver I would have definitely explored the BRZ, it is a very cool car.

As to the comment about Subaru straying away over the years I think most of that is very similar to what every other manufacturer has had to compete with - increased safety standards, tough fuel economy standards, environmental standards, low cost maintenance b.s. marketing crap within the industry, and changing trends as new generations of people just don't purchase the same as we did 20 years ago. Having bought a new WRX this week I will say that it has met every expectation that I had of the vehicle, it has higher performance, fuel economy, comfort and safety features than older models and that is what the majority of customers would expect, I know I do. I never had a desire to own a WRX in the past as it didn't appeal to me that much, but the current model checked all of the boxes for me based on my requirements.

Subaru lost me when they axed the 5 door WRX. In 2015, had they continued to offer the sedan and hatch (and they do offer everywhere else, it's caled the Levorg and it's offerd with the same 2.0 FA DIT in the WRX) I'd have a 5 door WRX in my garage right now. Now I'm glad they didn't, I got something better :D

I get the need for building stuff based on focus groups, but what you find is that people dont want what they think they need. You need to build something they didnt know they wanted.

Why are the younger generation buying less cars? People cite urban environments, other distractions, etc etc, yet they flock to luxury brands more than ever and cars are still celebrated in pop culture. When we were in high school, Honda 4 variations of the civic alone (hatch coupe sedan del soak/slow/sol), most of which were actually affordable for a high school kid to buy new, let alone used. Manufacturers these days are failing to capture the imagination of a market, the poor thought process is all over the place. Example, Honda says small hatches dont do well in north America, and sporty versions need to have a 4 doors and a hatch, yet they then build the crz, a model with one practical engine option in the most impractical body. The resale values for the rsx type s tells me theres demand, and a 20k k20 powered crz wouldve been awesome, and costs could've been spread out by offering a hybrid hf model, and a stripped base gas model.
If young people dont want to buy cars, why is it that they're flocking to the model 3?
Then they say oh sports cars dont make money, then they undertake the nsx which while good did not stir any emotions.
Anyway, the problem is that true entry level cars today suck. I'd much have rather bought an ef, eg, or ek back in the day over any entry level car from any of the manufacturers. Why? Doible wishbones, engine options, simple, cheap, and looked good for what it is. What's my options today, base fit? Versa?
Yes all the regulations make it hard to design anything nice, yet Mazda seems to be doing a decent job at it. Why is that alpine could make that new a110 but Honda or Toyota with all their resources couldnt make one?
Intelligently build cars with passion, and the consumers will come. At this point you might as well, autonomous electric cars are coming and alot of these comfortable auto giants are gonna have their worlds rocked by smaller, forward thinking brands.

^ You can probably find a few rants of mine where I refer to the marketing geeks at the big auto companies missing the mark on design. The auto giants hire these marketing geeks from the most prestigious universities, yet they continually miss the mark when it comes to building cars that people actually want to buy. These marketing geeks have no idea what it takes to make a car that people will be passionate to own. They can take their focus groups and shove them up their tight little rear ends, focus groups don't mean crap when it comes to cars. I was driving behind a new Ford Expedition earlier today and it already looks like a dinosaur, like who designs vehicles like this and expects them to sell in enough numbers to support production ?

I think Millenials are turning the car industry upside down, if anyone tries to guess what a millennial really wants they will fail miserably. A while back I heard that canned tuna sales have tanked because millennials don't like opening the cans, lol. The newer generations don't buy vehicles like we did in past decades. I have to admit that my son didn't care the least bit about cars until I cajoled him into helping me maintain my Honda S2000 and Acura Integra, only then did he start to open his eyes to cars. If it wasn't for that he probably wouldn't care at all about cars.

Mary Bara from GM sounded the alarm a few weeks back resulting in a handful of plant closings based on "changing consumer trends" . I think that is all B.S. and GM will be kicking themselves in the rear for not building cars when fuel prices start rising up again. I think that is such short-term thinking on their part, but then again they can't seem to build a decent car that people want.

That's the problem, theres no cool car that they can afford, so why would they bother. The manufacturers are peddling high margin luxury cars but then put out imagineless appliances and wonder why no ones buying.
I look at the 60s and early 70s, heck the 50s as well, and the imagination is just not matched. Then the 90s. Yes the 2000s up to today have great sports cars if you're willing to spend well over half the median annual income.
Toyota and Honda forgot what brought them to the dance, now they're just suppliers to Uber drivers.