This sums up why I rate driving a Commodore over a suby. Yes subies have awesome traction, but they're geared like toys. Rev rev rev all day long makes me want a set of ear plugs. We had a liberty and driving it was like riding a miniature pony compared to a Commodore feeling like a real horse
At the risk of slight thread drift, I'll give my appraisal of a 2019 Subaru WRX I test drove.
The good: traction for Africa, comfortable seats, really practical, good all round visibility, it has an excellent suspension tune.
The bad: the chassis feels like its old - probably because it is, there are still flat spots in the engines power delivery - made you wish you could afford the STi instead, by far the worst infotainment of any car I test drove and that includes the Mazda 6 Takami, I've driven several WRXs over the years and this one feels fat and slow by comparison. It was more expensive to insure than the VXR (which ain't cheap by the way).
The ugly: why oh why would Subaru ruin their cars by putting CVTs in them I'll never know - even a torque converter auto would be better. I made a point of asking the dealer if there were any manual WRXs I could test drive, there were none in the country! But then I'd have to put up with rev hang...
I want to reiterate just how well sorted Subaru have got the suspension tune in the WRX, it's so well dialed in for NZ roads it rode better than several of the cars I drove with active damping yet was still just as chuckable around the bends. It really surprised me how good it is. It's just a shame most of the rest of it simply doesn't add up to a decent car.