I'm a big fan of hatchbacks and a few years ago I was looking into getting an Impreza one, but yeah, just felt very weak. I never looked at suburu again after that.
I do like the new civic hatchback. I was looking for a car for myself and test drove a sport touring and liked it a lot. I ended up getting a bigger family car for my wife instead and I took hers. I'll stick with that for a couple of years but will definitely give the civic hatch another look when back in the market.
I love hatchbacks...and so does my wife. We've owned 4 of them in the past 15 years.
One thing that I found to be fatal with the Impreza is the absolutely abysmal ride quality. I've said it before, my wife and I are not overly picky in that department...I drive a full size truck with rock hard 10-ply LT tires, and she drives a Chrysler T&C, not a vehicle known for its ride refinement. The Impreza took it to a whole new level...the seats were just terrible, the suspension was rock hard and the interior dimensions were beyond cramped. I'm only 6' tall, my left knee should have to rest against the door panel when driving. On any trip longer than 4 hrs, it was horribly fatiguing to drive, it just kicked the crap out of you the entire time. We barely owned it for 2 years when we shed the thing.
Did you ever get the toyota MMT gearbox in the US? It's a manual gearbox but with an electronic clutch so you just rev and go like an auto. It's without doubt the worst excuse for a gearbox I've driven in my whole life, a whole 1-2 seconds lag between auto gear changes at which point you all lurch forwards as the box searches for the next gear, everyone should get to drive one at some point just so they have a reference point for how bad something can be designed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimode_manual_transmission
I've had a few bad transmissions in my time, I've never come across the one you've mentioned though.
-Our '01 Mustang GT had a manual trans that was just plain dumb, it took a motor that thrives on high revs and turned it into a dog.
-Our '06 Ford Freestyle had an under-powered V6 mated to a god awful CVT. That combo turned what would have been a utility powerhouse into a complete turd
-Our '02 Protege 5 needed one more gear, or at least an OD. 70mph freeway driving would have the engine sitting at 3-4000rpm and the gas mileage would go to complete shit.
We've had a few good ones though...
-The auto trans in our '99 Taurus SHO was actually really well programmed and did a superb job of stretching that beautiful Yamaha V8
-The 8spd trans in my new RAM has been excellent to far, impressively so. It is intelligent and silky smooth, surprising for a truck.
-When you turn off "eco" mode in my wife's '15 T&C, it's actually quite responsive
-Our '09 Accord V6 was very nice as well...if only that fucking terrible VCM could have been disabled...
It doesn't really make sense since Subaru can easily throw a turbo engine into any of their cars.
I'd buy a Crosstrek if it came turbocharged.
I don't understand Subaru's stance with turbos. This isn't 1995, many (if not most) car companies are making turbo or supercharged vehicles that dip far down into their non performance lines. I said it earlier, with as horribly under powered as their cars are, there's no excuse why a turbo wouldn't be standard on all their boxer 4cyl engines.