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February 3, 2022

The 2022 Subaru WRX's Fuel Mileage Is Pretty Bad


If you’ve been holding out on the all-new Subaru WRX despite the odd black fender flares, get ready for a world of hurt when it comes to yet another thing: fuel economy.

Generally, no one buys a Subaru for their fuel economy, but with today’s high pump prices, it’s certainly something that’ll weigh in the minds of would-be owners. With that, the U.S. EPA just released the fuel economy figures of the new sports sedan, and they aren’t great.

The all-new Subaru WRX does a combined 22 mpg (9.35 km/L). In the city, 19 mpg (8.07 km/L), and on the highway, 26 mpg (11.05 km/L)— for the 6-speed manual. The two-pedal version, equipped with a CVT doesn’t do any better at 21 mpg combined (8.92 km/L), 19 mpg city (8.07 km/L), and 25 mpg highway (10.62 km/L).

By comparison, it’s worse off than the outgoing Subaru WRX with its 23 mpg combined (9.77 km/L), 20 mpg city (8.5 km/L), and 27 mpg highway (11.47 km/L). Heck, even the Evoltis, which uses the same FA24 engine, does better. The bigger, heavier 7-seater SUV registers 23 mpg combined (9.77 km/L), 21 mpg city (8.92 km/L), and 27 mpg highway (11.47 km/L).

This is quite odd because the Subaru WRX’s shift to the larger turbocharged 2.4-liter motor resulted in just three more horsepower and the same amount of torque than the old 2.0-liter.

Now, according to Subaru, the reason for the Subaru WRX’s poor fuel economy is down to its “performance-focused AWD system.” Unlike other vehicles, which have on-demand AWD systems, the system in their sports sedan defaults to a 45:55 front-to-rear torque split for handling agility. In addition, the Subaru WRX is fitted with the SI-Drive, and the carmaker had it tested by the EPA in “Sport” rather than “Intelligent” mode.

Whether or not selecting Sport on the DI-Drive mode would be enough to influence the fuel economy figures remains to be seen. What’s for sure is that potential Subaru WRX owners should be ready for a world of hurt when it comes to their fuel bills.

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