Jon [in CT]
03-25-2003, 12:43 PM
The review is at http://www.guardian.co.uk/wheels/story/0,3605,921258,00.html and is reprinted below. I searched around for a definition of the Britishism "wide-boy." According to the Cambridge online dictionary: (British informal disapproving) A wide boy is a man who is dishonest or who deceives people in the way he does business.
Some of the younger property developers are real wide boys.I've also seen: "A Wide Boy is an ostentatious go-getter usually on the make." And, as a definition for wide: "(British) (slang) unscrupulous and astute. example: a wide boy."
Spoilt for spoilers
The new Subaru Impreza is fast and flash. In fact it's a wide-boy's wet dream
Giles Smith
Monday March 24 2003
The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/)
How wide is the new-look 2003 Subaru Impreza? Well, technically speaking, it's a touch more than 5ft 6in, which is about what you would expect from your average four-door saloon. Style-wise, however, the Impreza is as wide as it gets. Talk about wide. Is there any car wider on the road today? It's the width of Britain at its widest point and a bit more.
Check out that high-rise rear spoiler. Actually, check out all the spoilers - the front-corner spoilers, the new side-sill spoilers. You're spoilt for spoilers. Pretty much the only thing on the car without a spoiler is the steering wheel. Even the spoilers have spoilers.
And then take a look at that air-scoop on the bonnet. Imprezas have always had one of those, but on the new model it's bigger than ever - a great snorting nostril, sucking air and perhaps the occasional pigeon, or even the odd pedestrian, into the engine as you power through the streets. I wouldn't say it interfered with the visibility through the windscreen, exactly, but it is quite hard to look at anything else while driving. Quite hard, too, not to sense all that air rushing in and not feel a little over-oxygenated and light in the head oneself.
The Impreza, one pretty rapidly concludes, is the souped-up Ford Cortina de nos jours, as we say in Essex. Except that you don't have to tinker with it on your drive every weekend to get it this way. It comes pre-souped-up.
Additionally, it looks like the kind of car you most want to drive when you are too young to have a licence. One can see how ownership of an Impreza could peel back the years, even for 18-year-olds, whom one assumes are, apart from rally drivers, the car's core market. Laugh? I nearly went ram-raiding.
Mine came in bright, unashamed white - the white of a Romford stiletto, as pure as the driven snow. It looked to me like the perfect paint-job in the circumstances, though I take the point of those who would argue for post-box red with a silhouette-tiger motif on the doors. Or for banana yellow.
Subaru has knocked some of the edges off the old model, in particular at the front end, where there are new geometrically complicated headlamp clusters, which seem to be the headlamps from three different cars all stapled together on a sheet of Bacofoil. And the bonnet now tumbles forward for a much chunkier finish.
Subaru maintains that, as well as rendering the car more aero-dynamic, the re-styled front adds a new layer of "aggression" and "menace". At the same time, the manufacturer is quick to point out that the bonnet is more "pedestrian-friendly" than used to be the case.
Now, obviously, when we're talking about car bonnets, "pedestrian-friendliness" is going to be very much a relative concept. The friendliest bonnet from a pedestrian's point of view is probably no bonnet at all. But I think the general idea is that, thanks to the new front-end slope, you would rather get run over by a new Impreza than by an old one.
And if that's the way that industry thinking is tending in 2003, then surely we can only rise to applaud and encourage them on their way. Personally, I would rather be driving a new Impreza than getting run over by it. And I'd certainly rather be driving a new Impreza than getting run over by an old one. I drove the 2.0 litre WRX in which the engine power has been boosted from 218 BHP to 225 BHP. It rumbles and twitches beneath you at tick-over in a way that strongly implies you will soon be explaining yourself to a policeman. And, of course, it goes like the proverbial **** off a shovel.
At the same time - and this is a feature which will appeal to people in urban areas who want to retain something like workable relations with their communities - the car isn't always leaping ahead like a hungry dog. It can be driven moderately without effort and waits for you to work your feet a bit harder before exploding into life.
The explosion, when it happens, is memorable - a long, knuckle-whitening surge through each of the gears. Top speeds are up across the range (a thunderous 151.5 mph in the hottest model, the Impreza WRX STi). But so is fuel economy. And exhaust emissions are down. Thus whereas the old model would have stuck you in the 32% tax band, the new one leaves you in the more modest 27% band. Prices, too, have fallen. The new WRX is down by £1,500 on the outgoing model. Like the pedestrian-friendly bonnet, these all seem to be moves in the right direction.
Strangely, though, when you omit to fasten your seat belt the car lets out a single soft, sweet, sustained chime. It's fabulously incongruous. In the context, I'd expected a recorded voice saying, "Oi. Sonny. Belt it."
I had expected a tasty interior, too. But it's blank-faced and functional. Restrained, even. You'll have to add your own fur.
Some of the younger property developers are real wide boys.I've also seen: "A Wide Boy is an ostentatious go-getter usually on the make." And, as a definition for wide: "(British) (slang) unscrupulous and astute. example: a wide boy."
Spoilt for spoilers
The new Subaru Impreza is fast and flash. In fact it's a wide-boy's wet dream
Giles Smith
Monday March 24 2003
The Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/)
How wide is the new-look 2003 Subaru Impreza? Well, technically speaking, it's a touch more than 5ft 6in, which is about what you would expect from your average four-door saloon. Style-wise, however, the Impreza is as wide as it gets. Talk about wide. Is there any car wider on the road today? It's the width of Britain at its widest point and a bit more.
Check out that high-rise rear spoiler. Actually, check out all the spoilers - the front-corner spoilers, the new side-sill spoilers. You're spoilt for spoilers. Pretty much the only thing on the car without a spoiler is the steering wheel. Even the spoilers have spoilers.
And then take a look at that air-scoop on the bonnet. Imprezas have always had one of those, but on the new model it's bigger than ever - a great snorting nostril, sucking air and perhaps the occasional pigeon, or even the odd pedestrian, into the engine as you power through the streets. I wouldn't say it interfered with the visibility through the windscreen, exactly, but it is quite hard to look at anything else while driving. Quite hard, too, not to sense all that air rushing in and not feel a little over-oxygenated and light in the head oneself.
The Impreza, one pretty rapidly concludes, is the souped-up Ford Cortina de nos jours, as we say in Essex. Except that you don't have to tinker with it on your drive every weekend to get it this way. It comes pre-souped-up.
Additionally, it looks like the kind of car you most want to drive when you are too young to have a licence. One can see how ownership of an Impreza could peel back the years, even for 18-year-olds, whom one assumes are, apart from rally drivers, the car's core market. Laugh? I nearly went ram-raiding.
Mine came in bright, unashamed white - the white of a Romford stiletto, as pure as the driven snow. It looked to me like the perfect paint-job in the circumstances, though I take the point of those who would argue for post-box red with a silhouette-tiger motif on the doors. Or for banana yellow.
Subaru has knocked some of the edges off the old model, in particular at the front end, where there are new geometrically complicated headlamp clusters, which seem to be the headlamps from three different cars all stapled together on a sheet of Bacofoil. And the bonnet now tumbles forward for a much chunkier finish.
Subaru maintains that, as well as rendering the car more aero-dynamic, the re-styled front adds a new layer of "aggression" and "menace". At the same time, the manufacturer is quick to point out that the bonnet is more "pedestrian-friendly" than used to be the case.
Now, obviously, when we're talking about car bonnets, "pedestrian-friendliness" is going to be very much a relative concept. The friendliest bonnet from a pedestrian's point of view is probably no bonnet at all. But I think the general idea is that, thanks to the new front-end slope, you would rather get run over by a new Impreza than by an old one.
And if that's the way that industry thinking is tending in 2003, then surely we can only rise to applaud and encourage them on their way. Personally, I would rather be driving a new Impreza than getting run over by it. And I'd certainly rather be driving a new Impreza than getting run over by an old one. I drove the 2.0 litre WRX in which the engine power has been boosted from 218 BHP to 225 BHP. It rumbles and twitches beneath you at tick-over in a way that strongly implies you will soon be explaining yourself to a policeman. And, of course, it goes like the proverbial **** off a shovel.
At the same time - and this is a feature which will appeal to people in urban areas who want to retain something like workable relations with their communities - the car isn't always leaping ahead like a hungry dog. It can be driven moderately without effort and waits for you to work your feet a bit harder before exploding into life.
The explosion, when it happens, is memorable - a long, knuckle-whitening surge through each of the gears. Top speeds are up across the range (a thunderous 151.5 mph in the hottest model, the Impreza WRX STi). But so is fuel economy. And exhaust emissions are down. Thus whereas the old model would have stuck you in the 32% tax band, the new one leaves you in the more modest 27% band. Prices, too, have fallen. The new WRX is down by £1,500 on the outgoing model. Like the pedestrian-friendly bonnet, these all seem to be moves in the right direction.
Strangely, though, when you omit to fasten your seat belt the car lets out a single soft, sweet, sustained chime. It's fabulously incongruous. In the context, I'd expected a recorded voice saying, "Oi. Sonny. Belt it."
I had expected a tasty interior, too. But it's blank-faced and functional. Restrained, even. You'll have to add your own fur.