Is Subaru cooking up a new hot hatch?

Jeff Glucker

/comment

Comments

According to our friends at MotorAuthority, Subaru is working on a new hot hatch. It bears the code name Super AWD, which sounds sort-of Mitsubishi-esque to these ears. And it’s set to land sometime late in 2022. This will not be a 3- or 5-door version of the next WRX, mind you, but a vehicle that sits below the WRX.

Even more interesting is that Subaru is once again working with Toyota to bring this one to market. Would it be a Subaru-badged version of Toyota’s GR Yaris? Not likely, though that would be interesting. Toyota is cooking a fresh hot hatch to bring shoppers in the States since we don’t get the GR Yaris. So it’s more likely that the Subaru version would be built off this other Toyota model.

Regardless, it will be great to see a Subaru hot hatch on our shores once more. Head to MotorAuthority for more info on this potential Subaru radness.

About

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker

Jeff Glucker is the co-founder and Executive Editor of Hooniverse.com. He’s often seen getting passed as he hustles a 1991 Mitsubishi Montero up the 405 Freeway. IG: @HooniverseJeff

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

The maximum upload file size: 64 MB. You can upload: image, audio, video. Links to YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other services inserted in the comment text will be automatically embedded. Drop files here

14 responses to “Is Subaru cooking up a new hot hatch?”

  1. Batshitbox Avatar
    Batshitbox

    Can we make 2021 the year “hot hatch” goes away? The term and the whole market is my fingernails-on-the-chalkboard. I get the whole Pony Car / muscle car format of high performance engine in a mid-market model, but face it, a souped up baby stroller is still a baby stroller. The magic of the whole thing dissipates when it’s sold as a premium product. These are being marketed as sports cars, but for some stupid reason they have to look like shopping carts, their target market is anemic half-steppers who want an ‘enthusiast’s car’ car but are just too timid to go all in on a two-seater.

    It’s similar to the market that buys Broncos, G-Wagens, Land Rovers and all the rest that will never see a splash of dirt larger than a bird dropping, but at least in that market the vehicles are still capable, even if the owners are just dreamers. But the hot hatch is good at nothing. It’s not an economy car, though it’s built on the same platform, it’s a shitty sports car and a disappointing family car. All it is is a fat profit margin, Kill it off.

    Reply
    1. mdharrell Avatar
      mdharrell

      “…but face it, a souped up baby stroller is still a baby stroller.”

      I, for one, would gladly make room in my garage for a Dunkley Pramotor.

      Reply
    2. crank_case Avatar
      crank_case

      Half steppers me hole, those are the words of a man who has never experienced getting a Pyoojo 205 GTi to rotate pleasingly on liftoff through a mountain hairpin.

      Look, I get hot hatches being a mainstream thing are a new concept for you lads (yes I know, Rabbit GTI and Shelby GLSH but you didn’t stick with the concept like Europe and Japan), but they’ve been a steady thing in other parts of the world for pretty good reason. It’s a car that you can have as your only car, because a hatch is the most practical thing this side of a wagon, but still light compact and fun. In many ways, hot hatches are more enthusiast cars than many of the middling 3-series esque sports sedans out there. In fairness many modern hot hatches have deviated somewhat from the formula, getting a little bit too grown up and responsible, but there are still some great little tearaways being made that make you feel 19 again.

      Of course a 2 seater is the ideal, and has more of a sense of occasion, but there are plenty of those that are way softer than the best hot hatches too. Not every 2 seater is exactly a Lotus Elise or even a Miata.

      They’re like scooters, maybe you’re embarrassed to be seen on one, but you can’t deny you’re having fun.

      Reply
      1. Batshitbox Avatar
        Batshitbox

        Over here our interstates are swarming with RVs that are the most sumptuous, thousand threadcount, heated toilet seat rolling living rooms ever; they all have names like “Raptor!” and “Wolverine!”, “Excalibur” and “Conquest!” and other words that are best said in a marine corps drill sergeant’s voice. This is because Dad can’t be seen as the cosseted, pampered middle class middle manager he is. It’s the same with the hot hatch. From the baby boom on we Americans have been force fed an artificially prolonged adolescence so that marketers can sell us on the idea that we’re forever young; the “I bought a family car but it’s okay I got the sports package” is exactly that kind of ego-assuaging, credit card pillaging crap that drives me nuts.

        I bet if Andy Warhol were alive he’d be pounding on Subaru’s door asking to do the art direction for this new model’s campaign, because it’s exactly the type of hopelessly dismal, aspirational mediocrity he loved to lampoon in his art.

        Reply
        1. crank_case Avatar
          crank_case

          Funny thing is round here, sports cars are the preserve of old farts like me, because young folks can’t insure 2 seaters. Hot hatches are what enthusiasts cut their teeth on, and some people over 30 feel self concious about being seen in one and not a “grown up car” like an Audi A4 TeDIum. All cars are consumer products at the end of the day and aspirational, just like the Golf GTI MK2 was the car of UK wine bar yuppies in the 80s, but I’d rather people boughtaspirational hoonboxes over aspirational SUVs

          Reply
          1. crank_case Avatar
            crank_case

            mind you, if you want to see aspirational stupidity in hatchbacks, it’s Europeans continuing to buy 3 door hatchbacks (as opposed to actual coupes), because it’s “sporty” even though they’re buying the cooking model.

            *GR Yaris gets a free pass because it has a genuinely different more rigid bodyshell

        2. mdharrell Avatar
          mdharrell

          Curiously enough one manufacturer’s door upon which Warhol regularly pounded was that of American Tri-Ped, a.k.a. American Microcar, thanks to his friendship with the owner, Stuart Pivar. In this vehicle’s defense, it is neither the most hopelessly dismal nor the most aspirationally mediocre thing I’ve driven.

          https://www.davidkoneil.com/markets/blog/shopping_with_andy_warhol

          Reply
        3. Sjalabais Avatar
          Sjalabais

          The silly names and testosterone-overflow in the US market – Ford Tremor anyone? – are really a sight to behold. But it is important to note that one can say “hatch” without “hot” first. And the instant every car class – hatches, sedans, vans, octoscrew-all-terrains – have a “hot” version to top their particular niche, I believe we are one step closer to a perfect automobile environment.

          RVs in particular are a pet peeve of mine though. A colossal waste of money and ressources, as well as road space, in most cases. How anyone would believe that choosing tough-style over practical decisions reflects well – the Instagram-version of cæmping, “overlanding”, included – baffles me.

          (Side note: Exceptionally well-argued points by mr. crank_case)

          Reply
    3. Maymar Avatar
      Maymar

      I think hot hatches are great since there’s no way I can reasonably consider a sports car for the next 17 years. It’d just be nice to have a few more relatively adult options like the GTI (it might just be a Toronto thing, but there seems to be reasonable overlap between new GTI drivers and the sort of moderately affluent man who’s really into spandex-y cycling).

      I don’t have high hopes for this Subaru, mind you – I’m sure it’ll be an excellent car, but maybe a little too Travis Pastrana-wannabe.

      Reply
      1. crank_case Avatar
        crank_case

        The Golf GTI / Lycra warrior thing seems to universal. Both appeal to middle aged men who believe they can outrun the grim reaper if they just pedal hard enough.

        Reply
        1. Jeff Glucker Avatar
          Jeff Glucker

          That’s why my MTB gear is loose.

          Reply
          1. Ol Shel Avatar
            Ol Shel

            Ah, yes. “Snaggy” shorts are fantastic for when you’re more worried about a bro looking at your bulge than you are about riding steep, technical terrain.

    4. caltemus Avatar
      caltemus

      Have you ever had fun driving a small car? Without hotted-up versions of plebian platforms, we would likely get even fewer cars with sporting pretentions. It would not otherwise make financial sense to make a sports-car specific platform, look at the worldwide volumes of the FRS/BRZ/GT86 compared to something like the yaris. The yaris is in the hundreds of thousands, while the sports cars barely sell 6000 (looking at 2019 in this example)

      “All it is is a fat profit margin, Kill it off.”
      That’s like asking everyone to stop participating in capitalism.

      Reply
    5. Ol Shel Avatar
      Ol Shel

      I hope I never meet you, or ever have to suffer by encountering anyone even remotely like you.

      Reply