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Our chat with Subaru left us sensing that the Japanese automaker is moving their lineup in a much more luxurious direction than it has in current years, now there is nothing wrong with this approach to selling cars, in fact it is a pretty smart one, but what about the boy racer in all of us that lusted after owning the same blue and gold car that Colin McRae raced to multi WRC championships. One of our concerns with the automotive arm of Fuji Heavy Industries withdrawing from the World Rally Championship is that their cars could lose that competitive performance edge, but the entry level Impreza has been replaced by the more spacious Legacy as Subaru’s GT300 competitor in the Super GT championship and a much more mundane version is currently being campaigned in the Koni Challenge Series here in the U.S. which makes sense because even the old WRC car was a Legacy. So with all this attention being paid to the larger vehicles in their lineup what is going to happen to the STi?
Update 04.01.2010: Official release the new 2010 WRX Sti is introduced at the 2010 New York Auto Show. Update 04.27.2010: We just receive the first picture of the 2011 Sedan WRX STi caught in the wild, Thanks to Robbie Tigan for the tip! Continued after the jump. 
When Subaru redid the Impreza and STi for 2008 the design included a new rear suspension that would increase back seat room, a toned down front and an overall much smoother body. They also tuned a bit of the STi’s edge out of turbocharged all wheel drive hatchback, a mistake they admittedly made but claim to have corrected with the 2009 model. Our other concern is the hatchback only option for the Sti, something that he promised me would be resolved very soon, and told me to keep my eyes out about the future of the high performance flat four powered four door. Form what we have uncovered on the internet it should arrive as a 2011 model.
 18 comments: Subaru Impreza WRX STi sedan should return in 2011 Well, I guess Subaru is beginning to put some failure into their production cars. I really don’t know why.
 Hi, I’m sorry my english is not great could some1 confirm to me if he’s talking about the ECU reflash recall on 2008s? "They also tuned a bit of the STi’s edge out of turbocharged all wheel drive hatchback, a mistake they admittedly made but claim to have corrected with the 2009 model."  Oh, and Subieforlife, Subaru does offer a stiffer suspension for the STI. SPT (Subaru Performance Tuning) - the not very well-known Subaru equivalent to TRD and Nismo - offers stiffer shocks, lowering springs, as well as exhaust and chassis refinements. Not every dealer carries them, though.
I don’t know what would be the best choice for the STi, ditch the hatch or reinvent the sedan? I own an ’08 STi and happen to like it very much. Sure, it isn’t the glaring STi of yesterday, complete with periscope hood scoop and enormous wing, but does continue on the STi tradition quite well.
Many of the die hards that rejected the new body have come to like it very well. I know I have.
Only suggestions would be to stiffen the suspension back up and offer increased horsepower. The WRX is putting numbers out very close to STi. Given the price tag, and the fact that it is an STi, it should have a wider performance gap versus it’s little brother the WRX.
Offer heated mirrors and wipers. Otherwise I don’t see the need in luxury gizmos. I have learned to appreciate an auto without all the gizmos.
I would hope Subaru will not sell out and make the STi become just another performance oriented sedan. This car was not and should never be intended to be a luxury sports sedan.
 If this will be the next impreza sedan, many tuner wont hesitate to have their hands on this baby, because it looks more aggressive and sporty in rally even in street racing. a very tight competitor of the evo is now coming back from sedan version.
 well i really miss the Impreza STI Sedan, good thing that subaru will produce a STI Sedan again, i really like the sedan STI rather than the hatch.
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When I told the Subaru representative that my favorite of all time is the mighty 22B STi, he knew exactly what myself, and most WRX enthusiasts, were looking for in the next version of the best bargain sports car on the market. The 22B was built back in 1998 to celebrate the automaker’s 40th anniversary and by that point, multiple World Rally Championships. This special edition Impreza started out as a lightweight WRX RA coupe shell and then had a set of much wider rear arches to match the boxed front fenders that housed special gold BBS wheels, which widened the Subaru’s track and made it look just as bad as the 
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11.7.2010 @ 22:57