Top 3 safety features on a Subaru Impreza
Subaru has to be right up there on any list detailing the safest cars around. For many years, this Japanese manufacturer has worked overtime to ensure that their entire range of cars are as safe as can be, and the latest Subaru Impreza is a prime example of this. It's earned accolades the world over, and brings upper-class technology to the mass market. Let’s look at three of its most notable safety features.
The Subaru Impreza is available in two trim levels, using the same drivetrain in both variants, but upgrading the high-trim version with a host of added safety features. That doesn’t mean that the base Impreza is short-changed in this department, though, as its standard equipment list features ABS with EBD, 7 airbags, rear ISOFIX child seat anchors, and a 5-star Euro-NCAP crash safety rating. Let’s take a look at three things the Subaru Impreza does for its occupants’ safety.
1. New Subaru Global Platform
This is the car that introduced Subaru’s new platform, from where it has since been applied to the latest XV, Forester, and the next-generation Legacy/Outback duo. Expanded application of high-tensile steel results in a 40% stiffer bodyshell, with tightly-controlled energy distribution paths through the body in the event of a collision.
This gives a more-stable “safety cage” for the occupants, which allows the airbags and other passive safety devices to perform their functions properly, and reduces impact protrusion into the passenger space.
Related: Top 3 things you need to know about the Subaru XV.
2. Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive
This is standard in all Subarus except the rear-wheel drive BRZ, with a low-mounted horizontally-opposed (“Boxer”) engine for a lower centre of gravity and improved weight distribution, and permanent all-wheel drive making up the main components. But, in the latest Impreza, this is augmented by a slew of electronic enhancements.
The headlining feature here is Active Torque Vectoring, which distributes the engine’s torque to individual wheels, according to the traction available underneath. It also has some other tricks up its sleeve, including braking the inside front wheel to sharpen-up the car’s turn-in and reduce understeer. This makes the new Impreza the most agile and sure-footed one yet.
3. EyeSight
While the features listed above are standard on every Impreza, only the range-topping “2.0i-S ES” trim includes Subaru’s proprietary driver assistance- and safety suite, named EyeSight. In addition to the upgrade from standard to adaptive cruise control, EyeSight also adds lane-departure warning, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, pre-collision throttle management, automatic emergency braking both forwards and in reverse (including responding to moving obstacles) and a few other tricks to its arsenal.
Related: We put Subaru’s Eyesight system to the test in this video review.
It’s also important to note that ES trim substitutes the base car’s halogen headlights with adaptive LED headlights with automatic high beam control. This is an important safety feature, because it allows the driver to “see around corners”. Of course, none of these features absolves the driver of responsibility to drive safely, but will definitely lend a hand in the event of a lapse in concentration.
While it’s admirable that the base-spec Impreza has an (almost) full house of the usual safety features, the high-trim ES adds a bunch of advanced safety aids that, until recently, have been the preserve of much more-expensive cars. Any spill-over of new safety tech to “normal” cars is welcome, so it’s admirable that Subaru manages to include all these things to a compact sedan that comfortably slips below the half-a-million Rand mark.