Will we ever see a Subaru WRX/STI 5-door hatch again?

There are multiple reports out there that say Subaru won’t be bringing back the 5-door hatch in the WRX or WRX STI. But Subaru has told this writer that Subaru won’t be offering the hatchback in the 2015 model year because they wanted to focus on the differentiation between the WRX/STI and the Subaru Impreza model line. This would make sense as Subaru has been wanting to separate the performance WRX/STI from the Impreza and dropped the Impreza name from the sports car.

John Mergen, Subaru of America, Inc., Customer/Dealer Services Department, told me, “We wanted to focus on that differentiation and so we put our resources into a single 2015 WRX Sedan model.” And those resources are limited for Subaru due to multiple new launches this year. Subaru not only brought out the new-generation Subaru WRX and WRX STI, but they will also launched the 2015 Subaru Legacy sedan and the new 2015 Subaru Outback wagon here in the U.S. And Subaru is launching the new-gen 2015 Legacy in a wagon variant in Japan. They will also launch a new LEVORG sports tourer in the Japan market this year.

Subaru is growing faster than any other automaker in the world in terms of percentage of sales. In order to keep their largest market, the U.,S., supplied with their multi-use vehicles, they have to cut production and resources somewhere. The Japanese automaker had to make some decisions in order to keep up with demand here in the U.S. Subaru chose to cut the 5-door WRX/STI because they can’t launch all these new models and built a 5-door WRX/STI.

While it doesn’t make performance fans happy, Subaru is listening to their loyal customers and will likely make the change when they can free up production space on their assembly lines. Subaru is increasing production at their Indiana plant here in the U.S. Subaru will be investing $407.5 million to increase the plant's annual capacity to 370,000 cars by 2016. Subaru expects to sell 400,000 cars globally by the end of 2013. The U.S. along with strong sales in Canada is forcing Subaru to make room for more cars to be produced here in the U.S.

Subaru does listen to their loyal customers and will respond if they send a clear message that they want a WRX/STI 5-door hatch. Subaru documents every one of your responses in a Customer/Dealer Services database. If you want a WRX/STI 5-door hatchback, you can send your response to John Mergen, Subaru of America, Inc. at the Customer/Dealer Services Department. You can call 1-800-SUBARU3 (1-800-782-2783) or email at [email protected]

John Mergen said, “Subaru is always striving to improve upon our products and appreciates when our customers bring their product interests to our attention.” By responding with your request, this will allow for your message to be properly reviewed, tracked and considered by Subaru’s Product Management Department. So if you want to see a Subaru WRX/STI 5-door hatch, let Subaru know.

Other 2015 Subaru WRX STI hatchback stories of interest.
Will Subaru bring back the WRX STI hatchback in 2016?