2 hours ago
5
Enthusiasts love Subaru’s STI performance icons, but enthusiasts traditionally aren’t volume buyers. Has Subaru survived long enough without an STI model to prove it doesn’t need them?
Motoring enthusiasts love performance heroes. From AMG to TRD and every brand in between, halo cars that transform mainstream motors into poster-worthy heroes have long resonated with their target audience.
For a time, through the 1990s and 2000s, it seemed every brand was keen to create a division to capitalise on its motorsport involvement.
For Subaru, that department was Subaru Tecnica International – better known as STI – started to develop the rally cars that dominated Subaru’s rally involvement, before creating production cars in 1992.
While the first STI-badged car was a Legacy sedan (known as the Liberty to Aussies), the smaller, more nimble Impreza soon became the focus of STI’s WRC platform, and its production spin-offs.
It took until 2002 for Subaru to launch the WRX STI in the United States, but by 2021, the image-building exercise was over.
The 2021 Subaru WRX STI EJ25 Final Edition wasn't just the last of its generation, but the last Subaru model with a fully-developed STI model.
And rather than send the brand spiralling, the lack of an STI model appears to have done Subaru no significant harm.
In 2020, Subaru sold 31,501 cars in Australia, 1399 of which were WRXs. In 2021 the brand cracked 37,015 sales, but WRX sales slipped to 1261, and in 2022, Subaru held relatively steady overall at 36,036 sales, with the WRX resurgent with 2392 sales – despite no STI version.
As the landscape for car brands changed, the once glamorous images of rally cars producing massive rooster tails of red earth behind them stopped being as important as a more responsible image that favoured environmental credentials and family friendliness.
Subaru hasn't entirely turned its back on the STI division. The brand officially withdrew as a factory team from WRC in 2008, with revivals since rumoured but so far unfulfilled.
In the meantime, Subaru showrooms have field ‘tuned by STI’ versions of the BRZ and WRX. Cars that offer a touch of STI-enhanced handling, without a full engine, powertrain, and handling overhaul.
Subaru sold 37,635 cars in Australia in 2024, and while it may not match that figure in 2025, it won't be far behind. None of which is tied to the success or existence of an STI model.
Instead, Subaru is focusing its efforts away from the niche of motorsports enthusiasts and tapping into the wider band of active Aussies who subscribe to the weekend adventure ideology.
At the same time as the STI disappeared from Subaru showrooms, Subaru launched the Outback Wilderness in the USA, and more off-road capable versions of Subaru’s already competent models followed, with the Forester Wilderness and Crosstrek Wilderness.
Unlike a performance division, which suggested cars might be uncomfortable, noisy, or uncompromising, an adventure arm welcomes everyone from dedicated hikers and hunters, to frustrated urban parents who just want to get their kids out of town more often.
That switch in focus has finally reached Australia, with the first Wilderness model, the Outback Wilderness, on sale now with deliveries due to start in early 2026.
Beyond that, the door is open to a wider Wilderness rollout, with models like the Crosstrek Wilderness already available in Japan, but a right-hand drive version of the new Forester Wilderness yet to be unveiled.
That branding confidence suggests the appeal of the Wilderness division extends beyond that of STI cars, with a wider selection of models, and from a back-end point of view, a potentially lower cost-development base to encourage the development of a wider Wilderness range.
Wilderness, like STI, will only ever incrementally boost Subaru’s sales, and runs the risk of cannibalising sales the brand may have already held, but with no clear competitors from rival brands, and a broader appeal than a performance arm, Subaru’s STI canes may, literally, be lost to the Wilderness.
Kez Casey migrated from behind spare parts counters to writing about cars over ten years ago. Raised by a family of automotive workers, Kez grew up in workshops and panel shops before making the switch to reviews and road tests for The Motor Report, Drive and CarAdvice.
