The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has recently tested Subaru's 2024 model year Solterra and WRX. Although the all-electric sport utility vehicle with Toyota underpinnings received the Top Safety Pick+ accolade, the nonprofit organization awarded Top Safety Pick to the boxer-engined sedan.
Why is that? For starters, we need to understand why there's a plus in Top Safety Pick+. According to the IIHS, the most coveted award requires good ratings in the small overlap front crash test and updated side impact test, acceptable or good ratings in the pedestrian front crash prevention evaluation, acceptable or good for headlight performance, and acceptable or good in the updated moderate overlap front crash test.
Twinned with the oddly named bZ4X from Toyota, the Solterra passed all tests with flying colors. Regarding the WRX, the nonprofit organization wasn't pleased with the all-wheel-drive sedan in the updated moderate overlap front crash test. Simply put, WRX was deemed marginal as opposed to the required acceptable or good ratings.
Why moderate? As you can tell from the video attached below, the rear passenger dummy's head came way too close to contacting the front seatback. In the real world, that may result in a nasty head injury. The safety boffins also identified a low risk of injury to the chest. But that's not all…
The footage clearly reveals how the lap belt moved from the pelvis area onto the abdomen of the child-sized dummy. This is called submarining in IIHS talk, and the consequences of submarining are abdominal injuries. Looking at the glass half full, Subaru made improvements to the side structure and side curtain airbags for model year 2024.
Photo: IIHS on YouTube
While on the subject of safety, also remember that Subaru introduced EyeSight Driver Assist Technology on the manual-equipped WRX for model year 2024. As ever, the second-gen WRX belts out 271 horses and 258 pound-feet (350 Nm) of twist from a four-pot boxer augmented by a twin-scroll turbo and an electronic wastegate.
Codenamed VB as opposed to VA for the first generation, the 2024 Subaru WRX is available with a chain-type continuously variable transmission. Prices kick off at $32,735 excluding the destination charge, whereas fuel economy is 26 miles per gallon (9.0 liters per 100 kilometers) on the highway and 19 mpg (12.4 l/100 km) city.
Based on Toyota's e-TNGA platform for battery-electric vehicles, the 2024 Subaru Solterra is currently advertised with a starting price of $44,995 or $329 per month for 36 months with zero bucks down. Hailed as the most advanced Subaru ever, the Solterra obviously comes with a dual-motor setup by default. Its Toyota-branded sibling is that little bit more affordable at $43,070 because the base spec features a single motor.
Neither are selling remarkably well, with Toyota and Subaru moving 9,468 and 5,385 units, respectively, in the first six months of 2024 in the United States market. By comparison, Hyundai reported 18,728 deliveries for the compact-sized Ioniq 5 crossover.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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