Subaru Has Finally Decided to Start Giving a Crap About Styling

Subaru is an automaker known for offering a highly specific brand identity and a quality product, but compelling styling has always been low on its list of priorities. While acknowledging the retro charm of its earliest Japanese models, it can be said that the company has never produced a particularly handsome automobile. The SVX was futuristic and interesting, but it wasn’t overtly sexy. And the visual appeal of the old bug-eye WRX or BRAT hinges entirely upon how oddball they were.

After 63 years in the business, Subaru finally wants to change that and place a stronger emphasis on design. However, despite having the least visually stimulating lineup in recent memory, the company could probably stay the course and still be fine. Subaru has done incredibly well in the United States. Annual U.S. deliveries hovered around 187,000 vehicles from 2002 to 2008 but grew fiercely in the following years. Subaru had a record-breaking 615,132 sales in 2016 and looks prepared to break that record this year.

So, why even bother changing anything when the current recipe works so well?

Simple: to continue giving consumers more reason to flock to Subaru. As things stand, Subaru’s prevailing mode of persuasion is all logos and no pathos.

“For the first time the company is emphasizing design as a competitive advantage,” Matt Wherry, manager of Subaru’s product planning and design, told WardsAuto during a discussion of the new Impreza. “We’ve made great cars, but not necessarily the most beautiful. Now they’re really going to be emotionally appealing, to a level they haven’t been before.”

According to Wherry, despite being designed in Japan, the 2017 Impreza actually took a lot of styling cues from what the American market was interested in. At a glance, the majority of those changes aren’t apparent. However, if you spend some time eyeballing the body, you’ll notice a lot of little touches that add up to a more attractive car.

“There’s what we call an undercut, a shadow area, and then the highlight,” Wherry said of car’s newly designed doors. “That creates a lot of action … so we get the classic Coke-bottle, hourglass look without intruding into the passenger space.”

It definitely isn’t E-Type levels of gorgeous, but the styling efforts are apparent when you compare it directly to the previous model. Still, the biggest improvements aren’t even on the outside of the car. Subaru’s interiors have noticeably improved over the last few years — with nicer materials and infotainment displays on the Impreza being the the most notable upgrades.

“It’s almost unrecognizable how far it’s come,” said Wherry.

While that might be taking things a little far, Subaru has clearly made an effort to bestow a more premium feel in even its most more affordable models. Building a truly sexy car still seems a long way off, but the company is taking its first baby steps to get there.

Wherry said his team is working on it, and classified Subaru’s advanced design studio as “small, but expanding.” Currently, it only has eight full-time designers and the majority spend their days considering what western consumers will find desirable in the years to come. Subaru has also expanded its efforts into consumer research.

“The company’s shifting their focus to the U.S. market,” he said. “Most of their profit comes from here. So they’re taking [U.S. customers’ opinions] seriously.”