SONOMA RACEWAY, California — In basketball, there are multiple position players. Shot-blocking big men. Defensive forwards. Three-point shooters. Playmaking guards. And there are all-around players who can do it all — think the Detroit Pistons' Tayshaun Prince or Grant Hill.

If compact performance sedans (aka, pocket rockets) were basketball players, they would be all-around all-stars. Performance sedans like the Subaru WRX, the perennial best-seller in the class.

On Sonoma Raceway, I barreled into the tricky, uphill, Turn 1-2 complex with my right foot screwed to the floor. The 2025 WRX tS’s big, gold Brembo brakes hauled me back to earth as I jinked left, then right, into the blind Turn 2 at the top of the hill — the WRX remaining remarkably neutral as I pitched it across the apex.

On twisty California Route 128 through the Mayacamas Mountains, WRX’s all-wheel-drive system clawed the road. I rarely had to shift below third gear thanks to the low-end torque from its 2.4-liter turbo-4 engine.

Out of the hills onto Route 121, I set adaptive cruise control to 70 mph with the intuitive steering wheel button. Subaru’s twin-camera Eyesight system wrapped me in a safety cocoon as I navigated midday traffic: ACC maintaining a gap with cars in front of me, blind-spot assist monitoring cars beside me.

At a corner gas station, I loaded some groceries for the evening — barely scratching the WRX’s cargo capacity that can swallow multiple suitcases while transporting four large adults.

Take a bow, pocket rockets.

The class has never been healthier even as I still mourn the departure of the Ford Focus and Fiesta hot hatches in 2019. Pioneered by the Volkswagen GTI in 1984 (my first car), the pocket rocket class now features the GTI’s Jetta GLI sibling, Honda Civic Si, Hyundai Elantra N, Mazda3 Turbo, Toyota GR Corolla and the WRX.

My preference is the hot hatch — not sedan — body style, and I wish Subaru brought the hatchback version of the WRX (called the Levorg) over from Japan. Alas, Subaru marketing has determined that the Impreza (which shares the WRX’s skeleton) comes exclusively as a hatch, the WRX performance variant as a sedan. Sigh.

It’s hard to be mad given the WRX’s deep toolbox. It begins, of course, with Subaru’s standard all-wheel drive, which makes it a four-season sports sedan. That means WRX will not only claw up Sonoma’s steep Turn One hill — but also crawl up my steep driveway in the middle of winter. When covered with 6 inches of snow. And an inch of ice underneath.

That all-season capability — and all-around value — has helped establish WRX as the perennial sales leader in class with 24,681 units sold in 2023.

The Subie isn’t the cheapest toy in class — that honor goes to the Civic Si at a $31,045 steal — nor is it the cheapest all-wheel-driver (Mazda3 Turbo just nips the Subie at $33,285). But WRX has a whopping 35% more horsepower than the Civic (271 vs. 200) and offers both a manual and automatic transmission where Civic only comes in stick. The Mazda3 Turbo? Only offered as an automatic.

The ‘Ru’s notchy manual is excellent, and 85% of buyers choose it. #SaveTheManual.

But there’s a new kid on the block: the AWD Toyota GR Corolla hot hatch, which also offers a stick/auto. The GR (short for GRRRRRRRR!) is a corner-carving riot that extracts a remarkable 300 horsepower from its wee 3-cylinder engine. Like spiking the punch bowl, GR has transformed the sleepy Corolla lineup. Ask any journalist what hot hatch they’ve most enjoyed in the last year, and they’ll tell you GR.

The drift-happy GR even plugs the void left by the winged, top-trim WRX STI (a victim of government emissions regs) with the ability to throw 70% of torque to the rear wheels. The WRX’s secret sauce? A 20% advantage in rear legroom (36.4 inches vs. 29.9 for the Toyota) and a five-grand cheaper starting price.

In this boiling piranha tank, the WRX must keep making improvements, and for 2025 it steps up with my tS tester and its suite of performance, style and tech upgrades.

You’ll know it by its mascara makeup — black mirror caps, WiFi shark fin, spoiler — and big, black 19-inch wheels. The bigger rims are needed to swallow enlarged, 13.4-inch, six-pot Brembo brakes. Storming out of Sonoma Turns 8-9 chicane — upshift to second, third, fourth, eclipsing 100 mph — my AWD locomotive built up a full head of steam into the iconic Turn 11 hairpin.

There is little room for error. White concrete barriers loom on the periphery. Sonoma is a NASCAR-owned track, and the big boys like their walls. You gotta have confidence in your brakes here, and the Subie delivered.

“I haven’t experienced any brake fade all week,” said ex-Formula One driver Scott Speed, now a Subaru ambassador and NASCAR driver coach. And Speed, ahem, ain’t easy on brakes.

Into the hairpin, I stood the WRX tS on its nose under braking — the Brembos and Bridgestone Potenza S007 tires doing their thing. 'Ru was rock solid: no fade, no swerve, no squeals. Just. Rabid. Grip.

That grip is aided by sophisticated adaptive dampers. The adjustable shocks offer multiple drive modes — from COMFORT for Michigan’s ox cart roads to SPORT PLUS for track days. In stiff SPORT PLUS mode, I rotated through the hairpin and was gone up the pit straight. Not bad for a production sedan.

It would be nice if SPORT PLUS brought more growl, though. Entombed in my helmet, I barely heard the turbocharged exhaust note, and I bounced off the rev limiter at 7,000 rpm before upshifting to third. Dang, also wish the WRX had shift lights like the Civic Si.

The good news is tS debuts WRX’s first digital dash, so I could choose a horizontal RPM display among three instrument views.

Back on the road, the digital display complemented the Subaru’s excellent, 12-inch screen now ubiquitous across the Subaru lineup. Though I prefer horizontal screens to keep my eyes focused on the road, WRX’s deep, vertical display allowed for navigation of multiple menus, including Sirus XM radio channels and Google Maps (courtesy of wireless Android Auto).

All these toys don’t come cheap, so expect tS to crest $42K — about the same price as a comparable GR Corolla — when it hits dealer lots early next year. Pocket rockets require deep pockets, but — pound for pound — they remain the best ticket in autodom. Maybe Tayshaun Prince will buy one.

2025 Subaru WRX tS

Vehicle type: Front-engine, all-wheel-drive, five-passenger pocket rocket

Price: Est. $44,000 when on sale in early 2025

Powerplant: 2.4-liter turbo-4 cylinder Boxer engine

Power: 271 horsepower, 258 pound-feet of torque

Transmission: 6-speed manual (tS), continuously variable transmission (GT)

Performance: 0-60 mph, 5.5 seconds (Car and Driver est., manual); top speed, 145 mph

Weight: 3,450 pounds (est.)

Fuel economy: EPA, 19 mpg city/26 highway/22 combined (manual)

Report card

Highs: Roomy cabin; AWD OMG

Lows: No head-up display or shift lights; stronger engine note, please

Overall: 3 stars

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