If you’re looking for a new, safe, and fun first car, then the Subaru Impreza is the car for you. With its new styling and compact form factor it is good to look at without taking up too much space on the road. 

Power for this car comes from a 2.0 litre four cylinder boxer engine making 152 horsepower, taking it from 0-60 mph in around 9 seconds. While the acceleration could be better, it is never a problem merging onto the highway or pulling out of an intersection. If you really need to accelerate hard there is a manual shift mode that allows for harder acceleration. 

Moving on to the rest of the powertrain, the Impreza comes with Subaru’s excellent all wheel drive system as standard making it great in the harsh New England winters. And with a used price of around $15,000-$17,000 for a 2018 model year, it is by far the cheapest newer car you can buy with all wheel drive. 

Paired with an extremely good and sporty steering system, this car handles phenomenally. The base model can be equipped with either a 5-speed manual transmission or Subaru’s “Lineartronic” CVT Automatic transmission. While it ultimately comes down to personal preference, the CVT can be a bit sluggish at times; however, it gets much better gas mileage than the 5-speed manual at over 35 mpg. 

Stepping into the interior of the car, this Subaru comes with many desirable features as standard in the interior, such as good speakers with apple carplay on a sharp, fast, 6.5 inch touchscreen. The light ivory interior helps create a spacious atmosphere in the cabin and inside there is plenty of room for everyone in the front and back seats, although it would be nice to have power seats, at least on the drivers side as standard.

While the trunk space isn’t enormous, you can fold down the back seats to fit larger objects. This car has had a few different problems involving fuel and ignition issues warranting a recall, so just ensure that, if you’re buying this car, these issues have been resolved. 

Overall if you’re in the market for your first car and you want something stylish, practical, and fun to drive this car is an excellent choice.