After detailing its new modular platform earlier this week, Subaru is nearly ready to show us the first production car to ride on these underpinnings: the 2017 Impreza compact. Officially debuting at the New York auto show in just a few weeks, the redesigned Impreza, shown in an accompanying teaser photo, will hit the show floor in both sedan and hatchback forms.
Along with its redesigned platform, the new compact will debut a sleeker design language, at least based on the Impreza Sedan and Impreza Hatchback concepts shown earlier in the auto show season [pictured below]. Then again, Subaru has a history of stylish concepts that turn into dowdy production cars?let’s hope that it can break that cycle here.

The re-done platform, which will also underpin other Subarus in the future, targets improved refinement, a lower center of gravity, and increased stiffness. Key Subaru tenets remain, and the 2017 Impreza is a sure bet to feature a boxer-four engine and all-wheel drive as standard. Subaru’s EyeSight bundle of active safety features will be part of the equation, too, and the company claims that the interior is more spacious than before. This debut only includes the more pedestrian Impreza lineup?WRX fanboys shouldn’t get too excited quite yet. They may have to wait a while to see a new version of the Impreza-based sport compact, as the current-gen WRX lagged behind the outgoing Impreza by a couple years. The next XV Crosstrek, though, likely will com...