Subaru Cuts the 2027 Impreza's Starting Price to $24,595 and Gives Every Trim the 180-HP Engine

A new Base trim replaces last year's Sport at $2,000 less and with 28 more horsepower, after Impreza sales fell 43% in the model year Subaru dropped its cheapest version.

Subaru announced pricing for the 2027 Impreza on September 24, 2026, and the headline number moves in a direction car buyers rarely see anymore: down. The hatchback now starts at $24,595 for a new Base trim, $2,000 less than the 2026 model's cheapest version, before a $1,245 destination charge. The lineup shrinks to two trims, Base and RS, and the RS holds at $29,495, the same price as last year. Subaru says the car goes on sale later this year, and it continues to be assembled in Gunma, Japan.

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2026 Subaru Impreza Walk AroundYouTube ↗

The price cut follows a hard year for the car. For 2026, Subaru dropped the old entry-level trim and made the $26,595 Sport the cheapest Impreza, pushing the starting price toward $27,000. Sales fell sharply after that: according to The Auto Wire's analysis of Subaru's own figures, Impreza deliveries through August 2026 totaled 11,396, down 43% from 19,995 in the same period of 2025, even as Subaru's overall August sales rose 1.3% and the Forester gained nearly 18%. The 2027 lineup effectively undoes the 2026 decision, restoring a cheaper way into the car rather than asking shoppers to stretch for a better-equipped one.

The new Base trim is not a stripped-out teaser. Every 2027 Impreza, Base included, now uses the 180-horsepower 2.5-liter flat-four that was previously reserved for the RS, which means the cheapest Impreza gains 28 hp over last year's 152-hp 2.0-liter Sport. It keeps the CVT with an eight-step manual mode, standard all-wheel drive, Subaru's EyeSight driver-assistance suite, LED steering-responsive headlights, keyless start, dual-zone automatic climate control and 17-inch alloy wheels. For a buyer, the engine change is the part you feel every day: 152 hp left little in reserve for highway merging and passing in a car this size, and the extra output addresses that without moving up a trim.

The savings do come from somewhere. Compared with the 2026 Sport it replaces, the Base loses the LED fog lights, drops from 18-inch to 17-inch wheels, and trades the 11.6-inch portrait touchscreen for a pair of 7.0-inch displays with wired, rather than wireless, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, according to Carscoops' side-by-side of the two model years. Subaru says interior materials, including the door panels, have been upgraded for 2027. The smaller screen is the change most people will notice in daily use; the smaller wheels, if anything, tend to help ride comfort and make winter tires cheaper to buy.

The RS, at $29,495, is now the only step up. It adds the 11.6-inch screen with wireless smartphone mirroring, 18-inch wheels, heated front seats and side mirrors, a windshield wiper de-icer, Blind-Spot Detection with Rear Cross-Traffic Alert, and a five-year trial of Subaru's connected services. An optional $2,070 package brings a Harman Kardon audio system, a power moonroof and a 10-way power driver's seat. The $4,900 gap between the trims is significant, and it is worth noting what sits on the RS side of it: heated seats and blind-spot monitoring are exactly the features many snow-belt buyers who choose a Subaru for its all-wheel drive would want, so the Base is best suited to buyers who genuinely prioritize price.

Subaru bills the 2027 Impreza as the most affordable all-wheel-drive compact car on sale in the U.S., and the obvious alternatives support that on price. Mazda's cheapest all-wheel-drive Mazda3 for 2026 is the 2.5 S Carbon Edition sedan at $29,815, and the all-wheel-drive hatchback starts at $30,965, both before a $1,315 destination fee, so an AWD Impreza Base undercuts the cheapest AWD Mazda3 by more than $5,000. The Mazda counters with a more upscale cabin and, on its turbocharged versions, far more power. Toyota's Corolla Hybrid also offers all-wheel drive on its LE and SE sedans, and it wins decisively on fuel economy: the EPA rates the 2026 Corolla Hybrid SE AWD at 44 mpg combined. The Impreza's case against it is the hatchback body, with 20.4 cubic feet of cargo space behind the rear seats and 56.0 cubic feet with them folded.

Fuel economy is the one number Subaru has not yet published. The EPA hasn't rated the 2027 lineup, but earlier Imprezas with the same 2.5-liter engine were rated at 26 mpg city, 33 highway and 29 combined, versus 27, 34 and 30 for the 2.0-liter the Base replaces. That suggests the power upgrade costs about 1 mpg combined, a small penalty, but a real one for high-mileage drivers.

As always with pricing announcements, these are MSRPs, and what a buyer pays depends on dealer inventory and any markup or discounting once the cars arrive later this year. Still, a $2,000 cut paired with a stronger engine is an unusually clear improvement on paper, and it brings the Impreza back to where it spent most of its history: the lowest-cost way to get all-wheel drive in a small car.

Original coverage: Subaru cuts 2027 Impreza starting price to $24,595