BMW 5 Series vs Subaru WRX

Long revered for how they make drivers feel, BMWs are credibly marketed as the ultimate driving machines. However, if the future is digital instead of analog, do driving dynamics still matter? And if not, what does BMW bring to the table? What makes one special? Desirable? Gives it a soul? Driving the all-new 2024 BMW 5 Series suggests that aside from design, technology, and comfort, the answer is not much—at least not in the 530i specification.

Verdict: Driving enjoyment is not a requirement in a luxury car. But it is in a BMW. That’s what separates a Bimmer from the crowd. While the new 2024 BMW 530i is a capable sports sedan that does double duty as a plush people mover, joy is missing from the recipe

Subaru's image is centred around rugged station wagons, outdoor activities, and cute dogs, but the automaker also has a sporty side—exemplified by the 2023 Subaru WRX.

The WRX first appeared in the 1990s as a homologation special for the World Rally Championship (WRC), which at the time required cars to be closely related to production models. Subaru viewed rallying as the perfect way to show off its all-wheel drive (AWD) vehicles so, after a trial with the Legacy midsize sedan, it launched the Impreza-based WRX with the goal of becoming more competitive. It worked: Subaru has won multiple rally championships and the WRX has endeared it to car enthusiasts.

Subaru didn't begin selling the WRX in North America until the 2002 model year, but it's remained a fixture of the automaker's lineup ever since, competing against other sporty compact cars like the Honda Civic Si, Hyundai Elantra N, Volkswagen Golf GTI and Jetta GLI, and other derivatives of those models.

The current, fourth-generation WRX was introduced for the 2022 model year, so there are no changes to report for 2023. The lineup in Canada includes base, Sport, and Sport-Tech trims. For this review, we drove the U.S. WRX GT trim, which is closest to Canada’s top Sport-Tech grade.