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Next year comes early for Subaru's 2024 Impreza RS with new design, chassis, engine, suspension, and familiar AWD. Photo by John Gilbert.

The phrase “Wait till next year” can be mainly used for pro sports teams such as the Minnesota Vikings or Wild of Timberwolves. It certainly cannot be applied to Subaru, because for the irrepressible little Japanese auto-maker, next year is here already.

If you doubt that, you haven’t checked out the 2024 Subaru Impreza, particular in its RS form.

Apparently Subaru wasn’t quite ready to unveil its total revision of the Impreza to open the 2023 model year, so shortly after the ‘23s hit the showroom, Subaru introduced renovated cousins the Crosstrek SUV and the Impreza. Maybe they are closer to being brothers than cousins, but it is a large feather in Subaru’s cap that it has leaped to the forefront of what I believe will be the newest automotive trend.

We know compact sedans have been very popular, until the endless proliferation of SUVs filled every niche, including compact models, which have become the hottest sellers in the industry. Owners of compact SUVs find them useful for virtually every aspect of family needs, although some of those owners still long for the ease and maneuverability and economy of compact cars.

So while SUVs get smaller and sportier and more car-like, compact sedans are stretching out just a bit, and if they offered all-wheel drive, they would fulfill all the benefits of compact SUVs and still cover the compact car desires.

Which company already makes compact SUVs as well as compact cars? Subaru, of course. For its newest generation, Subaru is discontinuing the hot-rod WRX STi with its turbocharged powerpoint, but it is hanging on to some of the best pieces of that vehicle and building them into the 2024 Impreza RS — the new sportiest model of the Impreza.

After one short week of test-driving, the Impreza RS already is my new favorite Subaru. It doesn’t have the turbo, but it does have the company’s new 2.5-liter flat-opposed 4-cylinder, which is big enough to produce 182 horsepower and 178 foot-pounds of torque through the company’s fool-proof symmetrical all-wheel drive system. A non-shifting CVT (continuously variable transmission) could be objectionable, but Subaru installed steering wheel paddles that allow you to select which of eight shift-impersonating stops for the closest thing to manual control.

The company has discontinued the coupe and 4-door sedan versions of the Impreza, and all of them in the new generation will be 5-door hatchbacks. With its new lengthened and stiffened chassis, and the steering rack and suspension components from the late, lamented WRX STi, the new and better-looking Impreza RS handles with something close to sporty car precision, and far beyond normal compact sedans.

At first, I anticipated being disappointed in the performance of the test vehicle when it first showed up.

The Ruby Red paint job worked, and I was genuinely impressed with the new lines and contours of the redesign. No more generic Subaru look. But I’ve gotten used to testing Subarus with turbocharged power, and even though the new one is slightly larger — 2.5 liters instead of 2.4 — eliminating the turbo had to mean stodgy acceleration. True, it was not WRX STi-like, with its neck-snapping power, and when pulling onto a freeway and stepping on the gas, it sort of purred away.

But after a few drives, I realized using the paddles to downshift or hold first or second gave it a bit more zing. And I also found that if it takes 8 seconds to go 0-60 instead of 5 or 6, that was OK. It was adequate for 95 percent of consumers and their families, and only those who haven’t outgrown the need to screech the tires could be disappointed.

Besides, usually driving Subarus results means being unable to approach the EPA gas mileage estimates, unless you carefully keep your speed down. With the new vehicle, EPA estimates are 26 city and 33 highway, and I got 32 miles per gallon in strictly city driving, including the hillsides of Duluth for most of my driving.

Using the high-performance steering rack and the firmer front suspension pieces also gives the Impreza RS an interesting ability to zigzag through sharp turns without the innate twitchiness of all-out sports suspensions, which coordinate better with the slightly milder performance characteristics.

A version of this 2.5 engine is also used in the top of the line Crosstrek, which in the new generation is actually a taller version of the Impreza with more ground clearance for serious off-roading. If it’s less-serious, the Impreza RS will take you anywhere you need to go as long as you don’t need more ground clearance.

Comfort in the new bucket seats, with a neat, stylish cloth weave, is very good, and the days of overly plastic interior and dashboard fittings is long gone. The pebbled stuff on the new dash isn’t leather, but it works. Also, the EyeSight driving assist encompasses all the latest safety tricks, such as pre-collision warning and active braking, lane-departure warning, lane-centering, and adaptive cruise-control with adaptive LED headlights.

Rear seat room is adequate for adults and roomy for kids, and you can sit three across the bench unless you choose to fold down the center backrest and turn it into a console complete with cupholders.

The audio upgrade in the Impreza RS included a 10-speaker, 432 watt Harman Kardon audio system that adds a neat, throwback item — actual knobs for volume and tuning, so you don’t have to pull off the road in order to tune a different station,

You can easily program dozens of features on the new 11.6-inch iPad-size information screen, which gives you a home screen to easily select audio, climate, and Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, and if you select the navigation map, it’s practically life-size.

The price of the new 2024 Impreza RS is a bit higher than the previous Impreza, but then there is a lot more built-in content. Even then, an Impreza RS has a base price of $28,595, and the loaded test car was a bargain at $29,900. At that, you’re getting a 2024 model before the midpoint of 2023, because it’s already next year at Subaru.