I love the new WRX design, it is definitely more agressive looking, but why they do a complete redesign for a car with a nearly new body design??? Doesn't that cost a hell of a lot of Yen??? (Design teams, research teams, re-tooling???)

 

Because the bug-eyed version wasn't selling as well in other contries. Japan, Europe, and Australia all got the GC8 WRX's, which were lighter and, it seems most people think, better looking. So people where either buying used or keeping the WRX they had, instead of moving up to the bug-eyed version. Sure, it sold really well in the US, but that's because we never had the opportunity to get the old-school WRX in the first place, and this was the best we could get. Subaru was hoping to get sales going again by making the looks more aggressive. They also did a lot of dealings with Prodrive on the new front end, to make it more aerodynamic and to increase engine cooling for the rally car.

 

I believe the wrc team wanted a redesign for the rally car. If sales in the rest of the world werent good then that is another reason but i did hear watching speed vision it had to do with the aerodynamics of the front end for the rally car was the main reason for the redesign.

 

it looks more like a legacy now to me.

 

I do not believe changing the lights constitutes a complete redesign. Everything (almost) under the hood stayed the same. This was just a facelift, a lot of companies do this or something similar _every_ year between redesigns to keep things interesting.

 

sorry but i'm quoting you here. i totally see how this is true. the new front makes me fear that the wrx might start looking like a chick car. like how the celica and 3 series did. hope this is the girliest it gets. sorry if i'm offending anyone here by what i said. didn't mean to offend, just my opinion

 

As the one guy said... It was a re-skin not a redesign. Most cars will try to go with a face lift every 3rd model year 02,03, 04 reskin thats all i see.