MINI Cooper vs Subaru WRX

You either join the MINI camp or shake your head “no.” There has never been a middle ground with a MINI. That’s the point—to drive a fun-looking, fun-to-drive small car that’s unlike anything else in the neighborhood. For 2023, the MINI Cooper offers a limited-run Resolute Edition and a few new paint colors. We tested a two-door Hardtop John Cooper Works (JCW) while participating in a rally with more than 700 MINI owners. Maybe next time you’ll join them with your new MINI.

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Subaru's image is centered 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 the United States until the 2002 model year, but it's remained a fixture of the automaker's U.S. lineup every 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 includes base, Premium, Limited, and GT trim levels. For this review, we drove the WRX GT, which sits at the top of the range.