- Subaru is teasing a new WRX that will launch in its home market of Japan.
- A video on Subaru’s website confirms Japan’s new WRX will feature the TY85 manual transmission previously used in the WRX STI.
- This new WRX could be the first mass-produced Subaru with a manual in Japan since 2019, and it’ll be revealed sometime next month.
Subaru’s Japanese division has a new website dedicated to the WRX, and while it only features a cryptic photo, a few lines of text, and a 15-minute-long video, all in Japanese, there’s plenty to dissect about the brand’s outlook on the WRX in Japan. Subaru is reportedly axing some of its WRX models in its home market, but now it looks like the automaker is about to add a new one into the mix.
It’s hard to make out much of anything in the website’s teaser photo, but it shows a pretty clear outline of the car’s front end, which looks like the current fifth-generation WRX. The rear is definitely still a sedan. Sorry, no hatchback yet.
In the U.S., the WRX is currently offered with the TY75 manual transmission.
But a lack of exterior changes points to upgrades under the hood, and the video posted to the site confirms a manual transmission will be offered on the standard WRX in Japan for the first time since 2019. While other global markets, including the United States, currently offer manual WRXs, regulation changes in Japan forced the automaker to stop making mass-produced manual vehicles in its home market. The manual still lived in smaller runs, like the BRZ and limited-edition WRX STI Sport#, but this could be Subaru’s return to mass-market manuals in Japan.
There are still a lot of unanswered questions surrounding this release, but the video confirms Japan’s new WRX will get Subaru’s TY85 six-speed manual transmission that previously lived in the WRX STI. The TY85 is reportedly more robust and capable of handling more power than the TY75 transmission currently used in the WRX in the U.S.
Subaru had already confirmed it would launch a WRX with the TY85 transmission this year, and it appears Japan will be first in line to get its hands on the new and improved WRX. While this is much bigger news for Japan than it is for the United States, Subaru’s move to put the sturdier TY85 transmission into the WRX in Japan might mean it’ll reach our shores in the future. We’ll know more in November, when the WRX news is officially released.
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Alayna Wilkening grew up reading motorsport magazines and following her grandpa around his Chevrolet dealership's showroom floor. In true Hoosier fashion, her first car was a hot pink custom cardboard "Fiero-vette" for her kindergarten Kindy 500 race. She now autocrosses a 1994 Miata with her dad, which she learned to drive the night before her first event. Alayna went to Indiana University and graduated with a degree in journalism and a minor in graphic design. As a testament to her great taste in cars, her first real one was a metallic orange 2007 Chevy HHR, which she lovingly called "The Dumptruck."