Northern Exposure: Subaru’s Lineartronic CVT vs 6-Speed Manual in the WRX

Use Sport mode to put more emphasis on the power delivery. When the CVT is in its lighter-throttle, steady-revving mode, it uses a few more revs to get the turbo more involved, adds maybe 500 rpm to the tachometer during cruising for more on-demand power, and kicks more easily into the fast-shift mode when you press gas.

Or, use Sport# (that’s Sport Sharp, for some reason) to put full emphasis on get up and go. Even a little press of the throttle sends the WRX along with amusingly exaggerated throttle response, and what seems like a shorter ‘first’ gear gets it out of the hole even faster.

On a track during an evening lapping session, your writer preferred Sport mode. It feels the most natural in terms of throttle response, keeps the full brunt of the engine’s 268 horsepower at the tips of your toes at all times, and basically feels just like an automatic that’s always in the right gear. It’s entertaining to watch it pull off fake downshifts as you brake for a corner too – getting the revs up and your power ready to go the instant you need to fire out of the bend.

This all adds a layer of expertly programmed, foolproof performance to the WRX’s sturdy chassis while eliminating the need for novice drivers to worry about what gear they’re in. That’s good stuff – since as you learn the lines and apexes and timing and rhythm of braking and steering and accelerating, shifting can sometimes feel like one too many things to deal with, and this transmission feels like it knows what it’s doing.

2015 Subaru WRX CVT, SI-Drive controls, SI-Drive response curves. Click image to enlarge

That foolproof power delivery complements the foolproof chassis. Nothing upsets the WRX – and if you corner harder or faster, it just bites into the pavement with more urgency. And though the brakes do work with minimal fade until you’ve pulled off numerous hard laps, I wondered if the automatically downshifting CVT helped take some of the load off of the brakes for added consistency to their performance. Plus, since it shifts perfectly smooth, every time, there’s no axle braking effect, which can upset the car’s weight balance at its limit.

So, numerous reasons to take your WRX to the track, and especially, to let the CVT help manage the experience for you, since it does a good job of it. And, it works well on the road too.

Oh, and it’s also better on fuel. On my watch, the manual-equipped model put away 9.6 L/100 km overall, which I figured was impressive for where and how I drive. With the CVT, I measured a real-life consumption of 8.3 L/100 km, excluding the track session. Thank the very modest use of engine revs during gentle driving, I suppose.

So I’ll eat some of my words, Subaru. Your CVT transmission is very well done. It makes the WRX smoother, better on fuel, more refined and even easier to access, performance-wise, for novice drivers visiting a lapping day. It’s foolproof, cleverly programmed and feels, at most every turn, expertly set up. I wonder if it’s faster, too – since there’s no break in the acceleration to actually shift.

Would I buy one? No. No I wouldn’t.

I’m a die-hard gearhead and I’ll row ‘em on my own until I can’t anymore. But this new CVT is, ultimately, going to help deliver the WRX driving experience to more shoppers than ever. So will the WRX’s new lower price, since you can now get into one from $30,000 – with the six-speed manual.