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On April 5, at the New York Auto Show, Subaru will finally lift the curtain on the all-new 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX and 2.5i models. Here is what you need to know about the most significant change to the Impreza since Bill Clinton took office.

 Impreza Styling
Yes, it’s a hatch. Well, a 5-door hatch at least. No, that doesn’t mean the Sedan is “dead” as these pictures clearly show.

Just like we suggested in the last few issues of the magazine, Subaru needs a hatch to be more competitive in the WRC. It seems that Subaru agrees with us, as the next iteration of the WRX STI (due early in 2008) will share the hatchback format with the world car platform. We assume it will be the same 5-door chassis you see here, but no one has actually said that. So, there is still an outside chance of the forthcoming STI edition being a 3-door.

Subaru knows that mainstream North America isn’t as enamored by hatchbacks as the rest of the world. So it has also taken the effort to prepare a sedan variant, exclusive for the US market. This will be available as both an NA (2.5i) or turbo (WRX) model, both available from dealers by September of this year.

On the inside is a Tribeca-inspired cabin with sweeping lines and brushed-aluminum accents. If this doesn’t finally shut-up the VW fanboys about their GTI interiors, I don’t know what will. It looks great. The cabin also boasts an additional 2-inches of shoulder room up front, large cup-holders (up to 24-oz bottles) in the doors, available satellite navigation and an MP3/video jack, for plugging in either an iPod, XBox or some other fun gizmo.