With the local launch of the Impreza sedan, Subaru is hoping to cut itself a slice of the nostalgia pie that is the previous generations of Impreza.

The Impreza range has been cut down to just three models, those being the new 2.0R Sedan, the heavily revised WRX Sedan, and the only hatch in the line up is taken care of in form of the fire-breathing STI.

Subaru's reasoning for bringing in the sedan, and doing away with the smaller hatch models, is that the company has, with the Impreza, established itself very much as a 'sedan' brand. That is why the introduction of the hatch caused such a stir among die hard Subaru fans.

While the automaker broadened its buying demographic with the 'softer' 1.5 and 2.0R hatches, it is now hoping to rekindle some of the past passion with the old-school Subaru crowd, that so yearned for a sedan. Pity the styling on this new model is even blander than that on the hatchback.

Aside from the obvious transformation from hatch to sedan, the changes found on the base 2.0R model are relatively subtle. The real changes are to be found on the WRX. In the performance stakes, the new WRX has a substantial advantage over the old model, with power being increased from 169kW to 195kW, and torque jumping an equally important 23Nm from 320Nm to 343Nm.

The power hike comes courtesy of a larger IHI turbocharger, up-rated boost due to the new turbo (up from 78kPa to 92kPa) and a revised exhaust system with a 30 percent reduction in gas flow restriction. All of these improvements add up to claimed 5.3-second 0-100km/h time, down from 5.8.

The fundamentals of the suspension remain mostly unchanged, but there have been a few tweaks here and there to give the new WRX far crisper handling characteristics.

The steering and road holding of the new car are noticeably sharper and a lot of the body roll that affected the previous car has been eliminated. This has been achieved through, amongst other changes, increased anti-roll bar thickness and increased spring stiffness rates.

But what does all of this translate to?

The latest WRX will hopefully do for Subaru what the latest hatch could not, which is secure sales. The mechanical improvements will leave no doubt in anybody's mind that this car means business, and is a proper Subaru, true to its heritage.

The WRX offers performance and practicality, so one can only hope that the asking price of R349 000 for the WRX and R249 000 for the 2.0R ? or the dull styling, for that matter ? won't scare away too many enthusiasts in waiting.