What Is The Smallest Subaru You Can Buy In 2025?
Few car companies have been better suited for North America’s SUV and crossover boom than Subaru. In fact, with cars like the first-generation Outback, which was basically a lifted Legacy station wagon, and the early Forester, which was a taller, boxier Impreza, Subaru was selling crossovers well before the term became popularized. Yes, Subarus have evolved and grown in size, with the most recent iteration of the Outback becoming more SUV-like than ever, but the spirit behind the cars has more or less remained the same.
This means that company’s car lineup has been more stable in recent years, with less shifting than other automakers who’ve spent the last decade axing their sedans and small hatchbacks in favor of crossovers. With the exceptions of the brand’s two niche, enthusiast offerings, the BRZ and WRX, navigating Subaru’s lineup is basically just a matter of picking which size and shape of AWD people-hauler you want.
So what’s the smallest new Subaru that North Americans can buy in 2025? If you are looking across the entire lineup, the BRZ sports car easily takes the title, but when looking at Subaru’s more mainstream offerings, it’s the Impreza hatchback that comes in the smallest, with the closely related Crosstrek coming in right behind.
BRZ vs Impreza
With the Subaru BRZ being a low-slung, rear-drive two-door sports car designed to compete with the likes of the Mazda MX-5, it should be no surprise that this coupe is the smallest car in the lineup. In terms of width, the BRZ is just slightly narrower than the Impreza, but the coupe is over eight inches shorter in length and nearly seven inches shorter in height than the four-door hatchback. In raw dimensions, that’s an easy win for the BRZ, but it also deserves an asterisk because the BRZ is a niche offering that stands apart from Subaru’s mainstream vehicles.
With so much focus on Subaru’s rugged, cladding-covered CUVs, it’s actually easy to forget that the company still makes the Impreza. Subaru has simplified the Impreza in recent years, dropping the sedan body style from the lineup, but it remains the least expensive new Subaru you can buy, with a base price after destination under $26,000.
In our time with the latest iteration of the Impreza, we found the top-end RS model to occupy an interesting spot in between the mainstream compact cars and more performance-oriented models like the Volkswagen GTI or Subaru’s own WRX. The Impreza’s standard AWD also helps to set it apart from the competition in the compact car segment.
Don’t forget the Crosstrek
Want to know why the current Subaru Impreza is so often forgotten about? That’s because the Crosstrek, which uses the same Impreza hatchback body but with a lifted suspension and extra body cladding, absolutely dominates its lower-riding counterpart in sales. In 2024, Subaru sold over five times as many Crosstreks as it did Imprezas.
In terms of dimensions, the Impreza and Crosstrek are nearly identical, which isn’t surprising since they are essentially the same car. Length and width are almost exactly the same, with the only significant change being the Crosstrek’s overall height, which comes in almost five inches taller. As the sales figures show, buyers appreciate that extra height, especially given the relatively small price difference between the two cars.
Whether it’s the affordable base model Crosstrek, or the ultra-rugged Crosstrek Wilderness, there’s no denying that Subaru has achieved incredible success by simply taking the Impreza hatchback and lifting it up a bit. With a new hybrid model joining the lineup for 2026, the appeal of this compact hatchback-turned CUV should only grow.
