I have looked and looked again at the pics and well, when it is compared to the Legacy on page 62 of the same issue of autocar a few things i have noticed are that the bonnet scoop's are similer if not identical and that the crease that run's from the grill to the A piller on the Blitzen (pic on page 67) Legacy's bonnet is virtualy identical to the crease on the "new" impreza.

If you look at the headlight's on the "new" impreza, inbetwean them and the grill there is a bodycolour piece of trim which i actualy think is part of the real headlight that has been changed to look like a piece of plastic. If you look at the wing mirror on the N/side there is a shadow underneath on the body which gives the impression of being strongly lit from above but the wing mirror itself is bright from the front not from on top as you would expect, the same can also be said about the boot spoiler's light reflection. One other thing is it coincedence that the Legacy is the same colour as the "new" car pics!

I think that it could quite possibly be the new "body" but with stuck on fake lights from a different car to test the water and see what we say!?
If you look at other car manufactuors when they update all the cars in there stable most of the time they have similer shaped headlights and it is quite obvious that the lights on the spy pics are a totally diferent shape to the one's on the legacy.
I think that the bodyshape itself is ok it is just the lights that make it look a bad car!
If they are the real deal then i will be changing the lights for an aftermarket hid set straight away and the gaps that are left i would get a bodyshop to weld in metal plates to carry the line on from the piece of bodycolour trim and so give a much meaner looking front end.
( I must be nuts to think of all this!)

 

ouch!!

That is UGLY!

And there I was worried about the residuals on my MY98.

Hurray for Subaru and their humane policy of employing blind people in their design dept!