Two significantly similar cars, no doubt about that. Still, each one has something different to offer. Having both cars powered by petrol engines and utilizing the 5-door hatchback body style within the same 'Small family car' segment, the only major difference here really is their wheel drive configuration (4 x 4 for the Subaru and front in the case of the Honda). The first one has a Subaru-engineered powertrain under the hood, a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 230hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 140hp engine designed by Honda.

A starting point here would be to take a look at the results from European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) tests which were performed on both of the cars, with the Honda being a slightly better choice apparently. Still, apart from the official crash test results there are other things we need to be aware of. Both vehicles belong to the small family car segment, which is generally classifying them somewhere in the middle safety-wise, still it doesn't help us solve our dilemma, does it? Furthermore, if we'd like to consider vehicle mass in this context too, which we definitely should, Impreza offers a considerable difference of 20% more metal.

I don't like generalizing things when it comes to reliability, although it does seem that Honda as a brand displays somewhat better results, all the models observed together. These are the official statistics, while our visitors describe reliability of Subaru with an average rating of 4.2, and models under the Honda badge with 4.7 out of 5. The same official information place Impreza as average reliability-wise, and Civic is more or less at the same level.Above it all, drivers of cars with the same engine as Impreza rank it on average as 4.0, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.8 out of 5.

Subaru is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 2.4 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 209 kilometers per hour, 4km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be Civic, averaging around 6.6 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (43 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 58% difference compared to Impreza!

Honda appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In this case though, it seems that both cars show similar levels of passenger protection all together, so that won't break a tie. But one thing that actually could is the performance, with Subaru being considerably quicker, thus putting more smile on driver's face. It does come at a cost though, and that's the fuel consumption... All together, there's not much more to say, in this case I wouldn't even consider anything but Honda. Nevertheless, let's not forget that people have different preferences and needs, so what really counts is your personal feel. I'm only here to help. In case you have two minutes to spare I invite you to define your needs, desires and budget and see which car would be chosen by the virtual adviser™, among more than 12.000 different ones in our database.