Thanks "lmshaffe" for that concise info. We could have pulled the trigger on a 2016 WRX and decided to wait to see if the 2017's had a hatch. Are we disappointed that it did not, that the upgrades are tiny? For sure.
But our overriding emotion is excitement, that we are getting one kick-butt 2017 WRX -- a phenomenal car. When testing driving it, as we drove up in our Corvette, the salesperson said, "know just the road for your road test (later learned he lives on that curvy road), and as I flew through the corners at incredible speeds, he would say, you could have taken that corner at 5 MPH faster, and the same for the next one -- and I have Corvette on track experience and we were hauling. The WRX is a great car and I are excited it is going to be my daily driver! First mod, Corsa exhaust!!!
And, as I have been in the automotive field one way or another for five decades, started then on a car assembly line in the summers to work my way through college, know that every year for each announced option, color or similar change, every car maker continues to make probably ten more behind-the-scenes upgrades. Why behind-the-scenes, such as a .1 MM change in a fan belt's width or whatever, is that manufacturers do not want owners of previous year models to then find excuses for warranty claims, demanding those small (unknown of almost all) model year upgrades. Had a Corvette engineer tell me a few years ago, that they are about 40 model year changes we made from last year's model, and when I asked what they were, "sorry," and did not share them with me.
I am excited we are getting the a 2017 WRX even though it's announced changes are really small.