Does anyone out there still read Time magazine? A few weeks ago, the waning weekly put out a story that purports firstborns have a genetic predisposition to brilliance. Second out of the chute? Tough luck. Primogeniture rules.

So it seems to apply to the first Subaru WRX, a car that couldn't have been better received if Al Gore and Michael Moore made a movie about it. Bowing in 2002, the WRX racked up kudos and bon mots and even a few best-buys on its way to becoming a cultural icon for a certain set of shoppers also in the market for Xbox 360s, iPhones, near-Ivy degrees and Orange County addresses.

So what to make of the new, second-generation WRX-a more grounded version of the car that kidnapped the Subaru brand and relieved it of its uber-pragmatic, WNBA-admiring tendencies? The press has been mixed. Edmunds.com says the new WRX is "softer than before but still capable," and it's "gone mainstream." Car and Driver thinks "the WRX delivers better ride quality, but responses feel a bit less eager." Dan Neil of the Los Angeles Times and the Patti LaBelle fan club laments its duller responses: "Drive it really hard and the car-previously a model of tucked-in balance-feels positively deranged."

The question here at TheCarConnection.com, now that the dust has settled elsewhere, is, has the WRX grown up too much? And by corollary, do firstborns really-and this would totally exclude us from greatness-get all the magic?