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Every now and again, I end up in a vehicle that really doesn’t stand up and holler to me in any regard, and yet, the entire package turns out to be a genuinely nice vehicle that I’m actually sorry to have to return to the company. That turned out to be the case with the 2011 Subaru Forester.
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In the compact crossover set, the manual transmission plays hard to get. Many of the big names, like the CR-V, RAV4, Rogue and CX-7, come only with automatics. The ones that can be bought with a stick, such as the Tucson, Sportage and Ford Escape, force compromises on the buyers, such as limiting the availability of a manual transmission to models with front-wheel drive, in a class where many shoppers place a high priority on all-wheelers.
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Subaru’s steady march away from quirks-ville and into the automotive mainstream takes a quantum leap with the all-new 2010 Legacy mid-sized sedan. The last vestiges of Subie weirdness are gone with this fifth-generation remake. No more frameless side windows. The styling is conservatively pleasant, in an inoffensive kind of way. Even the classic (and yes, odd) flat-four growl has been effectively tuned out of the exhaust note.
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Talk about vindication.
The last Subaru Impreza I drove left me totally underwhelmed. Plain-Jane looks and an uninspired driving experience had me muttering things like “Why couldn’t Subaru inject some WRX fun into their entry level models?” Was I being too harsh on the poor $20,995 Impreza? Continue reading
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Finding that one ‘do-it-all’ car is tough. Pick a fun car, and it’ll have a tiny back seat and no trunk, while a more practical choice may offer no driving satisfaction whatsoever.
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Subaru’s entry-level model was redesigned for the 2008 model year and soldiers on essentially unchanged. Even so, I was looking forward to taking this one for a week-long spin. The reason for my enthusiasm was that Subaru bravely decided to send through a bare-bones four-door sedan with a manual transmission and exactly zero options. Sending us a base model helps us focus on a particular model’s intrinsic properties without being distracted by more powerful engines or fancy sound systems. And sadly, press cars with manual transmissions are becoming a rare sight in our nation’s press fleets.
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The G4e nameplate means ‘Green for the Earth’. Also, the ‘e’ in this Subaru concept’s name could be a code that it’s electric. It could also stand for electrifying styling, as the G4e four-door sedan certainly has a distinctive look. Most impressively, the compact features a newly developed lithium ion battery that will allow it to go up to 200 km on a charge. The Subaru-designed batteries use high-capacity vanadium technology that enables them to store two to three times more lithium ions than conventional models. Continue reading
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Subaru is going green. At least that is the idea they seem to be pushing at their CIAS display this year. Continue reading
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Going against the current at this year’s Detroit show, Subaru was riding the wave of an excellent year that saw a rise in sales as well as market share. Officials had stories of “honest long-term value, reliability and strong retained value” and of customers coming to the brand while moving from large SUVs to more efficient vehicles such as the Outback. Continue reading
Auto Show by Auto Trader 