With the launch of its all-new, fifth-generation Legacy, a flagship sedan that now offers competitive performance, passenger volume, and fuel economy, Subaru is poised to make inroads in a segment in which it sold just 64,997 units in 2009. Compare that to '09 sales of the Toyota Camry (356,824) and the Honda Accord (290,056), and the Legacy is unquestionably a small-time player. Nevertheless, 65,000 cars is still a respectable number, and Subaru is confident its new Legacy has the goods to boost that sales figure. Based on our time spent with a four-cylinder Legacy 2.5i Limited and six-cylinder 3.6R Limited, Subaru has every right to be confident.
Given that the Gen V Legacy has grown only 1.4 inches in length and around 50 pounds in curb weight, it doesn't appear much larger than its predecessor. But, thanks to a 3.2-inch stretched wheelbase, a 3.6-inch wider breadth, a 3.2-inch taller roofline, and some clever packaging, the 2010 boasts 9.5 cubic feet of additional passenger volume and 3.9 inches of additional rear legroom. "There's a nice blend of rear-seat support and comfort (not too flat, not too shapely)," says technical editor Kim Reynolds. Tech director Frank Markus adds, "Loads of rear-seat foot room and a great center armrest." The rear doors now offer 15 inches of additional entry/exit space; the trunk has swelled 3.3 cubic feet to 14.7; and the 60/40-split back seat folds flat.
First Test: 2010 Subaru Legacy 2.5i Limited, 3.6R Limited
First Look: 2010 Subaru Outback
A week after unveiling its bigger and better Legacy, Subaru is now letting the other shoe drop. Or should we say letting its hiking boot drop. Since 1994, the Outback has been the Legacy's rough-and-tumble alter ego. Their Indiana Jones to the Legacy's tweedy Dr. Henry Walton Jones, Jr. And like Harrison Ford himself, the Outback has gained in both savvy and physical size since his swashbuckling debut, though neither one appears to be any less willing to tackle genuine adventure.
As with the Legacy's architecture, the 2010 Outback has swelled in size. Its wheelbase has added 2.8 inches, it's been widened by 2.0 inches, and its height has been elevated by 4.0 inches. The consequence is an interior that's ballooned by 8 cubic feet of passenger room (up 7.6 percent), while cargo volume (with folded rear seats) is up 8.4 cubic feet. Aging whip-crackers will appreciate its additional 3.5 inches of front hip room (1.3 in the back) and 4 extra inches of rear legroom in which to straighten arthritic knees. Although the Outback's overall length has actually contracted by nearly an inch, those gains in width and height give it a much more imposing visual presence.
Sport/Utility Of The Year: Subaru Forester
It would be easy to say that this year's winner is a knee-jerk reaction, that the editors of Motor Trend responded to the skyrocketing cost of gasoline like the rest of the driving public by abruptly abandoning the traditional SUV formula for something smaller, more fuel-efficient, greener, more, well, forest-y. It would be easy to categorize our selection of the Subaru Forester as Motor Trend's 2009 Sport/Utility of the Year as a choice made solely at the pump, but it wouldn't be true.
Sure, our Subaru Forester 2.5XT contender posted the best observed fuel-economy numbers (16.0 mpg) for an all-wheel-drive SUV in this year's competition, but that's not the whole story.
First Drive: 2010 Subaru Forester 2.0D
Subaru has built the world's first flat four-cylinder diesel for production cars. Europeans have been driving it in the Legacy and Outback since January, and in about a month, after the Paris Auto Show, they'll have it in the new third-gen Forester, too. Americans...well, we'll have to wait, but we could get the boxer-diesel Forester sometime in 2010. If, that is, Subaru gets the message (wink wink) that American buyers are seriously interested.
Yesterday I drove the new Forester 2.0D through the idyllic rural roads of Austria and neighboring Slovenia, and it's an appealing piece indeed. The boxer diesel is essentially an all-new engine, sharing its bore centers with Subaru's 3.0L gas six (to help reduce machining costs) but otherwise made mostly of unique parts. The twin-cam, four-cylinder mill displaces 2.0L, feeds off a common-rail fuel-delivery system, and breathes via 16 valves and a variable-nozzle turbo. Output is 145 hp at 3600 rpm but the engine makes a manly 258 lb-ft of torque at just 1800 rpm (compared with 226 lb-ft for the Forester's 2.0L turbo gas engine).
