Archive for the ‘Legacy’ Category

The completely redesigned 2010 Subaru Legacy and 2010 Subaru Outback—which we've reported on extensively this summer—also now have the honor of being named among the safest vehicles in their class.

They've both been given the Top Safety Pick designation from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The IIHS gives the award to vehicles that both achieve the top "good" rating in the institute's front, side, and rear crash tests and are equipped with electronic stability control.

In its additional published test details on the 2010 Subaru Legacy and Outback, the IIHS says, "After the dummy moved forward into the airbag, it rebounded...

If you want to get an automatic transmission—as most car shoppers prefer—on a Nissan, you'll most likely end up with a CVT. That's, to put it as simply as possible, a belt-and-pulley system rather than gears and hydraulics.

Nissan has just announced that the CVT it uses across most of its lineup in place of conventional automatic transmissions will soon get some important drivability and performance improvements.

Relative to the current-generation CVTs that are available in most of Nissan's car and crossover lineup, including the 2009 Nissan Cube, plus the Nissan Sentra, Rogue, Altima, Murano, Maxima, and some Versas, the new transmission...

In the more upscale models of the outgoing Subaru Legacy, there was a controller that bore a strong resemblance to the one used for BMW's iDrive.

For 2010, it's gone. That elegant controller, for a feature called SI-Drive, looked like it was meant for navigation functions, while in reality it helped fine-tune powertrain performance.

SI-Drive was an unduly complicated name for a simple concept—giving the driver a choice of modes for different types of driving. With a twist, the center-console controller accessed three different modes—Intelligent, Sport, and Sport Sharp. Each mode altered the engine control maps, along with the response curve...