Archive for the ‘Subaru’ Category

The stylish and delicate-looking front and rear bumper areas of most new vehicles are, just as they appear, damage-prone and expensive to fix, even from minor parking-lot-speed impacts. However the new 2010 Subaru Legacy fares well; in the latest round of bumper evaluations from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), it gets one of the best ratings yet.

The most impressive area of improvement was in the front full-width test, where the vehicle is run into a steel barrier that simulates another car bumper. In this, the 2010 Subaru Legacy sustained just $847 in damage, versus an estimated $4,049 for the previous 2007 Legacy...

In Portland and Seattle, or throughout the coastal or mountain backcountry of the Pacific Northwest, you won't have to look long to find a Subaru Outback. They're every which way you look, in the driveways of everyone from windsurfers to skiers to antiquing empty nesters. And if there's an official car of this region, this is it.

With the relative ubiquity of this model, it didn't take long to feel at home behind the wheel of a 2010 Outback. Elsewhere in the country, we had to keep in mind, the Outback is still more of a niche vehicle—although the automaker is hoping to broaden its base with this completely redesigned Outback.

At first...

There hasn't been much groundbreaking news to emerge from the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show, but the event has generated some intriguing statements from the handful of automakers in attendance. For example, Ikuo Mori, the president of Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd, the manufacturer of Subaru vehicles, noted that Subaru is working with Toyota to develop a gas-electric hybrid vehicle; according to Mori, the drivetrain will appear as an option on an existing Subaru model rather than as the basis of a new, hybrid-only vehicle. (If true, things don't look so good for the Hybrid Tourer Concept pictured above.) No word on what the lucky, greener model will...