Check out this great commercial, fans! It proves just how unstoppable the Subaru Outback is.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Looking For Gold
Every day is an adventure when you're driving a Subaru. Find the pot of gold at the end of YOUR rainbow.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Secret Subaru is a stunner
LOOKS like we got it wrong. Remember last year's Tokyo show and how the international media - including Carsguide - classified the silver-coloured Advanced Tourer Concept as Subaru's next generation Legacy/Liberty?
Here's our correction. We're the first publication in the English-speaking world to reveal that this concept wagon is not the new Legacy but the prototype of the highly anticipated next-generation WRX.
This artist's impression from our mates at Holiday Auto magazine accompanies what we have been able to glean from a Subaru insider about the company's all-new flagship sports car.
Firstly, the car will get similar headlights, airdam, grille and front brake ducts that we see on the Advanced Tourer Concept.
Its side profile also resembles the Tourer, while the new WRX incorporates far more aggressive front and rear-wheel arches and fenders. We can expect a five-door wagon and sedan.
When Subaru tried to appeal to a wider audience by softening up its 2008 WRX, it was universally panned. This planted the seed for the radical decision to totally divorce Impreza from WRX.
The WRX employs a heavily modified Impreza platform, but dispenses altogether with the suffix Impreza.
Product planners resolved to redefine the WRX from a raw cult hero into a more mature, sporty grand tourer with higher interior quality but with suspension to satisfy hardcore fans.
Our insider confirms Subaru is testing new FA series 1.6-litre and 2.0-litre doxer DIT direct injection turbo engines and a 1.6-litre turbo with hybrid - the Advanced Tourer Concept's powertrain.
The R&D team is said to be satisfied with the hybrid's mileage and emissions but others feel is adds unwanted weight. There are some engineers who support the hybrid idea, our source says. Despite using Toyota componentry, the "hybrid unit we are using is a far lighter (lighter than Toyota's THS-II) single-clutch design developed in-house".
He says the thinking is to channel the hybrid powertrain away from the WRX and into the all-new 2015 Legacy/Liberty. That will also incorporate a choice of the standard six-speed manual transmission or a new CVT.
Our man adds that an even hotter STI should surface in 2015. It is to employ a 240kW-plus 2.0-litre turbo and compete in the WTCC and the Nurburgring 24-hours, in which the current model recorded a dramatic class win last year.
Courtesy of news.com/au
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Auto review: 2013 Subaru BRZ is an honest-to-goodness sports car
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The question about the BRZ is, can you handle the honesty? The answer may surprise you.
For starters, only an honest car would dare to tell you that you don't need 8,756 horsepower to have a good time. This Subaru has a modest 200. Torque? A tidy 151 pound-feet. This, from a naturally aspirated (no turbos or superchargers) 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine featuring direct injection. Zero to 60 mph happens in 6.4 seconds, according to Motor Trend.
Such figures may seem quaint when minivans are creeping toward 300 horsepower and the latest Shelby version of Ford's Mustang will have more than double that. (RIP, Carroll.) But remember that the best sports cars of yesterday raised your pulse not with acceleration that compressed expletives out of your lungs but with balance and handling borne out of the car being lightweight and thoughtfully engineered.
This Subaru continues that trend, a difficult feat in an era of ever-expanding safety equipment and crash regulations that have consistently raised curb weights over the years.
A BRZ with the standard six-speed manual transmission weighs about the same as a Toyota Corolla — a bit under 2,800 pounds. Add 50 more pounds for the optional six-speed automatic. The extensive use of high-strength steel and an aluminum hood helped keep the weight down.
Also keeping things light is the fact that this is not a particularly big car. It has the wheelbase of the small Hyundai Accent hatchback, and it's a mere 4 inches longer. On the road, the BRZ looks larger than it really is.
Subaru and Scion wisely avoided the temptation to turn this car into an over-styled nightmare begging for attention. Instead, the cars have a clean, sporty look throughout. Short overhangs at the front and rear are paired well with softly sculpted fenders. The rear of the BRZ is its most aggressive angle, with a low-slung dark plastic diffuser surrounding the dual exhaust tips and center-mounted backup light.
It's inside this Subaru that its diminution is most noticeable. Although it has a pair of rear seats, consider them extensions of the trunk and not fit for anything bipedal. The front passengers sit in the driving equivalent of the attack position; hips low, legs stretched out, seat reclined.
Keeping the weight of occupants as close to the ground as possible and designing the engine to be compact and low gives the BRZ a center of gravity equal to that of your average coffee table. Subaru brags that at 18 inches, it's one of the lowest centers of gravity of any production car in the world.
Thus, when you throw the BRZ onto curving, sweeping roads, don't expect the thumb-sucking pushover predicted by the naysayers who derisively scoff at its horsepower or torque output.
If you're one of the few misguided souls who buys this car with the $1,100 six-speed automatic transmission, you too have a good gearbox to enjoy. It happily takes the car near its redline before executing a surprisingly quick shift. This transmission also has Sport and Snow settings. Plus, throttle-blipping downshifts are included, and the automatic transmission's fuel economy bests that of the manual, at 25 mpg in the city and 34 on the highway.
Courtesy of LA Times
Monday, May 21, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Your Weekly Maintenance Tip: Coolant Flush– How Often is it Needed?
Real coolant flush entails removing all the fluid that is in the cooling system and replacing it with fresh one. The best method of removing all the fluid is hooking the car to the machine that will remove it while at the same time, it puts in fresh fluid. The coolant flush machine puts in the right amount of fluid.The machines circulate the fluid in the vehicle cooling system for a number of times. This removes any kind of debris that could have accumulated for a long time. This is the only way that one can consider to have received the service that has been done in the right way.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Next Subaru WRX to use electric turbocharger?
Subaru has been trying to figure out the direction for its three-headed monster, as the Impreza and its WRX and WRX STI variants have grown increasingly at odds over the past two generations. Now this gets thrown into the mix: When the new WRX gets released in late 2013, it may ditch the traditional exhaust-gas powered turbocharger for a new, electric design.
That's right, according to The Sydney Morning Herald, Subaru is working on an electric turbo, shades of those computer-fan-sourced "power adders" you used to see advertised in the back pages of Sport Compact Car a decade ago. Except we would assume Subie-parent Fuji Heavy Industries is developing a design that actually works. According to the report, heat from the exhaust would be captured, but instead of using the exhaust pressure to turn the turbocharger's turbine, the heat energy would be converted to electricity, which would then spin the impellers. This could be more efficient, as well as eliminating the piping and turbo lag.
Courtesy of Auto Blog
Friday, May 4, 2012
Thanks to Mary and Doug, the authors of these two five-star reviews! Keep it up, team.
"Great service, scheduled me in and I had a little more work needed than originally planned. They did the work in a very reasonable amount of time. A top mechanic in my opinion is Joe who has been there a number of years. He is unusually knowledgeable and friendly. Bryant, the service coordinator is a likable guy. Overall a superb service experience on my Outback that has 100k miles on and ONLY serviced by Livermore Subaru. I drive from San Leandro and will continue to do so because the service here is excellent." -- Doug
Thursday, May 3, 2012
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