2005 Subaru Legacy Outback 2.5xt. Limited. Leather. Fully Equipped. Turbo! 78k on 2040-cars

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Drive-up bank robbery perpetrated with Cayenne and WRX

Thieves carried out what appears to be a movie-script-perfect robbery of a bank in Sydney, Australia early on Friday morning, using two stolen high-performance vehicles in the process.
At around 11:15 AM local time, in near mid-day light, reports say that two men in masks smashed into the side of a Westpac bank in a confirmed-stolen black Porsche Cayenne. The perpetrators were armed with sledgehammers according to witness reports, and took only about five minutes to take what they were after inside of the bank.
The rapid getaway was executed in a Subaru WRX, also confirmed as a stolen vehicle, while witnesses snapped camera phone images of the illicit goings on. One Twitter user posted a few of the images to his social media feed; you can take a look at them in our small gallery below. Follow on down for the full video report, from The Sydney Morning Herald.

Subaru gunning for 500,000 US sales by 2015

For the last four years in a row, Subaru has experienced incredible sales growth including record sales of 336,441 units in 2012. This trend is all but guaranteed to continue this year with 281,652 on the books so far, but Automotive News is reporting the automaker has no plans of slowing down anytime soon.
The report says that Subaru is gunning for around 500,000 sales in the US by 2015, which doesn't seem like too far of a stretch considering 2013 sales totals are expected to top 400,000 units. Through August, Subaru's sales are up 29.3 percent compared to 2012, thanks to popular models like the Forester, Outback and, surprisingly, the WRX.
A new WRX is headed for an LA Auto Show reveal while an all-new Legacy is due out next year, and AN adds that Subaru is planning to significantly increase its media spending next year and start production of the Impreza sedan in the US in 2016.

Lexus, Mazda and Subaru top Consumer Reports Brand Report Cards

A revised methodology in devising its annual Car Brand Report Cards has seen Consumer Reports award Lexus its top overall ranking for 2013. For the first time ever, the institute broke out individual brands from their larger corporate umbrellas, meaning car makers like Lexus and Scion were judged independently from parent company Toyota. That strategy worked out well for Lexus, as the luxury brand earned a top report card score of 79 for the 2013 model year.
The institute has recommended every one of the Lexus models it has tested to date, and said that the company's products won out thanks to "a foundation of plush and very reliable vehicles."
Meanwhile, Mazda and Subaru tied for the second-highest scoring report cars, with scores of 76. Subaru earned praised for sporting models like the BRZ, which CR testers apparently had a lot of fun driving (naturally), while the Mazda products were lauded for their blend of practicality, sportiness and efficiency. Both of the Japanese brands offered good handling, fuel economy and versatility, said Consumer Reports.