2003 Subaru Impreza Outback Wagon 4-door 2.5l on 2040-cars

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Best and worst car brands of 2022 according to Consumer Reports

It's that time again, Consumer Reports this morning lifting the curtain on its 2022 Annual Car Brand rankings and its 10 Top Picks in the car, crossover, and truck category. Drumroll, please: This year, Subaru climbs two spots to claim the winner's circle, having come third the last two years. Last year, Mazda climbed three spots from 2020 to take the crown. This year, Mazda slipped to second, BMW taking the last spot on the podium, also a one-spot drop from 2021. Six automakers in the top 10 hailed from Japan, which is one more than last year, and five luxury makers occupied the top 10, which is two more than last year. And South Korean representation didn't crack the top this year, after Hyundai managed tenth last year. The seven makes after BMW are: Honda, Lexus, Audi, Porsche, Mini, Toyota, and Infiniti.  The magazine and testing concern says its Brand Report Card "[reveals] which automakers are producing the most well-performing, safe, and reliable vehicles based on CR’s independent testing and member surveys," and that "Brands that rise to the top tend to have the most consistent performance across their model lineups." The domestics also took steps back among the 32 OEMs ranked on the 2022 card. Chrysler and Buick were the domestic carmakers who made last year's top 10 in eighth and ninth, respectively. This year, Buick dropped to eleventh, Chrysler to thirteenth. Dodge went from fourteenth to sixteenth. CR continues to ding Tesla's yoke steerer, the not-exactly-natural handhold responsible for the electric carmaker going from sixteenth last year to twenty-third this year.

2020 Subaru Legacy spied with significantly revised styling

The current Subaru Legacy has been roughly the same car since it was introduced for the 2015 model year, with just a very light restyle for 2018. As such, it makes sense that Subaru is preparing a much more comprehensive redesign. One of our spy photographers caught the next Subaru Legacy midsize family sedan with that very update hidden by a thin vinyl wrap. From the looks of it, the new car will still be built off the existing platform. The entire greenhouse and glass area is practically identical to that of the current model. Aside from that, it every other panel has been massaged in some way. Up front, the grille looks a little shorter in height, but also stretched wider. The sides have more slant to them, too. The headlights have more of an upward sweep to them, as well. Overall, these changes give the Legacy more of a friendly smile as opposed to the blunt, chunky look of the current model. The lower grille and fascia have also been updated. Along the sides, the deep creases of the current model have been softened. The shoulder line that rises up over the rear wheel also gets a little bit of a dip at the leading edge near the front wheel. While the glass area is pretty much the same, the fake window trim on the C-pillar has been elongated to match a slightly more drawn out roof line. Finally at the back, the trunk lid looks more upright than that on the current model. The taillights have more molded shaping to them. Also noteworthy is the fact that this version has no exposed exhaust tips. The rear bumper is smooth all the way across. Subaru has already revealed the 2019 Legacy and Outback, both of which are basically unchanged except some new feature content. As such, the soonest this car will be out will be for the 2020 model year. That seems fairly probable, too, considering how close this car looks to being production ready and the age of the current Legacy. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2020 Subaru Legacy View 18 Photos Image Credit: SpiedBilde Spy Photos Subaru Sedan

Junkyard Gem: 1992 Subaru Loyale Wagon, with Budget Cargo Carrier

Before there was the Impreza, there was the Leone. Sold in the United States at first as, simply, The Subaru, the Loyale name appeared on the last few years of the third-generation Leones. Here's a final-model-year example of the Loyale wagon in a Denver wrecking yard, complete with rust, outdoorsy-activity-themed stickers, and interesting homebuilt plywood upgrades. These cars weren't quite as sturdy as their successors, but this one reached the magical 200,000-mile mark during its quarter-century on the roads and trails of Colorado. For some reason, there's a mid-1990s Mazda Miata M Edition badge on the tailgate. Some Colorado Subaru dealerships sell "Rocky Mountain Edition" option packages, so perhaps this was the Loyale owner's way of joining the exclusive club for owners of Subarus with snow-grooved floormats and ski-friendly roof racks. In keeping with that theme of homebrewed upgrades, this car has a plywood version of the roof-mounted cargo carriers so popular with local Outback owners. Sure, it's a bit heavy and the lack of paint reduced its lifespan, but it got the job done. The skinny twine holding the box to its plumbing-pipe mounts looks a bit scary; I'd hoped to see some hefty lag-bolts going through the roof's metal into the box's underside, but did not find any such hardware. Tailgating this rig would not have been advised. Inside, a sturdy wooden floor covers the rear-seat and cargo area. Just the thing for lots of bicycle parts or camping gear! It's those little details that make an installation like this work best. A tire receipt from last year shows that this car lived in even-more-Subariffic-than-Denver Boulder, and that it was still running and being maintained in the recent past. Unlike nearly all retired Subarus of this era that I see in Denver junkyards, this one has not a single cannabis-dispensary sticker on the dash (in stark contrast to, for example, this THC-saturated '84 GL wagon). None of that lung-capacity-destroying weed for this Subaru, no sir— just healthy outdoor adventures! You could still buy front-wheel-drive Subarus in 1992, but this one is an all-wheel-drive car with 5-speed manual transmission and 90-horse boxer-four engine. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Before Subaru pitched their wagons as outdoor-activity-enabling adventuremobiles, they were sold as practical family haulers.