1999 Subaru Legacy Outback Wagon on 2040-cars

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Custom cabinetry gives this Subaru Outback camper cred

Where there's space, there's wood to make it more functional. At least, that seems to be the ethos at customization shop Solid Wood Worx. The Huntington Beach, Calif.-based company has turned vehicles such as the Ram ProMaster, Nissan XTerra, Toyota 4Runner, and Ford F-250 into small, livable mobile homes. The most recent project is a Subaru Outback, which uses a unique series of cabinets to meet a fairly complex checklist of asks.  Noticed by Motor1, the Outback belongs to an adventurer named Sean who is setting out on a six-month climbing trip. She reached out to Brian, a woodworker and former cabinet builder, at Solid Wood Worx with her vision of the Outback as a sleep-in camper. She wanted a flat place where she and her 80-pound dog could sleep, a slide-out kitchen with stove and fridge, storage for climbing gear, storage for clothes, and a designated space for a water supply. Possibly the biggest ask was an integrated solar panel with a battery and inverter for off-the-grid living. Brian made it all work.  With the solar panel and spare tire hitched to the Thule roof rack and out of the way, Brian built an interior platform that stretched from the rear hatch to the back of the front seats. Since this eliminated any use of the rear seats, they were taken out. The platform itself has built-in drawers, and the upper portion is split into two functional spaces. The right side has just enough room to fit a small mattress, but Sean looks small, so it should work perfectly. Beneath the bed is the sliding drawer that stows the camp stove. On the left side is a massive amount of storage that doubles as secondary kitchen prep space. On top of that is a small fridge that opens on top like a cooler.  With the kitchen area in its "out" position, a secondary panel opens up to the space where the spare tire used to be. Inside that, Brian's team fitted the wiring, fuses and equipment for the solar panel's battery storage. For this project, Brian used a 100 amp-hour battery and a 100-watt solar kit from Renogy. That power feeds an inverter, a few USB plugs, and the small fridge. Looking through the rear passenger door, there are even more storage spaces for things such as clothes, bedding, shoes, and a laptop. The water tank slides in behind the front seat.  In most of his builds, Brian uses three-quarter-inch nine-ply pine plywood that he gets from Home Depot. It costs roughly $35 for a 4x8 sheet, and each piece weighs about 60 pounds.

Subaru suing CA dealership for alleged false customer surveys

Whenever you buy a new car from a dealer these days or sometimes even go in for service, you can expect to fill out a customer satisfaction survey at some point down the road. The responses are actually quite important to showrooms because automakers require the businesses to keep things at a certain level or face penalties. However, a Subaru dealer allegedly found a way to game that system, at least briefly, and now the Subaru of America has filed a lawsuit in US District Court for breach of contract. South Coast Subaru in Costa Mesa, CA, reportedly falsified 224 customer satisfaction questionnaires in 2014, according to Automotive News. The scheme wasn't that hard to figure out, though. All of the faked surveys were allegedly submitted through the IP address of an Acura showroom managed by the same dealer. Under normal circumstances when someone buys a Subaru, the dealer is supposed to collect the customer's email address and submit it to the automaker. However, South Coast allegedly presented false addresses, and then managers had employees fill the forms out during lunch. Subaru claimed in the suit that by doing this the dealer harmed the company's product reputation and its goodwill among customers. "Defendants prevented Subaru from discovering the actual customer satisfaction level of Subaru retail customers at South Coast Subaru by providing sham customer surveys to [Subaru]," the complaint said, according to Automotive News. Related Video:

Subaru Viziv-7 Concept is AWD done XXL

Subaru is an all-wheel-drive brand. Everything in its range, BRZ aside, sends its power to the road through all four wheels. But while you can get some sedans and a few high-riding wagons (ostensibly considered CUVs) from the Japanese brand, the company hasn't done an SUV since the Tribeca went out of production. That's going to change soon. The Subaru Viziv-7 SUV Concept previews such a change, and it's what happens if you stylistically embiggen the new Impreza Hatchback, raise the suspension significantly, and apply all sorts of concept car tinsel. Oh, and it looks good, based on the couple images Subaru distributed ahead of the car's LA debut. But while we can't show you finer details, we do have a good idea of what kind of vehicle is coming down the Subaru pipeline. View 14 Photos As the name suggests, the Viziv-7 has room for seven passengers spread across three rows of seats. That makes sense – Fuji Heavy Industry's Corporate Executive Vice President Takeshi Tachimori did say "the next three-row from Subaru will be the biggest Subaru vehicle ever." The wheelbase is 117.7 inches long while the overall vehicle measures 204.7 inches in length. If that sounds huge, it is – the Viziv-7's has 1.7 more space between the axles and is 0.8 inches longer than a Chevrolet Tahoe, which is only 0.6 inches wider and 2.4 inches taller. This is a big Subaru. But that's all we know for certain. Subaru hasn't mentioned anything about powertrains, or when a production version will follow. Naturally, we'll try to fill in the many blanks surrounding the Viziv-7 as soon as possible. Related Video: Related Gallery Subaru Viziv-7 SUV Concept News Source: SubaruImage Credit: Live photos copyright 2016 Drew Phillips / Autoblog LA Auto Show Subaru SUV Videos Original Video subaru viziv-7 concept