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2017 Subaru Forester has new face, better EyeSight, torque vectoring

The Forester was Subaru's best-selling vehicle in the US last year, and holds that title so far in 2016. With stiff competition in the crossover segment, though, Subaru isn't resting on that success. A refresh to the Forester for the 2017 model year adds more tech, and updated face, and a quieter interior. Plus you can now get torque vectoring on the 2.0-liter turbo, just like in the Impreza WRX and STI. The updated Forester arrives at dealerships in July. Most significant among the updates is a an upgrade to Subaru's Eyesight safety system. Eyesight uses two cameras in the windshield to read the road ahead and provide emergency braking and adaptive cruise control. With the new model year the system now uses color cameras with a winder and longer field of view. The tech suite includes Lane Keep Assist, and higher trims benefit from additional improvements like High Beam Assist, Steering Responsive Headlights, and Reverse Automatic Braking, which can automatically stop the CUV if it detects an obstruction behind the car. The 2017 Forester's design tweaks are minor but attractive. The new grille features horizontal bars, and the updated front fascia for naturally aspirated models has a larger body-color section around the air dam. The headlights feature C-shaped LED running lights, too. Riding in the Forester should be quieter thanks to thicker door glass, new seals, additional under-floor insulation, and an acoustic glass windshield. There's also a redesigned steering wheel, and it's even heated on the Touring trim. Customers can still choose between a 170-horsepower naturally aspirated 2.5-liter four cylinder or a 250-horsepower 2.0-liter turbo four. Subaru worked some engineering magic on the 2.5 and upped the fuel economy 26 miles per gallon city, 32 mpg highway, and 28 mpg combined – gains of 2 mpg city and 1 mpg combined. Subaru's venerable all-wheel drive layout also now includes Active Torque Vectoring on the Forester 2.0XT Touring with EyeSight for even sharper handling. Related Video: 2017 SUBARU FORESTER OFFERS ADVANCED SAFETY FEATURES AND GREATER COMFORT AND PERFORMANCE April 14, 2016 New Driver Assist Technology Improved MPG Upgraded Comfort and Style Turbo Model Now Features Torque Vectoring Cherry Hill, N.J. - Subaru of America, Inc. today announced a comprehensive update to the 2017 Forester including revised styling, new driver assist technology, more interior comfort, enhanced driving performance, and better fuel economy.

The Subaru Outback is pretty much the entire wagon market

Last year in the United States, Subaru dealers sold a new Outback wagon every 2.94 minutes. Sales were brisker the year before, when dealers sold a new Outback every 2.78 minutes. It cracked the 50,000-units-per-year barrier every year but one starting in 1997, and has shifted more than 100,000 units annually in the United States every year since 2011. From 2013-2015, Kelley Blue Book said the Outback sat on dealer lots for less time than any other car on sale. Here's a starker set of numbers: J.D. Power, as quoted in a CNBC video, put the U.S. station wagon market at 1.4% of the total U.S. car market in 2018. However, the Outback alone was 1.2%, meaning the sales of every other wagon amounted to a minuscule 0.2% of the total car market. Or, as Road & Track put it, "Out of every 20 wagons sold here, 17 are Subaru Outbacks. Damn." Without taking anything away from Subaru, we need to thank Audi again for bringing the RS 6 Avant and A6 Allroad here, even if the best the Ingolstadt brand can do is bleed marketing dollars to scrap it out with every other automaker for, well, scraps.   Related: 2020 Subaru Outback First Drive Review | The big payoff   The CNBC vid doesn't get into how the Outback became the wagon heavyweight save for a mention about it being "part wagon, part crossover" and saying it has "evolved to incorporate more attributes of SUVs and crossovers" like all-wheel drive. That take overlooks the fact that Subaru debuted the jacked-up, bold-faced Legacy Outback at the end of 1994 as a 1995-model-year offering. Subaru designed the Legacy Outback to be a wagon/SUV tweener, well after Subaru was already known for its AWD chops, and before anyone had coined the word "crossover." The Toyota RAV4, now credited as being the first crossover, didn't show until early 1996.

2020 Subaru Legacy Luggage Test | Who needs an SUV?

As previewed in our recent 2020 Subaru Legacy review, the redesigned midsize sedan has a very large trunk. Whereas you have to creatively Tetris bags into the back of various pricier SUVs, you can pretty much just carelessly chuck them into the Legacy. How many bags? Well, let's take a look.  As a refresher, I use two midsize roller suitcases that would need to be checked in at the airport (26 inches long, 16 wide, 11 deep), two roll-aboard suitcases that just barely fit in the overhead (24L x 15W x 10D), and one smaller roll-aboard that fits easily (23L x 15W x 10D). I also include my wife's fancy overnight bag just to spruce things up a bit (21L x 12W x 12D).  The numbers say this is a 15.1-cubic-foot trunk. That's quite large, but besides the Mazda6, it's actually small for the segment. It has less than the 16.7-cubic-foot Honda Accord, 15.7-cubic-foot Chevy Malibu and 15.4-cubic-foot Nissan Altima. It's exactly the same as the Toyota Camry. However, such numbers don't tell the whole story as we discovered last week with the Lexus LC. The Camry may be the same on paper, but in practice, the Subaru is better. There, all the luggage fit with ease. Specifically, my four biggest bags were able to easily fit side-by-side in the trunk's aft-most portion between the wheels. That's the case in the Camry, which you can see below (test done during our midsize sedan comparison test). However, look at the difference in space between the bags and the trunk lip. The Subaru has more. Note how I could lay the smaller roller on its belly. No way that's happening in the Camry.  In fact, the Legacy trunk is more similar to the Honda Accord in this respect. The Accord, it seems, is bigger in the area just aft of its wheel wells. However, it also has "egg-crushers," trunk hinges that swing down into the trunk below. They technically free up space, but how useful is that space if what's filling it is going to be crushed? The Legacy puts its hinges in channels.  OK, back to the Legacy. Now let's fill it up using three duffle bags (any more, and I would've had to get creative raiding my garage).  So here you have it, the 15.1-cubic-foot 2020 Subaru Legacy trunk can hold five suitcases, one fancy bag and three duffles.