2005 Subaru Outback R L.l. Bean Edition Wagon 4-door 3.0l on 2040-cars

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2016 Subaru WRX and STI get new safety, tech equipment

The Subaru WRX and STI were just thoroughly revamped, but the Japanese brand has decided to tweak the offerings slightly for the 2016 model year. The changes include some upgraded safety systems, and as a possible blasphemy to fans, a smaller wing is being offered on the STI. The latest versions should hit dealers in the summer, but prices grow slightly. A base WRX is $300 more than last year at at $26,595 (plus $795 destination on all of them), and the cheapest STI is $34,695, a $200 increase. The WRX is undoubtedly fun to drive already, but the Premium and Limited trims now ride on standard 18-inch wheels with summer performance tires. For added in-car entertainment, Subaru is giving all models, including the STI, its 6.2-inch Starlink infotainment system that includes a rearview camera. Vehicles with navigation get a seven-inch version. Driving a WRX might be just a little safer too because Subaru is offering its EyeSight system with adaptive cruise control, pre-collision braking, lane departure warning, and lane keeping assist as an option on the Limited with the CVT. It's packaged with things like the nav system, upgraded radio, keyless start, and steering-responsive foglights for $4,095. The same trim with the six-speed manual gets a similar bundle but replaces some of the safety tech with just blind spot detection and rear cross traffic alert for $3,100. In perhaps the most contentious change, the STI Limited trim is now available with a tiny, trunk lip spoiler as a no-cost option. Seeing the aggressive sedan without the big wing certainly looks odd in photos, and it's still available for buyers who want it. Related Video: April 23, 2015 SUBARU INTRODUCES 2016 WRX® AND WRX STI® MODELS, OFFERING EYESIGHT® DRIVER ASSIST TECHNOLOGY AND SUBARU STARLINK™ INFOTAINMENT EyeSight® Driver Assist Technology, now with Lane Keep Assist, available for WRX with Sport Lineartronic™ transmission Blind Spot Detection, Lane Change Assist and Rear Cross Traffic Alert available for some models Subaru STARLINK™ Multimedia Touch Screen Infotainment in all trim levels Standard 18-inch wheels and summer performance tires on WRX Premium and Limited WRX STI Limited now available with low-profile rear trunk spoiler WRX models begin at $26,595 and WRX STI at $34,695 Cherry Hill, N.J. - Subaru of America, Inc.

2020 Subaru Legacy, Outback earn IIHS safety picks

The redesigned 2020 Subaru Legacy sedan and Outback wagon both earned kudos from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, but the news was not equally good for both models. The Legacy sedan walked away with the highest award, Top Safety Pick+. The Outback was one rung down, a Top Safety Pick. Sadly for the Outback, the previous, 2019 model had nabbed the TSP+ score. Why the difference in the Legacy and Outback? In a word: headlights. The IIHS structures their awards around several elements: crash tests, crash-avoidance systems, and headlights. Both Subarus aced their crash tests, earning Good results for the entire battery of tests (small and moderate front overlap on both sides, roof crush, side-impact, and head-restraints). Their standard EyeSight accident-avoidance automated emergency braking systems also performed well, successfully avoiding crashes at 12 and 25 mph, netting Superior ratings. (The pedestrian-detection function similarly earned a Superior rating, although pedestrian detection doesn't count toward the IIHS total score.) Headlights have to earn a Good rating in order for a car to qualify for TSP+; headlights deemed merely Acceptable limit a car to a maximum TSP award. Headlights that are Marginal or lower knock a car out of TSP contention. The Legacy's optional curve-adaptive headlights were deemed Good, while those same headlights in the Outback were only Acceptable, resulting in the different awards for the two models. For both cars, the base headlights also were Acceptable, meaning either model with the standard headlights would be a TSP (except that the IIHS grants a single model only its higher-level award).

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.