2013 Subaru Outback on 2040-cars

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2015 Subaru Legacy spills out ahead of Chicago

Subaru has been one of the industry's hottest automakers, recording record sales month after month. Those handsome figures have come largely on the backs of its crossover lineup, however - models like Forester, Outback and XV Crosstrek have been carrying all the water. The Japanese marque has seen less noteworthy performance out of its midsize sedan, the Legacy, but a new one is slated to be revealed later this week at the Chicago Auto Show, and it hopes to improve the company's family sedan fortunes.
Leaked here in these first photos, the 2015 Legacy picks up some cues from the brash Legacy Concept revealed at the 2013 Los Angeles Auto Show, but it loses some impact and gains a pair of rear doors versus the showcar. There's little new visual ground broken, but the overall look is more harmonious than its balloon-fendered predecessor. As is often the case, it has features that make us think of other cars, but overall, it looks to be a handsome (if conservative) design. We particularly like the sleeker roofline and the bold front grille treatment - the latter will likely serve well as the face of the next Outback.
Subaru has traditionally offered function-over-form interiors, and while the new dashboard remains visually staid, it looks to have picked up a number of nice new features, including improved HVAC controls, a new steering wheel and freshened touchscreen navigation system.

2018 Subaru BRZ Quick Spin Review | Curves required

I had a 2018 Subaru BRZ Limited with a six-speed manual and half a day to play on wet, windy roads hemmed by pine trees in the foothills of a massive mountain range. But Michigan was on my mind. Some cars work everywhere. Michigan's the perfect place to find those that do: The roads are flat and pockmarked, and the seasonal extremes are brutal. It's easy to love a car on one of those bucket-list Alpine passes, but on Michigan roads the car has to work hard to win you over. For example, the MX-5 Miata works in Michigan just fine. It's fun in all conditions in which you can get the rear tires to hook up, and some that you can't. It cheerfully entertains in traffic, on city streets, undulating but uninteresting country roads. Some grand tourers work perfectly well there, too, soaking up enough punishment from the atrocious roadways without battering the occupants. The more voluptuous Aston Martins are particularly good at this trick, and they're plenty entertaining to cruise around in — or mash it flat after a scan of a country intersection shows nothing doing for at least 50 miles in every direction. These cars have more than just compliance — they have a subjective, elusive charm in suboptimal conditions. And the 86 twins, well, aren't Miatas. The car isn't lacking in dynamic ability, of course, but there's a flatness, a one-dimensionality to it. It's simply suffocated, starving for a little bit more. It doesn't have to be this way. Put the 86 in a better situation and its foibles recede but don't disappear. Straight, pock-marked slabs are the death of the thing. So I grabbed one out West, in Washington state where I now live, and fed it revs and curves until I was satisfied that the BRZ works as intended when you keep it happy. And when it's happy, you're happy. The BRZ was on high-performance summer tires, and some of the best roads in Washington are up in the hills currently blanketed by slush and ice, so that was a nonstarter. But there's a windy, weedy little farm road bending through a river valley just 20 minutes from my house. It's got lots of sudden, blind bends — not to mention working farms — so it's not the place to exercise a Corvette Z06. But there are enough turns you can see all the way through to make it fun, and three unbelievable uphill hairpins right at the end. We're talking 15 mph posted speed limit turns, and those signs aren't far off.

2019 Subaru Forester vs compact SUV rivals: How they compare on paper

We've seen what the 2019 Subaru Forester looks like (pretty much the same). We've found out how much it's going to cost (just a bit more). And also how much bigger and more powerful it'll be (appreciably on both counts). Now it's time to see how all of that compares to its top compact SUV rivals. While you can see the same engine and dimension specs for every compact SUV here, for this comparison featuring the latest 2019 Forester info, we've decided to define "top rivals" as those that the 2018 model was most frequently cross-shopped with. That means the 2018 Honda CR-V, 2018 Toyota RAV4, 2018 Mazda CX-5 and 2018 Nissan Rogue. At the time of this writing, none of their respective manufacturers had released data for 2019 models. We also included info for the 2018 Forester as well. So, without further blather, cue the Spreadsheet-o-Matic 3000. How big are they? The 2019 Forester may look nearly identical to the compact crossover it replaces, but it's nevertheless bigger and heavier. In particular, its wheelbase has increased from being the smallest in the segment to one that's pretty much average. It's a good bet that this gain is the reason rear seat legroom has also increased. Width is also up, but the Forester actually remains the narrowest compact SUV. As for other noteworthy dimensions, the new Forester now has the most maximum cargo capacity of any compact SUV with 76.1 cubic feet. Now, it should be noted, that's without the panoramic sunroof that comes on all but the base model. With it, max capacity shrinks to 70.9 cu-ft. Two points about that. First, Subaru is the only company that calls out this difference, and all the others almost certainly are not measuring with a sunroof. Second, this gives you an idea about how much of "maximum cargo capacity" includes space up high where you're probably not storing much cargo. As such, we included the Forester's biggest number and think it fairly indicates Subaru should carry the "biggest in segment" crown. How do their engines and fuel economy compare? Here's the most important takeaway here: The new Forester is tied for the best fuel economy in the segment, but that's with standard all-wheel drive. Everything else listed above is with front-wheel drive. The 2019 model also gets a welcome injection of power, resulting in the fourth-most base horsepower in the segment (or fifth, if you consider the CR-V technically holds spots 1 and 3).