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Subaru Levorg, also known as the WRX's wagon cousin, revealed in production form

Last year, Subaru gave us our first look at the new Levorg station wagon in "prototype" form, which over the past few years has shared most of its body and interior with the Subaru WRX. Now we finally get to see the production version, and it looks basically identical to the regular and STI Sport concepts. That's not a bad thing. It builds on the old Levorg and WRX with sharper, crisper lines. There's more visual detail in the headlights and angled wheel arches. And it retains classic cues such as the big hood scoop. It can be made more aggressive looking with a variety of front and rear spoilers, diffusers and side skirts, too. While the exterior isn't huge news thanks to past concepts, the interior and engine specs are. The interior in particular gives us our first look at what we'll probably see in the next WRX. Not surprisingly, the focal point is the huge vertical touchscreen that looks lifted straight out of the Legacy and Outback. In fact, the whole dash is very similar to that of the bigger Subarus, though the height of the dash is a bit shorter and the air vents a bit thinner. The Levorg also has a fancy screen for its instrument panel, and it will be interesting to see if that carries over to a future WRX. We also finally have complete specs on the Levorg's engine, which we're sure won't be in the next WRX. It's a turbocharged 1.8-liter flat-four. Its engine name is CB18, marking it as a new engine not shared with any current Subaru. It makes 175 horsepower and 221 pound-feet of torque and is paired with a CVT. While you can already get a WRX with a CVT, there's no way Subaru would offer the WRX with an engine that's down about 100 horses to the old model. When we do finally see the new WRX and STI, they will likely be similar to this Levorg, though with possibly some body tweaks to make it a little more aggressive. They will also probably adopt a sedan design instead of the wagon shape. Under the hood will likely be iterations of the turbocharged FA-series flat-four. The current WRX already has a 2.0-liter version of this engine, which makes 268 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque. The next model could use a carryover or upgraded version of this engine. As for the STI, reports suggest it will get a 2.4-liter variant and could make as much as 400 horsepower. Related Video:

2019 Subaru Forester Long-Term Update | It's gold wheel time!

Our long-term 2019 Subaru Forester is heading into the new year with a new set of shoes. Subaru’s all-wheel-drive system works perfectly fine, but all-wheel power is no replacement for a set of winter tires. And so our search for winter rubber began. However, the search didnÂ’t take that long, as a set of wheels and tires that fit our Forester happened to be laying around Autoblog HQ collecting dust. The wheels just so happened to be lightweight, gold 17-inch Sparco wheels we had previously fitted to our 2015 Subaru WRX long-term tester. Imagine our glee when we pulled these bad boys out of storage.  ItÂ’s only fitting that the blue Subaru in our long-term test fleet is also fitted with gold wheels as a tribute to all the gold-wheeled Subaru rally legends. The new Forester is nothing like a WRX or STI, but this setup has us smiling every time we walk out to the car. Take a nice, long scroll through the gallery above. We canÂ’t stop obsessing over how much better they make the new Forester look. Maybe a special edition package Â… just a thought, Subaru. Mounted on these wheels are new Michelin X-Ice winter tires. WeÂ’ve already driven it through a couple snowfalls in the midwest region, and the tires make this crossover a nearly unstoppable winter force. We hope to get some serious snow this winter that allows us to really take advantage of the new tires and the ForesterÂ’s high 8.7-inch ground clearance. More on that and the ForesterÂ’s performance to come. Unfortunately, the spare set of wheels we had lying around didnÂ’t have tire pressure monitoring sensors for the Forester sitting next to them. Until the little yellow light in the dash starts annoying us, weÂ’re going to forego the expense of buying a new TPMS at the Subaru dealer — we imagine many owners skip the extra $150 or so for the sensors and check their tire pressure the old-fashioned way with winter wheels, too. After all, the tire pressure gauge still exists, and it works splendidly. Watch out for another Forester update soon, as we get into some of the things weÂ’ve liked and disliked over the past few months. Related video:

2019 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid gets top IIHS safety rating

The IIHS has finally evaluated the 2019 Subaru Crosstrek Hybrid, the plug-in version of the subcompact crossover, and it performs just as well as its fully gas-powered twin. Its high marks earned it the organization's highest award of Top Safety Pick +. In every crash test, the Crosstrek earned the highest "Good" rating for protection, including both driver and passenger small overlap collisions. Forward collision prevention also earned top marks, stopping the vehicle before a crash at speeds up to 25 mph. This is one area where the Hybrid improves on the standard model, not for better results, but for the fact that the forward collision prevention system is standard on all Hybrid variants. It's an option on base and Premium non-hybrid Crosstreks. The headlights are a similar situation. The Hybrid's standard headlights also received the "Good" rating like top-trim Crosstreks. Where the non-hybrid Crosstreks trip up is that the base and Premium trims have headlights that have the worst "Poor" rating. Parity resumes with LATCH child seat anchor accessibility, which gets a "Good+" rating for having easily reachable anchors and having extras for seating flexibility.