2014 Subaru Outback 3.6r Limited on 2040-cars

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We drive a Subaru to one of the world's largest glaciers

Now that we're back from Patagonia, senior video producer Chris McGraw is emptying out his camera memory and putting together a number of short clips showing the various places we visited along the journey. (Yes, we wanted to upload these last week, but had little to no wifi connectivity along the way.) In this latest video, we bring you the sights from our trip to the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina, and a look at the roads leading into Chile. Our chariot for what was actually Day 3 of the trip was a Subaru Forester, which had no problem tackling the rough dirt and gravel roads through Patagonia, and was an excellent cruiser for the twisty paved roads leading into the Andes mountain range. The Perito Moreno Glacier is massive – roughly three times the size of Manhattan – and is one of only a few glaciers in Patagonia that's still growing. It is truly an awesome sight – one that's hard to describe, because when you see it, you just sort of stand there, mouth agape, fascinated. We've got a few more clips in the works, including our full Patagonia feature video. Stay tuned, and enjoy the view.

2014 Subaru Forester XT

Power Doesn't Come Cheap
When Subaru first offered a turbocharged Forester XT model to US customers for the 2004 model year, the shoe-shaped second-gen model fell into a ready-made competitive set of small, V6-powered crossovers and SUVs. The XT might have been more of a raucous shopping-trip companion than, say, a Ford Escape V6, but the basics of the cars offered a clear differentiation from the naturally aspirated, four-cylinder models found just a bit downmarket. Here in 2013, the V6 breed of crossover in this size class is all but extinct, and turbocharged four-cylinders with the power to compete with the XT are not thick on the ground.
In many ways, the comparative analysis gets most interesting when you start looking around for CUVs to match up with the all-boxes-ticked Forester XT Touring that we had as a tester for a recent week. The top of the line Touring trim means that the Forester comes with features like 10-way power seats, leather, navigation, a Harmon Kardon sound system with HD radio, Bluetooth and more. In fact, our Forester also had the only option package available on the XT Touring; one that included keyless access, HID headlights and Subaru's EyeSight system (adaptive cruise, lane departure warning and pre-collision braking).

Mazda CX-5 named Japan's Car of The Year, Subaru BR-Z wins "Special Award"

The Mazda CX-5 stamped its Kodo design and SkyActiv technology authority all over the Japan Car of the Year awards, taking the top prize ahead of the Subaru BRZ/Toyota GT 86. It is Mazda's second victory in the last ten years, the 2005 MX-5 claiming the same trophy, and the fourth time the Hiroshima company has won.
The award is decided by 60 local "automotive experts and journalists," and open to any passenger car released in Japan from November 1, 2011 to October 31, 2012 that has sold more than 500 units. Each judge gets 25 votes, his or her top vote getting 10 points, the rest of the points being spread among the judge's choice for the next best four cars.
The second-place getters were the Toyobaru twins with 318 votes, the surprise being they didn't beat or get any closer to the crossover. The Subaru BRZ did claw some mojo back, earning the Special Award given to cars that have made "an exceptional impact." The BMW 3 Series was third overall and won the Import Car of the Year award with plenty of room between it and the second place Range Rover Evoque.