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2015 Subaru Outback

"We like producing cars that are different." That's the company line trumpeted by several Subaru executives during the launch of the 2015 Outback - one of Fuji Heavy's most successful vehicles to date. Managing Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski accurately noted that while Subaru has never really found salvation with its mainstream sedans, it's the higher-riding, butcher offerings like the Outback and the Impreza-based XV Crosstrek that have been sales stars for the Japanese company. In 2013, for example, Subaru sold nearly three Outbacks for every Legacy it moved. And in 2014, the XV is on pace to outsell the Impreza upon which its based.
But Subarus have always been different, catering to unique customers that desire something a bit more special than your run-of-the-mill sedan or crossover. It's clearly worked, with Subaru having posted 30 months of year-over-year sales increases as of this writing. And even as the automaker's portfolio goes more mainstream, smoothing out its serially awkward styling and gunning for a larger market share here in the United States, that intrinsic Subaru differentiation is still baked in to each and every product.
It's that new Outback we're here to talk about today, a vehicle that's been comprehensively redesigned for the 2015 model year while not shaking up the formula that's made it successful since its inception in the mid-1990s, back when it (arguably) launched what we now know as the crossover utility vehicle segment. It's still plenty different - and plenty good, too.

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This Subaru BRZ has a snowmobile engine and gets 104 mpg

A hybrid powertrain didn't win the Honda CR-Z numerous fans, but it might be the magic ingredient in making the Subaru BRZ more potent. This is the "Car of the Future" as envisioned by Mississippi State University's Center of Advanced Vehicular Systems – the result of a two-year project, which married a front-mounted 850 cc snowmobile engine with two electric motors powering the rear wheels. The battery pack accounts for 12.7 kWh, which enables the car to go 50 miles on just electric juice. The two-liter boxer engine is no more, but what the car loses in cubic inches it gains in MPG. According to MSU engineers, the re-engineered car gets 104 mpg equivalent, and it only weighs 2,904 lbs: about 60 lbs more than an unmodified Sportshift BRZ. It clocks a 0-60 mph run at around 5.7 seconds, too, which beats a stock automatic BRZ by a second. The electric brain of the car improves the range by calculating optimizing algorithms, based on earlier driving. The guys from MSU's Bagley College of Engineering call this Predictive Engine Control. The most likable thing about this project might be that it's still clothed in a sports car body. Future-proof car designs are often focused on mobility instead of the driver, and choosing a BRZ as the basis shows how there's still room for petrolheads in the future.