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Best. Year. Ever. Subaru breaks yearly and monthly sales records in 2017

After a generally good sales year for most car manufacturers, one company had a spectacular year: Subaru. The company reported with its end-of-year sales that 2017 was it's best sales year of all time. The total was 647,956 vehicles sold over the 12 months. Not only that, but December was also the best month of sales the company has ever seen with 63,342 cars sold. That's nearly 10 percent of the annual sales in one month. As far as individual models go, the Impreza and Crosstrek each had their best month in December and 2017 was each model's best year. The Impreza's year was especially impressive with sales jumping more than 55 percent compared with 2016. It was also the best year for Outback. Subaru credits some of its strong December to its "Share the Love" promotion that donated $250 of each new car purchase to one of a selection of charities. But a big part of Subaru's sales success has to be due to the fact that most of its products are in the hottest car market around: crossovers. The fact that its products are highly competitive against other similar vehicles certainly helps too. This is partly evident by the fact that year-to-year, every crossover model with the exception of the aging Forester saw a sales increase. Meanwhile, every traditional car (Legacy, WRX/STI and BRZ) with the exception of the redesigned Impreza had lower sales for the year. So if you ever wonder why companies aren't racing to release new sedans and coupes, this is why. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Subaru files for S209 trademark in the U.S.

Last week, Subaru filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Organization to trademark "S209." The paperwork indicates Subaru would like to apply it to "automobiles, structural parts, and structural fittings therefor," and "floor mats for automobiles." An application doesn't mean anything, but the obvious deduction would be that Subaru is thinking about another special edition Impreza WRX STI for the U.S. market, one that brings a taste of JDM-only nomenclature our way. The S appellation is as serious to the Subaru Tecnica International division as STI is to Subaru overall. The STI boffins have rolled out these extra special modes since the S201 STI in 2000, the Japanese market reaping a new S harvest every couple of years. Our last distant visions of such were the S207 shown at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show, and the S208 revealed last year. The 208 benefited from a bump in horsepower, from 323 hp to 329 hp and 319 pound-feet of torque, quick-ratio steering, a front strut tower brace, Bilstein dampers as part of a DampMatic II suspension, torque vectoring front and rear, 19-inch BBS wheels, Brembo brakes, a carbon roof, and an unmissable rear spoiler. None of the previous "S" models made it to the U.S. If this one does, we can only guess how Subaru will differentiate it from the hottest Impreza we've had, the recent Type RA (pictured). Our Type RA lost 68 pounds with the help of a carbon roof and spoiler, while a bag of engine mods and revised gearing helped make the most of unchanged 310 hp and 290 lb-ft from the 2.5-liter EJ25 engine. A power bump would likely be first on the wishlist for an S209, but it should be noted that the recent Japanese S cars have used the EJ207 2.0-liter boxer-four, not our 2.5-liter. As with the carmaker's home market, we'd expect an S209 to go into severely limited production. Subaru built 300 units of the S206, 400 of the S207, and 450 of the S208. Even if we do get a brawnier STI, Japan is likely to keep its power close with the WRX STI TC 380 teased last month, putting out 375 hp from a 2.0-liter turbocharged boxer-four. Still, the South-Africa-only WRX STI Diamond Edition rocked 349 hp and 342 lb-ft from its 2.5-liter, so there's a lot of headroom for a U.S. S209 to play with. If we get one, that is. Related Video:

2019 Toyota Corolla vs. compact hatchbacks: How they compare

So you've read what we thought about the 2019 Toyota Corolla Hatchback. Oh, you didn't? Well, click to your left, we'll still be here. Just made some coffee, we're good for a while. Welcome back! Wasn't that riveting? The blue paint sure is bright, eh? Well, now you must be wondering how that new 2019 Corolla stacks up with all the other hatchbacks. And, despite long thinking that hatchbacks were doomed, there are actually quite a lot of them these days. So many, in fact, that we couldn't fit them all in our space-limited comparison chart. So, with apologies to the Hyundai Elantra GT, Kia Forte and the dead-man-walking Ford Focus, these were the cars we chose based on sales and competitiveness: the Honda Civic Hatchback, Mazda3 5-Door, Volkswagen Golf, Chevrolet Cruze and Subaru Impreza. We also included the outgoing Corolla iM for reference. If you think we've left something of interest out, you can always create your own comparison. Performance and fuel economy There is but one king here, and its name is Civic. While the sedan and coupe come with a naturally aspirated 2.0-liter 158-horsepower four-cylinder that's less potent than the Corolla's, the hatchback comes standard with the 1.5-liter turbo that aces the segment in terms of both acceleration and fuel economy. The Golf's acceleration should be comparable, but as you can see, it trails on fuel economy (still not bad, though). The new Corolla ends up being better than the rest with its new 168-hp four-cylinder paired to novel transmissions: a six-speed manual with rev-matched downshifting (!) and a CVT that mimics the actions of a 10-speed automatic. The Corolla does weigh more than everything else, though, so that could hamper its acceleration. Fuel economy data also wasn't announced, but Toyota indicated it would be a bit better than the old Corolla iM. Something akin to the 2.0-liter Mazda 3's numbers seems likely. As for the Mazda, its top two trim levels actually come standard with its bigger engine. In any event, despite its ample power, testing has often showed that the Civic is still the quicker car from 0 to 60 mph. And finally, let's not leave out the two on the end. The Subaru is the only car in the segment that offers all-wheel drive (the Focus RS and Golf R don't count), but is also the segment weakling now that the Corolla iM has been discontinued.