2015 Subaru Forester 2.5i on 2040-cars

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Subaru cuts annual profit outlook on strength of yen, typhoon impact

TOKYO — Subaru lowered its annual profit forecast on expectations of a stronger yen and the impact on production from a typhoon last month, driving its shares down as much as 4.5%. Japan's smallest major automaker, one fifth of which is owned by top-ranked Toyota, cut its forecast for operating profit to 220 billion yen ($2 billion) for the year ending March 2020, from a previous forecast of 260 billion yen. Subaru revised its forecast for the yen to average 107 versus the dollar over the period, from 110 previously. A stronger currency eats into profits because cars exported from Japan become more expensive and the value of earnings made overseas decreases. The United States is Subaru's biggest market, accounting for about 60% of overall sales. Typhoon Hagibis forced Subaru to halt production at its factories in Gumna, north of Tokyo, for more than a week in October due to supply chain disruptions. The stoppage, which lasted until Oct. 25, resulted in lost production of 11,000 vehicles, Chief Executive Officer Tomomi Nakamura told a briefing in Tokyo on Wednesday. Hagibis was the worst typhoon to hit Japan in decades, leaving at least 80 people dead, according to national broadcaster NHK. "We have restarted production, but we couldn't return to full capacity immediately," Nakamura said. "Some of our suppliers' factories were completely submerged." Subaru also said vehicle sales rose nearly 20% in the first half of the fiscal year compared with a year earlier, driven almost entirely by an improvement in the United States amid strong demand for the Forester SUV crossover. Subaru shares were down 1% at 3,102 yen by 0440 GMT, after touching a low of 2,995.5 yen earlier.

A car writer's year in new vehicles [w/video]

Christmas is only a week away. The New Year is just around the corner. As 2014 draws to a close, I'm not the only one taking stock of the year that's we're almost shut of. Depending on who you are or what you do, the end of the year can bring to mind tax bills, school semesters or scheduling dental appointments. For me, for the last eight or nine years, at least a small part of this transitory time is occupied with recalling the cars I've driven over the preceding 12 months. Since I started writing about and reviewing cars in 2006, I've done an uneven job of tracking every vehicle I've been in, each year. Last year I made a resolution to be better about it, and the result is a spreadsheet with model names, dates, notes and some basic facts and figures. Armed with this basic data and a yen for year-end stories, I figured it would be interesting to parse the figures and quantify my year in cars in a way I'd never done before. The results are, well, they're a little bizarre, honestly. And I think they'll affect how I approach this gig in 2015. {C} My tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015 it'll be as high as 73. Let me give you a tiny bit of background about how automotive journalists typically get cars to test. There are basically two pools of vehicles I drive on a regular basis: media fleet vehicles and those available on "first drive" programs. The latter group is pretty self-explanatory. Journalists are gathered in one location (sometimes local, sometimes far-flung) with a new model(s), there's usually a day of driving, then we report back to you with our impressions. Media fleet vehicles are different. These are distributed to publications and individual journalists far and wide, and the test period goes from a few days to a week or more. Whereas first drives almost always result in a piece of review content, fleet loans only sometimes do. Other times they serve to give context about brands, segments, technology and the like, to editors and writers. So, adding up the loans I've had out of the press fleet and things I've driven at events, my tally for the year is 68 cars, as of this writing. Before the calendar flips to 2015, it'll be as high as 73. At one of the buff books like Car and Driver or Motor Trend, reviewers might rotate through five cars a week, or more. I know that number sounds high, but as best I can tell, it's pretty average for the full-time professionals in this business.

2020 Subaru Outback teased, will be all-new at the New York Auto Show

The 2020 Subaru Outback is officially confirmed for a debut at the New York International Auto Show, and Subaru says it's going to be "all-new." That's all the official information we have to go on at this point, but Subaru released a teaser photo to give us a glimpse of the tall, rugged wagon before the reveal on April 17. We can tell a few differences just from the photo here. The lower bumper surround and foglight design is more compact than the big round lights that sit down there currently. Subaru has changed the side mirror design, adding a bit of flair with chrome on this model. It's tough to tell what the headlight design will look like, but it's certainly a different shape and size than the current units that stretch back further into the fenders. There's even more black plastic cladding on the car now, too. Subaru had plenty of the stuff going up and down the Outback before, but the wheel arch molding was optional. It's unclear whether it's going to remain that way or be the only way it comes now. One small thing we noticed was the location of the "Outback" designation in the body cladding — it moved from being under the front door to under the rear door. Subaru appears to be offering a new black wheel option that we see on this car, as well. The Outback last received a significant update for the 2018 model year. That car was also revealed at NYIAS, but it was a relatively minor update compared to what's coming. We'll expect to see a lot of the same features as what was revealed in the new 2020 Legacy at the Chicago Auto Show earlier this year. That car went way upscale with its interior design, moved to Subaru's Global Platform, dropped the flat six for a turbo flat-four and features a massive 11.6-inch touchscreen. It's no surprise we're seeing the new Outback so soon after the Legacy update, as Subaru has traditionally updated the two vehicles this way.