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Honda CR-V vs. Subaru Forester Cupholder Test | King of cups

When I got our long-term Subaru Forester back from the shop to fix a mysterious source of moisture, I also happened to have a Honda CR-V Hybrid taking up temporary residence in my driveway. After testing out my large son's car seat in each to these two right-sized vehicles, I moved on to the examine their capacity for the second-most-precious cargo they could carry: beverages.  I counted eight cupholders in each of these cars, which amounts to two per outboard passenger. Two front cupholders on the center console, one in each front door, one in each rear door, and two in the center armrest that folds down in each rear row. That's not Subaru Ascent levels of beverage storage (19 cupholders!), but it should be plenty to keep a family hydrated on a short-to-medium drive. Though these two appear to be equal in quantity, let's take a closer look and see if they're equal in quality, too. I brought along a Klean Kanteen bottle that's about the same size as most other brand of metal water bottles folks carry around, a big Corkcicle 24-ounce insulated tumbler, a standard 12-ounce soda can, and a skinny, 7.5-ounce soda can that's the same width as a lot of canned energy drinks. As a bonus, I — the man known to Twitter as "that one dude with the Nalgene bottle" — brought my trusty 32-ounce Nalgene to see if it fits anywhere. Let's start with the spots we use the most. I like the placement of the CR-V's front cupholders for their easy reach, but beverages block the wireless charging pad (only available on the Touring trim and as Riswick discovered, it has issues). In the Forester they're further back, out of the way of the center stack, but a somewhat awkward angle for retrieval. Now let's fill 'em up, starting with the Honda. As expected, there's plenty of room for the cans, but perhaps too much room. They both wobble around quite a bit in there. The bottle and cup fit much more securely, but the water bottle rattles around a bit in there. The Corkcicle cup is going nowhere. In the Forester, the little rubber doodads inside the cupholder do a much better job of holding even the smaller can in place. A perfect fit! As for the reusables, the Corkcicle cup is snug, while the bottle has a little bit of wiggle room, though not quite as much as in the CR-V. OK, let's try the front door pockets. In the CR-V, the cans are a bit loose, but the purple Klean Kanteen fits as though the pocket were designed for it. The mighty Corkcicle is too big to fit securely.

Subaru Levorg STI Sport should get us closer to the future WRX

At the Tokyo Motor Show, Subaru showed a "prototype" of the next-generation Levorg, itself a Japanese-market wagon derivative of the Subaru WRX sedan. While it gave us a good idea of what to expect from the next WRX, the Levorg STI Sport that will be shown at Tokyo Auto Salon in January should give us an even better look at the hot Subaru we'll get. This is based on the fact that among current Levorg trims, the STI Sport has a front bumper fascia that's more aggressive and that echoes the design of the WRX, whereas the standard trim is more mellow. So far, Subaru has only released a teaser video of the sportier Levorg. It shows STI badging on the back of the car and on the exhaust tips. There's also a glimpse of the tachometer that shows a redline of just over 6,000 rpm. Since that's lower than the WRX's turbo 2.0-liter engine's 6,500-rpm redline, this is probably the new 1.8-liter turbocharged engine Subaru announced will replace the current base turbo 1.6. It will probably make at least 170 horsepower to match the outgoing model. Based on the current STI Sport engine offerings, this should be the base engine, while the WRX's turbocharged FA20 will be an option. The full reveal of the Levorg STI Sport will come on January 10. Expect further details on mechanical changes as well, which will hopefully include information on a more powerful engine that could appear in the WRX. We wouldn't be surprised if it ended up using a slightly updated version of the current WRX's 2.0-liter FA20 engine, since even the WRX STI is expected to get a more powerful - probably over 300 horsepower - version of that same engine.

Spy photos show new Subaru BRZ prototype testing on public roads

A next-generation Subaru BRZ prototype was spotted near the company's southeast Michigan R&D center in convoy with an EcoBoost-powered Ford Mustang coupe, giving us both our first good look at the overhauled coupe and some hints at where it will fit in the performance car hierarchy.  This prototype is still wearing a fairly extensive camouflage wrap, but at least it's form fitting, showing off a silhouette that looks an awful lot like the current BRZ's, with a few key exceptions. Most notably, this prototype appears to lack the current car's exaggerated front and rear fender lines, opting instead for a cleaner, sleeker shape. The rear end is reminiscent of the old Hyundai Genesis Coupe's, or even a Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe's from some angles, sporting what appears to be a rather pronounced ducktail-style integrated trunk spoiler. Encouragingly, the prototype here is visibly smaller than the Mustang against which it is being benchmarked. While it would be tempting to jump to the conclusion that Subaru is targeting the Mustang for power output, keep in mind that the lighter Subaru and Toyota coupes won't need quite as much power to keep up with the larger, heavier pony car. Expecting the twins to offer the 300-ish horsepower of a base EcoBoost Mustang is probably rooted more in wishful thinking than reality.  The fact of the matter is that we're just not certain exactly what Toyota and Subaru have planned for the next-gen coupes' powertrains, but they are expected to ride on Toyota's New Global Architecture platform. That opens the door to various longitudinal offerings within Toyota's portfolio, including turbocharged four-cylinders and even some sixes, though we sincerely doubt the companies have any plans to offer anything larger than a four-banger in these compact coupes.  Just last month, we reported that Subaru had ended orders for the 2020 BRZ in its home country of Japan, and we've heard rumors that the new coupe could debut some time in 2020, with a production car coming for the 2022 model year. These spy shots, which serve as evidence of just how far along development on the replacement has come, lend some credibility to those hints. We expect it's also indicative of the state of the BRZ's Toyota twin, the GT86.  Related Video: