2009 Subaru Legacy 2.5i Special Edition Sedan 4-door Pzev on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Subaru's STI motorsport arm celebrates 30 years of going fast

The letters W, R and X are often featured on the trunklid of a fast, blue Subaru, but the other important letters for a Subaru are STI – standing for Subaru Tecnica International. The STI motorsport brand brings to mind '90s World Rally Championship victories and Impreza legends such as the wide-bodied 1998 22B, but the division is actually a bit older: STI is celebrating its 30 th anniversary this week. Founded on April 2, 1988, Subaru's STI started out with tuned Legacy sedans. Its first car was a turbocharged Legacy, the RS RA from 1989, available only in a limited 100-unit run of Ceramic White cars, not the 555 Sonic Blue Mica or World Rally Blue that later became almost synonymous with hot Subarus. The RS RA produced 220 horsepower, which was very good for 1989. In January of the same year, three STI-modified Legacy Turbos were used to first break the 50,000 km, then the 100,000 km FIA World Speed Endurance records, with the cars run for 20 consecutive days at Arizona Test Center. The average speed was 138.78 mph, for 447 hours, 44 minutes and 9.887 seconds. That's quite a bit of driving, even in two-hour shifts. The first STI-branded Subaru vehicle was the Japanese-market Legacy STI in 1992, and the Impreza WRX STI followed it two years later. For some time, STI vehicles were the stuff of Gran Turismo gaming for most Subaru enthusiasts, until STI arrived in the United States in 2004. The first U.S.-bound model was the 300-horsepower WRX STI, a Peter Stevens-designed "Blob Eye" facelift of the second-generation Impreza. So far, STI's respectable tally stands at three WRC championships, 47 WRC wins, four Nurburgring endurance wins and a Nordschleife production sedan lap record set last year. Regarding STI's 30th anniversary year's production cars, there will be a limited-edition WRX STI Type RA and a STI-tuned BRZ tS for 2018. View 51 Photos Related Video:

Subaru recalling almost 634,000* CUVs, sedans for possible puddle light short

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced a massive recall campaign today for some of the more popular Subaru models due to defective puddle lights that could short out and possibly lead to smoke and/or fire.
(*)While the recall notice lists a total of 633,842 Forester, Legacy, Outback and Tribeca models from various model years, Automotive News is reporting that there are only 53,999 units actually equipped with the defective lights, but Subaru is having to make the massive recall since it is unable identify which vehicles have the lights.
The problem with the 2009 through 2012 Forester, 2006 through 2012 Tribeca and the 2010 through 2011 Legacy and Outback is that the puddle lights mounted under the door mirrors can collect water or moisture, which can lead to the short. To fix the problem, Subaru is adding an extra fuse to the wiring harness as a part of the recall that will go into effect next month. For Forester owners, this is the second major recall in less than a year following the 275,000 units that were afflicted with faulty rear seatbelts.

Junkyard Gem: 1994 Subaru SVX

Before Subaru became best-known in North America for outdoorsy all-wheel-drive machinery (but after it was best-known for extreme cheapness), we got some wild-looking Subarus with strong overtones of science fiction over here. First, the wedge-shaped XT, XT Turbo, and XT6 arrived during the mid-1980s through early 1990s, with their video-game-style digital instrument panels and fighter-jet-joystick gearshifts. Starting in the 1992 model year, we saw the XT's replacement: the joyously weird SVX. The SVX cost plenty, especially when viewed against the backdrop of the super-cheap Subarus of the past, and not many were sold. Still, Coloradans love old Subarus, and I manage to find discarded SVXs here every now and then. Here's a screaming red '96, found in a self-service yard about 50 miles from Cheyenne. This was the first six-cylinder engine design put into production by Subaru and was essentially the Legacy's boxer four-banger with two extra cylinders. With 230 horsepower, the SVX was reasonably quick for its day. Unfortunately, Subaru didn't have a manual transmission that could handle the six's power, so all SVXs came with four-speed automatics. And, as it turned out, even that transmission didn't fare so well; transmission failures doom more of these cars than any other cause. You can swap in the manual out of a WRX if you have patience and money, and that's what some SVX owners have done in recent years. This one nearly reached 200,000 miles and the interior looks nice, so it was cared for during its life. Now this looks futuristic.  List price for this car started at $29,995, or about $49,800 today. The cheapest Mitsubishi 3000GT cost $30,690 in 1996, and it had just 218 horsepower and front-wheel-drive, so the cooler-looking and quicker SVX seemed like the better deal. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. In its homeland, it was known as the Alcyone SVX. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. If you jump to 5:10 in this dealer-promotional video for the SVX, you'll see the street corner in Los Angeles where the irradiated corpse of J. Frank Parnell got incinerated in the film Repo Man. Featured Gallery Junked 1994 Subaru SVX View 15 Photos Auto News Subaru Automotive History Coupe subaru svx