2015 Subaru Legacy 2.5i on 2040-cars

Auto blog

VW Q3 Financial Woes, 2015 Tokyo Motor Show | Autoblog Minute

Consumer Reports pulls its Tesla recommendation, the U.S. Copyright Office offers a ruling affecting car owners, VW gets hit hard with third quarter losses, and lots of exciting news from Tokyo. Autoblog's Senior editor Greg Migliore reports on this Autoblog Minute Weekly Recap. Tokyo Motor Show Mazda Subaru Suzuki Tesla Toyota Concept Cars Autoblog Minute Videos Original Video Tokyo 2015

2020 Subaru WRX STI S209 Prototype First Drive Review | The best is just for us

We're about 70 miles southwest of Tokyo on the grounds of Fuji International Speedway. Yoshihide Yano puts his hand on the camouflaged carbon fiber roof of the 2020 Subaru WRX STI S209 prototype we're about to drive and smiles. "This will never make a business case," says the assistant manager of Subaru's North America Business Planning Department. "We don't want to make more than 250. The more we make, the more money we lose." From the wince of his co-workers, Yano is clearly off the script, but his statement isn't a huge surprise. Building the STI S209 is complicated and time-consuming, with most of its extensive engine, suspension and aerodynamic modifications being installed by hand at STI's small off-site headquarters just outside Toyko. Founded in 1988, Subaru Technica International is the automaker's motorsports division and employs only 120 people. It can produce just two cars a day. Subaru STI Car Show View 30 Photos And why not show off your fastest street car ever on Fuji's world-class 2.8-mile road course? Especially today, while the track is packed for its annual STI Motorsports Day, a yearly pilgrimage for the brand's faithful. The place is flooded with WRXs, BRZs, and models we don't get in America like the Levorg STI Sport, a hot rod version of its mid-size wagon. Although STI's new Super GT and Nurburgring race cars are making hot laps on the main circuit, our drive of the inexplicably camouflaged S209 (which was fully revealed at the Detroit Auto Show) is on a small half-mile road course tucked away in a remote corner of Fuji's massive acreage. And we get just three laps. 2018 Subaru WRX STI S208 View 15 Photos STI's S-Line of cars have been the brand's most capable machines since the S201 launched in 2000, but the S209 will be the first S-Line model sold in the United States – and exclusively in the United States, for that matter. It will also be the first S-Line WRX that won't be powered by a modified version of the brand's venerable 2.0-liter EJ20 engine family, which Subaru introduced in 1989. The company says the EJ20 cannot meet emissions and make more than 300 horsepower on our low-octane fuel. The fix for this is a version of the turbocharged EJ25 series, which has powered every U.S.-spec WRX STI since we got it in 2003. To create the S209, STI's engineers started by mixing together certain parts from both the S208 and the 310-hp WRX STI RA Subaru sold in America last year.

Subaru to introduce two e-Boxer hybrids at Geneva

Subaru will be bringing two electrified "e-Boxer" models to the Geneva Motor Show next month, as Autocar reports. While the manufacturer hasn't announced which models these electrified cars will be, it is likely that at least one of them will be the e-Boxer version of the Forester, which Subaru showed at the 2019 Tokyo Auto Salon. Another possible model for the Geneva unveiling can be the Crosstrek's hybrid version, branded XV for the European market. The hybrid Crosstrek is Subaru's first PHEV model, and it uses Toyota's 8.8-kWh battery pack mated to a 2.0-liter boxer engine. Subaru is relatively late to the hybrid game, as some competing Japanese carmakers have had hybrid cars on the market for a long time already, and only in recent years has Subaru put hybrid models for sale outside Japan. But by being able to mate electric power with its trademark boxer engine powertrain, Subaru can remain "on-brand" while still utilizing hybrid technology, instead of going with a regular four cylinder inline engine as is popular with hybrid powertrains. Still, the Japanese market Forester STI e-Boxer only produces a combined 156 horsepower and 187 lb-ft of torque, figures that seem modest compared to a 2.0-liter turbodiesel engine, for example. But with Subaru's diesel exercise just a decade-long, select-market enterprise, and with diesel on the outs these days, hybrid seems a better bet, especially in the North American market. Related Video: