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Subaru of Hamilton 
What’s New!!
What’s New!! | Test Drive: Subaru debuts 2010 Legacy at NY International Auto Show | |||
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In the darkest hour, one looks for the light.
And at the New York International Auto Show, in the midst of downturn doom and gloom, it seemed only natural to end up at the display of the only company to post a sales increase in America last year - Subaru.
That success crossed our border as well, shattering sales records and earning Subaru Canada execs a trip to New York for a special award presentation.
In Canada, a country with a thrifty compulsion for compacts, the sales bump was based mainly on the new Forester and Impreza models. But Subaru's global best-seller is the larger Legacy and the bulk of those sales are in America. Which explained why Subaru picked Detroit for the unveiling of the initial concept and New York for the debut of the new fifth generation production version of the Legacy.
The 2010 Legacy is bigger, stronger and more refined with a longer
list of standard and available features. The new model asserts a more
aggressive style with sharper character lines and edges, a larger
greenhouse, shorter deck and more muscular wheel arches around a new
line of wheel designs.
More importantly, the Legacy is larger. The wheelbase grows to
2,750mm (108.3 inches), an 80mm (3.2 inch) increase over the previous
model. That translates into 100mm (4 inches) of additional rear
legroom, enhanced by a new scalloped back design of the new front
seats. By pulling the wheels to the corners and working on space
improvement from the inside out, the overall vehicle length increased
by only 30mm to 4,735mm (1.4 inches/186.4 inches) and the overhangs
have shortened considerably. The car is also 90mm (3.6 inches) wider
and 80mm (3.2 inches) taller, again adding more interior space for
driver and passengers. The Legacy lineup in Canada will offer a four model selection - Legacy 2.5i, PZEV, 2.5GT, and 3.6R.
Along with a three-selection lineup of Subaru's trademark
Symmetrical full-time All-Wheel Drive systems, all models now feature
standard air conditioning, heated front seats, CD/AM/FM/MP3/WMA audio
system, steering wheel audio & cruise control buttons, a 60/40
split fold-down rear seat, auto headlights, heated power-adjustable
door mirrors, a Hill Holder System, Vehicle Dynamics Control system and
a larger 70 litre fuel tank (up from 64 litres) for extended driving
range.
The 2010 lineup starts with the Legacy 2.5i and PZEV models,
powered by a revised 2.5-litre four-cylinder boxer engine making 170 hp
@ 5,600 rpm and 170 lb/ft of torque at a lowered 4,000 rpm peak. The
Legacy PZEV (partial zero emissions vehicle) meets strict California
emissions standards and can have 90 percent cleaner emissions than
regular models.
The 2.5-litre motor can be mated with a new six-speed manual or,
for the first time, a new Lineartronic CVT. The CVT shifts continuously
or can be driver-shifted by a "six-speed" manual mode using steering
wheel paddle controls.
Moving up in the lineup, the Legacy 2.5GT gets a literal boost
from a bigger turbo on a revised 2.5-litre turbocharged/intercooled
engine based on the rally-inspired Impreza WRX265. The engine now
produces 265 hp @ 5,600 rpm and 258 lb/ft of torque from 2000-5,200
rpm, compared to a previous 243 hp @ 6,000 rpm and 241 lb.-ft. of
torque @ 3,600 rpm.
And our final model, the Legacy 3.6R replaces the 3.0-litre engine
with the 3.6-litre H6 engine first introduced in the Tribeca. It
harnesses 256 hp and 247 lb/ft of peak torque (up from 245 hp/215 lb/ft
of torque) and does so on regular-grade fuel instead of premium.
During the presentation, I took a few sidelong glances down the
front row at Takeshi Tachimori, the engineer in charge of the Legacy
project. He seemed a lot less nervous than the last time I saw him. A
few years ago, he was perched on my passenger seat, riding shotgun with
nothing but blue sky in the windshield as we climbed the Rockies on the
Powderface trail, a gravel road usually reserved for rally racing.
After the Legacy unveiling, he reminisced about his frequent looks down
that long, long drop below.
"I'd never missed right-hand drive so much," he joked.
We talked about the new cars.
"Even at the launch of that previous Legacy," I asked him, "wasn't your main focus also a size increase?"
Yes, he admitted, but they hadn't gone far enough at the time.
"That remained the most common complaint," he told me, "a lack of interior space."
Or at least a "perceived" lack of interior space. I wouldn't dare
mention any off the record comments about fat Americans, but North
Americans do tend to be bigger. And have bigger expectations.
And for a model geared specifically towards that audience, the
steady size evolution of a larger Legacy is the most important aspect
to a more competitive presence in the mid-size market.
As goes the Legacy, so goes the Outback, an evolution of the
offshoot model that first debuted here in New York fifteen years ago.
Then it was just a Legacy wagon packaged with a raised suspension, body
cladding, bigger wheels, sold with a little help from Crocodile Dundee.
The two models have diverged steadily since and although they still
share common elements, they have become different vehicular statements.
For 2010, Subaru Canada will follow the American lead of two years ago,
offering the Legacy in sedan only, Outback in wagon form.
You can't help but compare Subaru's debut to other elements of the show.
The Detroit three barely showed up - Ford with a passenger version
of the Transit and GM with a new SUV of all things. I counted five
Camaros and two Corvettes on the floor and no Chevy Spark, GM's future
small car. Chrysler's CEO rolled onto the stage in a diminutive Fiat
500, joked that it was "smaller than our HEMI engine" and promptly
unveiled a new Jeep Grand Cherokee while the Fiat was stashed backstage.
Sometimes I'm pretty sure these guys never once owned a VW Beetle.
And that when fuel pump prices start going up, they'll all be
"surprised" again.
Yes, I know fuel-efficient alternatives have been previously
unveiled and are in the pipeline, but sometimes I also think that the
Americans still don't get it, hampered by past dreams of V8-powered
glory and abetted by nostalgia-mining old fartism in a cheerleading
journalist corps that is part of the problem, not the solution. Small
can be sexy but not to these size-still-matters dinosaurs.
But let's not get too negative, there were other bright spots in
the show - the urban-friendly Scion iQ concept - two feet shorter than
some subcompacts and especially interesting now that Toyota's Scion
division is coming to Canada; the Kia Koup, one of the kutest koncepts
at the show (sorry); a four-cylinder Mercedes E-Class concept; the
sleek Hyundai Nuvis hybrid concept; and the low-budget Mitsubish i-MiEV
electric car that is going on sale in Japan next year and eventually,
hopefully, here in North America.
Along with those bright spots that will be individually revealed
on these pages, it was uplifting to talk to Subaru Canada's CEO
Katsuhiro Yokoyama, clutching his sales award and to my old riding
buddy, Tachimori-san, about his new Legacy and Outback.
In the middle of all this unease and uncertainty, of manufacturers
shuffling and redefining themselves, Subaru remains rock steady with
its core values of across-the-board all-wheel drive, low centre of
gravity boxer engines and the safety, sales and customer service
records that mark a company with clearly defined purpose and product.
Kind of makes you hopeful about the future, after all.
–Rob Beintema |
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