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By Dan Trent
First Drives
21 January 2008 10:36
A quiet storm has been brewing in the countryside. With customers torn between life long brand loyalty and the ever increasing cost of fuel Subaru’s dealerships have been fielding increasingly desperate calls for diesel powered models. It’s not quite reached the stage of lines of wax-jacketed folk with placards outside Subaru HQ but it’s not been far off.
Like flat caps, black Labradors and funny accents, mud-splattered Subaru estate cars are an essential feature of rural life in the UK but the firm’s steadfast refusal to build a more fuel-efficient diesel engine has been costing it dear. After dismal sales last year something had to be done and finally the pleas from European markets for oil-burning Subarus seem finally to have reached the firm’s Japanese homeland. Welcome then the Legacy Sports Tourer and Outback 2.0TD.
Stubbornly eccentric to the last, Subaru has gone its own way with its first diesel powerplant too. Boxer engines have been the firm’s trademark since the Subaru 1000 of 1966. And the configuration has been retained for the new diesel, making it the first flat-four oil-burner ever seen in a passenger car. While it debuts in the Legacy, diesel versions of the Impreza and forthcoming new Forester will follow.
As such this engine will underpin what Subaru hopes will be a reversal in fortune for its European sales, currently hovering around the 75,000 mark. So the pressure is on the new diesel engine to deliver the target of 25,000 extra sales. And when production reaches full swing in 2009 Subaru UK expects 85 percent of Legacy sales to be accounted for by the diesel.
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Subaru Legacy Sports Tourer 2.0TD RE (2008) CAR review
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shawar1979 says
RE: Subaru Legacy Sports Tourer 2.0TD RE CAR review
Subaru is how a car company should be run. Subaru has identified their demographic, and in turn, have some of the most loyal customers of all marques.
18 September 2008 02:16
rmaxibiza says
Where's the auto option?
A quick check of the Autotrader site shows that roughly 1/4 of all Subaru sales are auto's, the Legacy is at 50% and the Outback 80%, so it won't be long in coming, I hope! A call to the local dealer elicits no futher info. In this case we obviously can't wait for the US market's demands to have a trickle down effect. Less than a year I bet.
25 March 2008 07:39
mbhalim says
ABOUT TIME!
Hope being diesel-powered will not make it perform like a bus. Otherwise we will have to invert the maker's name to U R A BUS!!
09 February 2008 13:04
Anonymous says
Good but...
I like Subarus a lot and I think a Legacy is superior to drive than any A4 Quattro, never mind more reliable. But I think it's getting old now and must be replaced soon, so this diesel is kind of late to the party. It needs to have a 6speeder, auto or manual, and I think Subaru must send away it's head of design. If not beautiful, the cars must at least look modern. And you can't do that with doors that shut to the body with black frames, and not hug the body. That was very Toyota of the 80's. Oh, and give it a decent face.
04 February 2008 10:11
bgood says
Wonderful
Now just ship it to America. Do automaker realise that not all Americans are prejudice against diesels? And that their is a growing market for them? I have long been a Subaru fan, and this makes it just oh so much sweeter.
02 February 2008 20:16
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