2017 Subaru Forester 2.5i on 2040-cars

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10 automakers shack up in Detroit hotel to talk Takata airbags

Since Takata has decided not to take the lead concerning potential issues with its airbag inflators, the automakers have. Perhaps that's unsurprising, since it's the automakers, not Takata, that will take a beating on the dealership floor if consumers decide its models are a health hazards. The Detroit News reports that Toyota, Honda, General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Mazda, BMW, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Subaru met in a hotel conference room near the Detroit Metropolitan Airport last week to sort out a way to understand the technical issues involved. So far, faulty airbag inflators have been ruled the cause of five deaths and 50 injuries around the world, but neither Takata nor investigators understands exactly why the inflators are malfunctioning. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently asked Takata to issue a national recall, Takata declined, citing a minuscule failure rate and the fact that it's still investigating the issue. Toyota and Honda then made an industry-wide appeal for "a coordinated, comprehensive testing program" that would pinpoint the problem inflators and get them replaced, and that's what the Detroit meeting was about. Numerous issues, however, will make this a long row to hoe: simply getting the parts to replace the nearly 20 million inflators in cars recalled around the world so far - even working with other suppliers - will take a years, but more importantly, no one knows if the replacement inflators currently being installed will suffer the same issue. Answers will hopefully come quickly with Takata, the ten automakers and NHTSA all independently investigating the problem.

2015 Subaru WRX looks to set a new benchmark in LA

Subaru has just taken the wraps off of the new, 2015 WRX at the 2013 Los Angeles Auto Show. The totally redesigned sedan - the five-door option won't be offered - is more powerful, more fuel efficient (with the right transmission), better looking and more intelligently designed than the car it's replacing.
A new 2.0-liter, direct-injected, turbocharged flat-four sits thumping away under the hood, its top-mount intercooler getting force-fed air by a rather prominent hood scoop. Power output sits at 268 ponies and 258 pound-feet of torque, accessible between 2,000 and 5,000 rpm. While the new car only has a three-horsepower advantage on the current Impreza WRX, it delivers 14 more pound-feet of torque and delivers peak output across a much wider swath of the rev range (the old car netted 244 lb-ft at 4,400 rpm). All this extra grunt comes at a negligible weight penalty - a 2015 WRX with the six-speed manual is just 59 pounds heavier than a 2014 model.
As we said, a six-speed manual is will be available, and as a bonus, it packs one additional cog over the current, 2014 WRX's five-speed DIY transmission. So equipped, the WRX will scamper to 60 in just 5.4 seconds. As for the previously-confirmed continuously variable transmission, it will come with both six- and eight-speed manual shift modes, but will take half a second longer to get to the magical 60-mile-per-hour mark.

2014 Subaru Forester XT

Hitting The Mainstream Sweet Spot
The Forester does quite a bit of heavy lifting for Subaru. What was once a plucky little all-wheel-drive utility box has matured into a competitive crossover that accounts for a quarter of the company's total sales in the US. With those numbers continuing to swell even in the third generation's twilight hours, engineers and designers found themselves in the unenviable position of being asked to fix what ain't broke. Rather than reinvent the company's workhorse from the ground up, as we say in our first look at the CUV, Subaru honed the Forester to offer better fuel efficiency, more usable space and a more refined drive.
In doing so, the automaker hopes to toe that delicate line between luring in new devotees to the cult of Pleiades and keeping the brand's longtime fans smiling. While the fourth-generation Forester may have lost some of its trademark pluckiness in the pursuit of a more mainstream existence, there's no denying this is a more sorted vehicle than its predecessors. Make no mistake, the 2014 Forester is keen to carve out a larger chunk of the ever-plumping CUV market for itself, and for the first time in its history, it has the muscle to do so.