2012 Subaru Outback 2.5 Limited on 2040-cars

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Colorado bear locks itself inside of, destroys Subaru

A Colorado woman got a rude awakening this week when she discovered a black bear locked inside her car. According to 9NEWS, on the morning of July 12, Jefferson County sheriff's deputies responded to a report of a bear trapped in a car on Cold Springs Gulch Road. When they arrived on the scene, deputies Tillman and McLaughlin discovered a medium-sized black bear locked inside a white, 2005 Subaru Outback. There was no damage apparent to the car's exterior, but the bear had absolutely destroyed the interior. "He looked like a dog inside the car just jumping back and forth from front to back," said Deputy Tillman. "He just demolished it." The car's owner, Annie Bruecker, told the deputies that she'd left the car parked in her driveway Monday night with the doors unlocked. On Tuesday morning, she woke up to her mother yelling about a bear in her car. "She screamed from downstairs," said Breucker. "She said, 'Annie, there's a bear in your car.' and I thought that she meant that it broke a window, and I was like, 'okay, that's life.' But, no, she actually meant that it was in my car." Deputies Tillman and McLaughlin deliberated for a while, trying to figure out how to extract the agitated bear from the Subaru. Eventually, they settled on manually opening the rear hatch. Deputy McLaughlin carefully opened the hatch while Deputy Tillman stood by with a shotgun ready, just in case. Thankfully, the bear had had enough of civilization and promptly bolted back into the forest. After they released the bear, the deputies warned campers at a nearby campground that the bear might be lurking about and that they should be cautious. "Bears are unpredictable," said Deputy Tillman. "And they're starting to realize how to do a lot of human activity." Recent Video: News Source: 9NEWS Humor Weird Car News Subaru colorado bear outback

Here's why the most-ticketed cars story is junk

A recent study from Insurance.com found that owners of the Subaru WRX were the most likely people in the US to be ticketed for traffic infractions, with 33.6 percent of them receiving a citation in the last three years. Coming in a close second and third were drivers of the Pontiac GTO at 32.7 percent and the Scion FR-S at 32.6 percent. At first glance, this report looks like just a mildly interesting anecdote to tell your friends during a lull in conversation, but there seems to be a serious problem with the methodology here that might be blowing these numbers way out of proportion. Insurance.com explains that it based the study on 557,238 drivers who requested online insurance quotes from its service from January 1, 2013 to July 2014. To make it onto the list, a vehicle needed over 50 quotes, and in the end that left 526 models. However, these facts are almost useless because the list isn't based on percentages from the whole pool. The study's ranking comes from owners of specific vehicles, and these numbers aren't mentioned anywhere in the company's press release. All we know about the sample size for each model is that it's higher than 50. Assuming that amount for the WRX means it would only take about 17 people with tickets using the site to put the sporty car in first place. These unknown model sample sizes might explain some of the extremely odd entries on the list. For example, the long-discontinued Mercury Topaz is in seventh place with 28.8 percent of its drivers receiving tickets. The GTO and Toyota Supra are also in the top ten and out of production. Just a few people searching for these vehicles could be the reason for these strange results. Obviously automotive studies have their place, but this one just appears to have gotten confused along the way. Scroll down to read the report to see what we mean. Ticket magnets: The cars with the most violations September 30, 2014 (Foster City, CA) – One in three drivers of the Subaru WRX has a recent traffic violation, according to a study by Insurance.com, the car insurance comparison-shopping website, putting the turbocharged, all-wheel-drive sport-compact atop its ranking of cars that get the most tickets. The most-ticketed brand overall was Scion, with 27.5 percent of all owners reporting a traffic violation. Insurance.com looked at data from 526 models and more than 557,000 recent customers.

Pontiac Aztek enjoys rebirth thanks to Millennials

Apparently, Millennials – those between 18 and 34 – aren't afraid to look different on the road, and they like performance, too. A new study by Edmunds is discovering some surprising vehicle choices by this group. Among them, the long-derided Pontiac Aztek is getting a new day in the sun with 25.5 percent its buyers coming from this generation in the first half of 2015. For comparison, Millennials represent an average of 16.8 percent of used car purchases. The Aztek is slowly shaking its reputation as a styling abomination, which seems tied to its appearance on Breaking Bad. The show premiered in 2008, and the Pontiac has been on this list for four of the past five years, according to Edmunds. It even led the pack in 2010. A recent Retro Review from MotorWeek also showed that the crossover wasn't always so hated. While it's still a shock to see the Aztek on any popularity list, the awkward-looking crossover only ranks sixth among Millennials. The vehicle with the biggest portion of buyers from the generation is the Dodge Magnum with 27.6 percent. According to Edmunds, the bluntly styled wagon is especially popular in Detroit and Chicago. The Chrysler Pacifica comes in a close second at 27.3 percent. When it comes to used cars, value and utility appear to trump just about anything else for many Millennial buyers," Edmunds analyst Jeremy Acevedo said in the report. Young buyers aren't afraid of sporty rides, either. The Subaru WRX has 26.4 percent Millennial buyers to rank third place on the list, and the Volkswagen R32 takes fifth at 25.7 percent. Just a few points lower in seventh place is the Nissan GT-R at 25.4 percent, and the final performance machine in 10th place is the Lexus IS-F with 24.7 percent. Related Video: