2019 Subaru Outback 2.5i Premium on 2040-cars

Auto blog

IIHS says these are the safest cars of 2013

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has revealed its annual list of Top Safety Picks, an award that highlights automobiles it says offer "superior crash protection." A new and still more significant award, the Top Safety Pick+ honor, is given to those vehicles that earn good ratings for occupant protection in four out of five areas of measure. And while some 117 vehicles were given the TSP seal of approval for 2013, just 13 passed muster for TSP+.
To be fair, IIHS only evaluated 29 vehicles with its new testing procedures for TSP+ (we'd expect that the number of qualified cars will rise substantially for 2014). Luxury and Near Luxury midsize cars were the first groups evaluated, followed by midsizers in the Moderately Priced Cars category - unsurprisingly, it's only midsize cars that you'll find among the class this year.
Only two luxury sedans made the list of 13 for 2013: the Acura TL and Volvo S60. The other 11 cars on the list included entries from domestic, Japanese and German car makers: Dodge Avenger, Chrysler 200, Ford Fusion, Honda Accord (sedan and coupe), Kia Optima (but not its close kin, the Hyundai Sonata, strangely), Nissan Altima, Subaru Legacy and Outback, Suzuki Kizashi and the Volkswagen Passat all made the grade.

Lexus, Mazda and Subaru top Consumer Reports Brand Report Cards

A revised methodology in devising its annual Car Brand Report Cards has seen Consumer Reports award Lexus its top overall ranking for 2013. For the first time ever, the institute broke out individual brands from their larger corporate umbrellas, meaning car makers like Lexus and Scion were judged independently from parent company Toyota. That strategy worked out well for Lexus, as the luxury brand earned a top report card score of 79 for the 2013 model year.
The institute has recommended every one of the Lexus models it has tested to date, and said that the company's products won out thanks to "a foundation of plush and very reliable vehicles."
Meanwhile, Mazda and Subaru tied for the second-highest scoring report cars, with scores of 76. Subaru earned praised for sporting models like the BRZ, which CR testers apparently had a lot of fun driving (naturally), while the Mazda products were lauded for their blend of practicality, sportiness and efficiency. Both of the Japanese brands offered good handling, fuel economy and versatility, said Consumer Reports.

Subaru weighing Outback vs Forester approach for seven-seater

Subaru is gearing up for a return to the seven-seat crossover segment, and it's focusing the new model on the US market, but just which approach it will take has yet to be decided. One possibility, according to Automotive News, would be to position it as a larger counterpart to the Outback wagon, with rugged off-road styling. The other would be to sell it as a big brother to the Forester, with cleaner styling. One thing Subaru most definitely does not want to repeat is the Tribeca fiasco, so we wouldn't expect the new model to carry that same nameplate. Introduced in 2006, the Tribeca's divisive front-end styling kept it from being a serious player, and it underwent a facelift only two years later. It was withdrawn from the market altogether after 2014. The company had targeted moving 36,000 units of the Tribeca each year, but sold fewer than 2,800 in America in 2011, barely over 2,000 in 2012, less than 1,600 in 2013 and just a few hundred in 2014. The new seven-seat crossover will go after the likes of the Toyota Highlander, Nissan Pathfinder and new Honda Pilot among three-row Japanese crossovers. Like those rivals, it will be built in the US for the US market – namely at Subaru's assembly plant in Indiana, the same state where the Highlander is produced. The new crossover's arrival will, according to reports, mean that the Levorg wagon offered in Japan and Europe won't be offered Stateside. Related Video: