2000 Subaru Impreza Rs Coupe 2-door 2.5l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Subarus, straits, a shipwreck, and the end of the world

We've got one more short video glimpse at our Patagonia adventure before the big, final feature video goes live early next month. This time, it's a view of the end of our journey – and the end of the world. Crossing the Straits of Magellan took about two hours on our car ferry, and we saw penguins, orcas, and dolphins, which made the journey way more interesting. From there, we drove through Chile and crossed back into Argentina, stopped by the Desdemona – a 30-year-old shipwreck – and finally spent the night in Ushuaia, the southernmost city in the world (Antarctica only has bases, not cities). The next morning, our caravan ventured to Tierra del Fuego National Park, and we stood, as a group, at the end of the world – the farthest south any of us will probably venture for the rest of our lives. Have a look at our final, short video above. And again, stay tuned for the full experience film, which we'll bring you (along with hundreds of epic photos) early next month. Auto News Subaru Videos Original Video chile autoblog in patagonia

Toyota tops Consumer Reports best, worst used car values

We often mock Toyota for building boring, soulless cars, but a new study by Consumer Reports suggests that regardless of whether that's true, the company has some of the best used cars on the market. In its report on used cars from 2004-2013, the Japanese automaker had 11 vehicles among its brands on the list - more than any other automaker.
CR breaks the list down by cost and vehicle size, and Toyota has at least one entry at every price point and in nearly every segment. To score a recommendation, a vehicle had to perform well in the magazine's initial tests and score above-average reliability results. It also tried to only suggest cars with electronic stability control. Of the 28 recommended vehicles, Honda/Acura had the second most mentions at six, and Ford, Hyundai and Subaru managed two each.
The Detroit brands also made it to the list, but not in a positive way. Consumer Reports compiled a list of 22 vehicles it wouldn't recommend because "they have multiple years of much-worse-than-average overall reliability." General Motors had the most unrecommended models on the list at six, but Chrysler and Ford weren't far behind, with five cars each from their brands not making the grade. The full list of recommendations is available on CR's website.

Subaru uses a mime and a toy car to explain why it loves the boxer engine

I will freely admit to struggling with why Subaru continues to stubbornly employ a boxer engine design while so few other automakers do the same. After all, with twice the number of cylinder heads and cams as a traditional inline four-cylinder engine, a boxer four is more complex, more expensive to manufacture and more cumbersome to service with few tangible benefits. Until recently, the company's engines struggled to meet the fuel economy numbers of its competitors while offering no real boon in horsepower or torque. Subaru seems to recognize I'm not the only one scratching my head.
In order to help us non-believers understand what's what, the company has employed a pair of mimes, a toy car and a few clay engines to demonstrate the folly of every other automaker on the planet. Subaru says the boxer offers up a lower center of gravity than either an inline four-cylinder engine or a V6, which I will gladly concede. The company also says the design offers up smoother operation.
I'll offer just two counterpoints here. First, an engine with a low center of gravity is excellent, but when vehicles like the Forester, XV Crosstrek and Outback boast more ground clearance than most mainstream SUVs, that argument flies out the window. Second, anyone who's spent any amount of time behind the wheel of a vehicle equipped with an inline four and then proceeded to move into one propelled by a boxer can tell you the latter has all of the idling manners of a small tractor. Check out the video below to see for yourself.