2001 Subaru Legacy L on 2040-cars

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2015 Subaru Legacy is fresh-faced and more frugal

While Subaru posted its best sales year ever in the United States in 2013, over half of its sales came from the success of the new Forester and popularity of the Outback. Its midsize Legacy sedan, on the other hand, saw sales tumble 10.3 percent. The company known for its all-wheel drive models hopes to right that trajectory with the 2015 Legacy. The all-new sedan sees a slight bump in fuel economy and a commitment to giving buyers a better product to compete against segment stalwarts like the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry.
The refreshed sedan wears Subaru's new design language, which was teased by the Legacy Concept at the 2013 Los Angeles Auto Show. However, the production version takes the hard, crisp lines down several notches, and it is bordering on boring at first glance. The best detail of the new design is the new hexagonal shield grille at the front that lends a little upscale panache over the current car's simple, rectangular front end. The coupe-like roofline has also been toned down from the concept, but it does smooth out the rear better than the current gen.
The Legacy's engines are carried over almost identically from last year's car. However both flavors of manual transmission are finally bowing out; all models now come with Subaru's Lineartronic CVT. Output from the 2.5-liter boxer four-cylinder sees a slight bump to 175 horsepower (2 hp more than last year's model) and 174 pound-feet of torque. The 3.6-liter boxer six-cylinder is unchanged at 256 hp and 247 lb-ft. Fuel economy benefits from the new platform with the 2.5-liter model rated at an estimated 26/36/30 miles per gallon city/highway/combined, a boost of 2/4/3 mpg, respectively, over the previous generation. The 3.6-liter also sees a modest rise to 20/28/23 mpg, 2/3/3 mpg better respectively. Fairly impressive figures for an all-wheel-drive, midsize sedan.

Subaru axes WRX and STI in UK

Auto Express reports Subaru will stop selling the Impreza, WRX and WRX STI in the UK starting next year. A spokesperson with the company said Subaru has been evaluating the Impreza and its performance in the UK for the past year and has finally decided to pull the plug. That means all of the model's performance iterations will also drop off of dealer lots, including the WRX and the STI. The unnamed spokesperson said Subaru UK currently has no plans to to bring more stock of either model once the current supply sells out. That means buyers in the UK have until around early summer 2013 to get their hands on an STI.
The move comes in response to slow demand, which has trickled off in the face of competition that best the machine in terms of refinement, performance and emissions. Moving forward, the automaker says it will focus its sales efforts on models like the XV Crosstrek, Forester and Outback, as well as the company's new BRZ sports coupe.

Subaru might build WRX hatchback after all

The 2015 Subaru WRX is awesome. Really awesome. We told you as much in our first drive of the new sedan back in December. Honestly, our only complaint about Fuji Heavy's new performance machine is that it's no longer offered as a hatchback - the new WRX is a sedan-only affair, despite the more functional five-door variant accounting for some 50 percent of sales in the car's last generation.
But there's hope on the horizon, if a report from Australia's Motoring.com is to be believed. Speaking with Masuo Takatsu, Subaru's general manager for the WRX, the company is now re-considering putting the "hatch" back in its hot hatch.
"We have received strong interest from the US, where the hatchback was 50 percent (of previous-generation WRX sales), so we're now considering," Takatsu told Motoring, noting that the United States is Subaru's main target for this car. Additionally, Takatsu said the company's decision to only offer the sedan was the result of limited engineering resources, echoing statements we've previously heard from Subaru's US arm.