Subaru built its first car (Subaru 1500) in 1954 having spent the previous decade as the major supplier of aircraft to the Japanese airforce during World War II. Today the Japanese company is best known for its emphasis on All-Wheel-Drive technology, using that as a differentiating factor from other Japanese manufacturers. Subaru gained prominence in Australia with cars such as the Impreza WRX and Forester & the only rear-wheel-drive BRZ which have earned the company a well deserved reputation for reliability and performance. Subaru currently sells seven models in Australia including the Liberty, Outback, Impreza, XV, WRX, WRX STI and Forester. Subaru is Australia's 10th best-selling car maker.
In part one, we broke down the inception of the Subaru Liberty in our market, and covered off its rise to fame in the Australian car marketplace. For part two, we'll look at the highest point in the saga, and what happened from there. Generation four: the most successful Liberty, and arguably the best of the bunch The fourth-generation Liberty was a hit in Australia...
The Subaru Liberty is no more for the Australian car marketplace. It departs just one month shy of its 31-year anniversary in our market, having been first introduced to us Aussies in October 1989. First, a bit of trivia...
Is Subaru's ageing wagon-turned-SUV still ripe for the picking? Or is it over the hill?
The turbocharged rally rocket is set to move to an all-new platform next year, so how does the last analogue WRX STI hold up in today's digital world?
Many alternatives have gone by the by. All-wheel-drive wagons with slight bush-ability are thin on the ground these days. Aside from Skoda and Subaru, if you want four driven wheels underneath a slightly high-riding wagon (not an SUV), you're paying big bucks Yes, Subaru counts the Outback as an SUV. But, let’s call a spade a spade: the Outback is a wagon...
Subaru is now offering hybrid power in the Forester mid-sized SUV range, and the timing couldn't be better. It’s a hugely popular segment with a dizzying amount of choice, if with precisely one other conventional hybrid option in Toyota’s RAV4. Newcomer Forester Hybrid’s only direct rival has famously been thin on the ground, and it doesn’t appear to be getting thicker any time soon...
The Subaru Outback 2.5i Premium and Subaru Forester 2.5i-S are two cars with distinctly different looks and distinctly different appeals but are closer in many ways than you would imagine. So Curt Dupriez and Jez Spinks examined those similarities (and differences), to see how they stacked up against each other.
So, you bought a mid-sized SUV with all-wheel drive. Can it go off-road? We take the top 10 medium SUVs off-road through three very basic tests to see if any of them can make it through unscathed...
It’s fuel pumps at dawn as a new petrol-electric version of the Subaru Forester tries to displace the Toyota RAV4 as the world’s best – and most frugal – $40,000 hybrid SUV.
What phrase best describes a comparison of the Mitsubishi Outlander and Subaru Forester? Sortie of the sensible? Battle of the beige? Let’s not get off on the wrong foot. This pair of compact SUVs are two of the most popular in a crowded market, because they deliver reliable and practical motoring at reasonable prices...
Forester versus Outback. Subaru has two popular SUVs separated by around a grand vying for your attention. Which one should you pick?
Subaru of America has broken the record for the largest parade of Subaru vehicles. The previous world record stood at 549 vehicles, set in 2015. This recent effort saw more than three times that number – 1751 Subarus in total – form a three kilometre parade in Costa Mesa, California, to reset the world record...
UPDATE: A series of new behind-the-scenes photos, sneakily snapped at the invite-only SubieFest event for the new 2022 Subaru BRZ, offer a glimpse of the new coupe's silhouette. These images, posted to enthusiast website GR86.org, offer the best look yet at the 2022 BRZ's overall shape, along with its headlights and front outboard intakes...
Subaru's next WRX is, slowly but surely, taking shape. Due for a likely 2021 unveiling, official details are trying our patience here at CarAdvice, so we tasked auto artist Theophilus Chin to render his take on the final product. In reality, the styling of the 2021 Subaru WRX is no real mystery, with the Japanese car maker having dropped plenty of hints, starting with the Viziv Performance STI Concept in January 2018...
The much-anticipated 2021 Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86 coupes are expected to be in Australian showrooms at the end of of 2021. CarAdvice understands no firm date has yet been given to local dealerships, however there is an internal expectation that – if all goes to plan – the new models will begin arriving during the fourth quarter of 2021, some six months after the model was initially expected...
I have owned my 2001 SF dual-range for about five years. I bought it for 1000 bucks with 333000km on it, and it's now got 455500km on the clock. My Forester's colour is Deep Blue Mica and frankly, it should never have been removed from the range. During the time of ownership I have done the following: Upgraded the exhaust with extractors from the headers back (1200 bucks), which breathed new life into the EJ202...
I used this little Sooby for years. I have packed it up with work and camping gear, and towed a large quad bike in a trailer up a steep, rough, rocky track to a county property. It was towing about 650kg and I can’t imagine it would have been able to crawl up without the dual range box...
The venerable WRX; a car that has built a reputation for being affordable, fast, fun to drive and a head turner with that unique boxer thrum. When I decided to sell my highly-modified B5 Audi S4 to get something a little newer and reliable, a WRX seemed the obvious choice. I searched and found a 2014 (MY15) WRX Premium at a decent price, so I snapped it up...
It’s been a little over a month since I bought my newish car, a 2016 Subaru Outback 2.5i Premium. Over that time I have developed a detailed-enough opinion of the car, so I decided to write a review. My previous vehicle was a 2013 dual-cab Toyota HiLux diesel 4x4...
