Archive for Subaru

CARTOP Magazine carries this illustration of the upcoming 2008 Subaru Impreza STi (the top yellow car), a more powerful version of the recently announced Impreza S-GT in Japan, the equivalent of the vanilla WRX in current S204 Impreza terms.

The bumper design has it’s wide air intakes split into three instead of having one wide one in the middle, and the fog lamps have gone missing, presumably to save some weight. Fenders are wider too probably to make way for a wider track.

The 2008 Subaru Impreza STi will be revealed to the world in flesh at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show this October.

The new Subaru Impreza has been launched in Japan, and we now know that the JDM market only gets the hatchback. Apparently the sedan is exclusively for the US market only, though I am sure some units will somehow find it’s way here into Malaysia.

An all-new third generation chassis is not all that’s new with the Impreza – the WRX suffix has now been dropped from the 2.0 liter turbocharged Impreza (the US market gets a 2.5 liter turbo). Subaru has decided to keep the WRX name for STi models only.

This “warm” 250 horsepower Subaru Impreza variant will be called the Subaru Impreza S-GT instead. To get something with the WRX badge on it, you now have to go for the WRX STi, expected to come with more than 300 horses on top.

Related Posts:
More photos of the 2008 Subaru Impreza Version 10

Here is a promotional video released by Subaru for the upcoming 2008 Subaru Impreza Version 10. It’s pretty slow paced, probably their aim was letting you see how the car looks like in motion rather than showing you it’s performance. Video after jump.

Click here to read the rest of Subaru Impreza Version 10 Promo Video

This is one of the most radical facelifts I’ve seen on a car model yet, changing from something radical into something not so radical. This is the face of the facelifted Subaru B9 Tribeca, transforming it into something that looks not bad at all, a huge improvement from it’s previous fascia that looked like something out of a horror movie.

The new Subaru B9 Tribeca gets Subaru’s new nose identity, also seen on the recent new Version 10 Subaru Impreza. The new nose is executed alot better on the new Tribeca than it is on the Impreza. Even the round Porsche-like headlamps have been dropped for more conventional ones. It looks like there are no re-used body panels from the old to the new, except for perhaps the roof.

Not only has the exterior been updated, but the Subaru B9 Tribeca gets a new engine under the hood too. The new 6-cylinder normally aspirated boxer engine now has 3.6 liters of displacement, and puts out 256 horsepower, up slightly from the previous engine’s 250 horsepower. Torque is now rated at a peak of 335Nm at 4,400rpm, up from 297Nm at 4,200rpm. Why the small gain? This is because the new engine is tuned to run on regular-grade fuel, while the previous engine needed premium fuel. The gearbox remains a 5-speed unit but it’s logic has been tweaked for better shifting.

More photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of 2008 Subaru B9 Tribeca Facelift

AutoWeek and Road & Track has photos of the upcoming Version 10 Subaru Impreza, and they include shots of the sedan as well! While the previous images by Motor Trend looked pretty much like artist’s impressions and only showed the hatch, now we somewhat have confirmation that this is how the new Impreza will look like, as these are actual photos. My eyes hurt, what have they done to those tail lights on the hatchback?!

Check after the jump for more photos of both the sedan and hatch variants, including the non-performance version.

Click here to read the rest of More photos of the 2008 Subaru Impreza Version 10

As previously mentioned, the new Subaru Impreza will come in both coupe and hatchback forms, and these scans from magazine Motor Trend’s May issue has the photos shown ahead of it’s unveiling at the 2007 New York Auto Show.

As you can see, the car is now a hatch and looks something like the BMW 1-Series, though I’m not sure how Subaru’s new over-chromy corporate grille is any much better than the previous flying vagina.

So, what do you think? Do you like it? Something tells me the prices for the Version 8 and Version 9 Subaru Impreza are going to remain pretty stable even after this new hatch goes into production. More photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Subaru Impreza Version 10 Revealed

Not much details of Subaru’s new turbodiesel boxer engine were revealed at the Geneva 2007 Motor Show, causing an outcry from Subaru fans who expected to get the juicy details on the specifications, any new technologies as well as how much power the new oil burning boxer would produce. We got nothing, other than the engine itself put on display mated to an all-wheel-drive drivetrain.

Anyway, Subaru has shifted it’s international focus to the USA, putting it as it’s highest priority market. Subaru intends to add dealerships (target 625 by 2010, currently 601), increase collaboration between Subaru’s US manufacturing and sales arms as well as pay greater attention to U.S. automotive trends to ensure new models are relevant to the US market.

Subaru was previously in a fix, under the leadership of Kyoji Takenaka, it wanted to move upmarket and carry a premium tag, however premium usually means luxury, and that isn’t exactly what Subaru is, thus sales volumes dwindled. I’m not sure what Subaru had in mind then, how do you be premium without actually being premium? Under the new management of Ikuo Mori, Subaru intends to return to it’s roots.

As for new stuff, Geneva 2008 will bring us a new diesel-powered Subaru car and it will go on sale in Europe as well as the US. For the moment, we’ll just have to settle for a video of the new engine after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Subaru’s 4-year plan: turbodiesel boxers!

Subaru’s boxer turbodiesel will make it’s public debut at the 77th Geneva International Motor Show next month, and it will displayed together with a full drive train, mated to Subaru’s symmetrical all-wheel drive system.

Subaru says the turbodiesel boxer will find it’s first use in a vehicle early 2007, perhaps in one of the European spec diesel new Imprezas. No displacement or any power outputs were given in Subaru’s press release, so we will have to wait until next month to get the full details at Geneva. Click the image on the left to view a larger version with more detail.

Subaru will be unveiling it’s next generation Subaru Impreza in a few month’s time at the 2007 New York International Auto Show – 4th April 2007. what we’ll see is the conventional Impreza in 5-door hatchback form, as the mad turbocharged WRX and WRX STI variants are not expected to be ready for unveiling until 2008. The 5-door hatch design is expected to be similiar to the Subaru B5-TPH Concept shown above.

The bread and butter Subaru Impreza is rumored to be powered by normally aspirated 4-cylinder boxers in 1.5 liter and 2.0 liter displacements. The WRX will likely come with an evolution of the potent 2.5 liter turbocharged boxer engine in the current performance Imprezas.

Along with the new Impreza WRX, 2008 will also bring us turbodiesel boxer versions of the Subaru Legacy and the Subaru Outback (Legacy Stationwagon), a 4-cylinder turbodiesel boxer engine has been in development for quite some time now. Subaru announced that the diesel engine was almost complete back in October 2006. It is expected to make about 170hp and 340Nm of torque from a 2.0 liter displacement.

Related Posts:
Subaru B5-TPH Concept
Next-gen Subaru Impreza: sedan and hatch
Subaru says turbodiesel boxer nearly complete
Subaru to develop turbodiesel boxer engine

Subaru Europe President Hiroyuki Ikeda announced at the 2006 Paris Motor Show that the upcoming horizontally opposed 4-cylinder turbodiesel engine by Subaru is almost complete, with development at final stages now.

Subaru’s gasoline boxer won the top spot for the 2.5 liter category in this year’s International Engine of the Year Awards, and the new turbodiesel boxer will be the first oil burning boxer in the world.

The new turbodiesel boxer engine by Subaru is expected to be unveiled at the 2007 Geneva Motor Show.