Dear J-
We passed a new Subaru Outback the other day; as a current Subaru owner I have a bit of a vested interest in seeing what the mothership comes up with, but it’s been nothing but disappointment lately, and doubly so with this latest iteration in the Legacy/Outback (Lancaster) line, now Subaru’s oldest nameplate. If you remember the Legacy rolled out twenty years ago with a mission: change the perception of Subaru worldwide from an unsophisticated farmer’s utility car to a marque that could compete with Toyota, Nissan, and Honda. The engineers at Fuji Heavy Industries sweated the details that counted — noise/vibration/harshness were cut down, power was way up with the modern DOHC EJ22 design, and styling was no longer polarizing.
For some, that may have been the most important step: Subies were no longer cars to avoid being seen in; succeeding generations continued to refine the shape, but in this latest iteration, they’ve broken with past trends, and not for the better. Subaru’s unique flat-4 engine allows for a low cowl (once they figured out a better place to put the spare tire — though it’s a charming quirk of those lo-these-many-years-ago Leones), but the new Legacy has needlessly puffed up the cowl in an attempt to capture the so-called crossover market. The whole car reeks of pneumatics and silicone injected strategically strictly for size’s sake; the greenhouse has shrunk, the beltline is needlessly tall.
Let’s take a moment to consider what we’ve done to ourselves in the name of Baby Boomers’ anathema to the term “station wagon” which no doubt conjured up memories of interminable road trips through dusty roads and dreary scenery: instead we’ve been forced into SUVs (Thursday night, I’m picking up figgy from day care and there’s a neighbor having a birthday party; the lot was filled with Expeditions and Suburbans, with the odd spicy Lexus thrown in for good conspicuous measure), which are wagons on stilts and the trendy term of the moment, crossovers. Crossovers are SUVs based on car platforms instead of on a truck frame, so they’re … wagons based on cars, and therefore they’re station wagons. Oh, but for the sake of vanity, give them capabilities no one asked for so that we can support the Children’s Stuff Manufacturing Organization (a division of Big Plastic) and haul around child-care devices your parents never needed. I swear that when the Outback rolled by I was ready to ridicule it as a ridiculous Venza, son of Aztek, but then I saw the Pleaides sign and grew very sad that I’d have to scratch Subaru off the list of cars that got it.
Mike
Tags: styling, station wagon, subaru outback, puffery
9 November 2009 at 10:34 pm
It sounds like you are doing a lot of car research these days. The way Ben and I buy cars is much easier. We go on craiglist and we buy whatever is under $1000. Did you know Ben’s Jeep also doubles as his personal storage unit? I just figured this out when I looked in the other day.
10 November 2009 at 6:02 am
The SUV/crossover that bothers me the most is the Porsche Cayenne; especially the early models. They not only offend me but I am sure that they MUST offend current owners of Porsche’s. Strangely enough though I do find that now, as I get older and less teenage-minded, I am more and more offended by Porsches of any kind!
12 November 2009 at 9:53 pm
@sarah
I’ve seen the inside of the Rebel Jeep (I call it that because of the license plate) and I understand — I’m thinking my next car will not be so commodious inside just so I avoid filling it up with random stuff just-because. On the other hand, I’d be a lot better off if I just fixed the clutch in the car (for less than $1K), as the Scooby is one of those cars I suspect will never die.
@Doug
I never understood the Cayenne (let’s make a SUV … that looks like a Porsche) or the Panamera for that matter; a Porsche is a car for people who never need to drive more than one passenger. There’s an arrogance inherent in a car (like the Cayman or Boxster) where the engine bay is sealed to the point where it will cost $400 to change the oil — I suppose that if you can afford one, you’re not worried about those maintenance costs, but it makes the car into a ridiculous toy.