When last we visited one of the products turned out by Japan's Fuji Heavy Industries under the name Subaru, I groused that the vehicle in question, the Outback Limited sedan, was awfully pricey ($26,490) for a car powered by a four-cylinder engine and noted that I was looking forward to testing one of the new six-cylinder Subarus freshly minted for the 2001 model year.
Well, the new Subaru Legacy Outback H6-3.0 came my way this week, bearing a $30,000 price tag, and while I'm not exactly disappointed, neither am I blown away with the hot-rod capabilities of the new six-pack engine — the first since Subaru dropped its line of slow-selling sports cars in favor of no-nonsense, all-wheel-drive vehicles, most of which carry the "Outback" designation.
Outback, you will recall, morphed Subaru's Legacy and Impreza sedans and wagons into "The world's first sport-utility" sedans and wagons. Paul "Crocodile Dundee" Hogan sealed the deal with a brilliant advertising campaign, and Subaru then sweetened the pot with its Forester model, which looks more like what people think of when they think SUV — a taller, boxier vehicle in the tradition of the Jeep Cherokee and Ford Explorer.
The result of all this action? No one talks about Subaru going down the tubes anymore. The company has found a solid niche in the overcrowded U.S. market with its all-wheel-drive vehicles, and it's selling them for prices once reserved for cars with lengthy pedigrees.
Good for them, I say, although I can't help thinking that the "new" Outback wagons aren't terribly different from the Subaru Legacy my wife and I bought in 1990 for around $16,000.
As with Volkswagens, I have a hard time thinking of Subarus as luxury or "near-luxury" automobiles. Both brands made their bones as econocars, and I'm having problems with their upscaling. Honda to Acura? Fine. Toyota to Lexus? No problem. $16K Subarus to $30K Subarus? It doesn't compute.
About the new six-cylinder engine. Like Subaru's trusty four-banger, the 3.0 is a horizontally opposed design in which the two banks of three cylinders are laid out flat opposite each other, as opposed to the more common in-line or V-6 configurations. The Subaru design is commonly called a "boxer" engine (because its piston movement resembles a boxer throwing punches) or "pancake" layout.
Subaru says the flat configuration gives the engine "inherent smoothness without the need for power-robbing balance shafts" used in some V-6 motors. The design also gives the car a lower center of gravity, which should translate into better handling. And it apparently makes for high durability. Consumer Reports ranks all Subarus better than average for reliability and awards them its coveted "Recommended" imprimatur.
The new engine produces 212 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 210 foot-pounds of torque at 4,400 rpm, about 30 percent more in both categories than the 2.5-liter, 165-horsepower 4-cylinder Subaru motor, and a bit better than the V-6 motors available in Honda Accords and Toyota Camrys, the 900-pound gorillas in this market segment.
What do the numbers mean in real-world driving? Well, they don't turn the Suby into a dragster. I'm sure that the sixer's 0-60 mph times are a tad quicker than the four-cylinder, but not dramatically so. Still, it is definitely a better freeway cruiser, making shorter work of zipping up on-ramps and passing semi-trucks.
It's also a smoother, quieter motor, a must for buyers at this price-point.
Unlike our '90 Legacy wagon, which had a 5-speed manual transmission (which made better use of the engine's limited power), a 4-speed automatic is now the tranny of choice, and Subaru has made it seem more high-tech by employing a gated shifter ala Mercedes-Benz.
Fact is, it's a bit fussy to operate, requiring the driver to look down at it to figure out which gear is where, although this no doubt becomes easier with experience. Still, why not just stick with the tried-and-true method of pushing a button and pulling the shifter straight down? Form follows function, or it should.
My Outback wagon tester this week was the L.L. Bean edition, taking a page from Ford's Eddie Bauer edition Explorer (and a slew of other designer names Ford has stuck onto various vehicles over the years). L.L. Bean, in case you don't get its catalog, is the Maine-based retailer of "active lifestyle clothing and equipment."
The Bean package adds a variety of luxo goodies as standard equipment, including leather seats, not one but two sunroofs, an upscale McIntosh sound system, heated front seats, an automatic climate control system that is easier than most to operate manually, which I prefer, and all the usual power and convenience items.
There is also a very nice leather/wood Momo steering wheel and of course lots of L.L. Bean logos inside and out.
With destination charges, the bottom line of my tester came to $29,990, squeaking under the $30K psychological barrier by 10 bucks — not an accident, I'm sure.
Minor annoyance: The horn honks loudly when you lock or unlock the doors with the keychain remote.
Major annoyance: If, for some reason, you unlock the driver's door with the key instead of the remote, it sets the horn honking (theft alarm) like a deranged goose.
Fuel mileage is rated at 20 mpg in city driving and 27 on the highway.
E-mail: max@desnews.com