I’m surprised it’s taken this long for Subaru to see a sales dip honestly. Here in Oregon, just about everyone has a Subaru, and they tend to keep them until the wheels fall off.

It’s weird, I’ve had a WRX and now have an Outback and neither one has had any real reliability issues. I guess I did have to replace a power steering pump in the Outback at 110k miles, but that’s it. No drivetrain or suspension issues at all.

I wondered if anyone would mention this, haha.

The electric Smart car is technically a convertible since it has a power-retractable soft top. I can’t imagine anyone actually buying one though, due to the abysmal 57 miles of range and high price (high $20K range).

I knew some heckler in the peanut gallery would mention that.

When I was around 11 years old, I drove a combine harvester and harvested a field.

You didn’t read the article:

Actually, it physically has a 2.4gal tank, but is electronically limited to shut off the fuel pump at 1.7gal in order to qualify for the California incentives as an electric vehicle, which have a formula for determining how much of a vehicles range comes from electric alone. It’s a weird limiter, but thankfully it can…

I love desert tan just because it doesn’t show dust.

Maybe, but my CVs have only failed at the outboard joint (in the wheel hub), so in case a lift would make that worse. We’ll see how long they hold out. I got new CVs a few months before the lift, and the first set lasted 60k miles, so we’ll see if the lift shortens that. 

No, Primitive Racing and Rallitek. 

Yep. Subaru sent their engineers to my local dealer installing 2" Primitive Racing lift kits, and didn’t see any issues maintaining the full suspension warranty. YMMV though.

Great question.

That’s great if you have a large pool of vehicles to choose from. If not, a PPI is a great tool for gauging cost. 

Not really, nearly every new Subaru in my area is lifted. I lifted my Outback so I could fit AT tires and take it deeper into off-road trails than I could with stock tires. 

Who adds a lift kit to a friggin Outback,

What a time to be alive when we can sit around complaining that inline four cylinder engines are ONLY making 325hp...

The FCA “E-torque” system available on the Wrangler and Ram trucks is exactly this. They delete the standard 12V starter motor coupled to the flywheel and the alternator, and instead use a 48V motor/generator on accessory belt that handles both starting the car and charging the battery. There’s a VERY small lithium…

Challenge accepted. 

They’re actually really easy to drive. You don’t need the top-end turbo models to hit 40mph on the trails (which feels like Mach 4). On most trails, you’ll be doing about 20mph, and it’s just like driving a car, except you’re soaking up terrain that you wouldn’t believe any car can handle.