Well, maybe that shoud read ‘Subaru to give Impreza a boot’. Or so the lads at CarAdvice reckon, and they have the pics to prove it as well. They say the entry level pricing will come in under $25K and by the sounds of it we could see booted Imprezas on the road before Christmas now, apparently (thanks Revhed!).
As noted in Revhed’s comment below, check out the Subaru website for more details.
Source: CarAdvice.com.au
Fifth Gear is back on UK screens and Episode 1 of Series 14 saw the debut of a new presenter, Tim Shaw. No, not the Demtel man, but someone possibly as, erm, loveable. We also saw Snooker legend and resident bad boy Ronnie O’Sullivan get some advice on how to blow his Crucible winnings. He took his pick from a Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG, a BMW M3 Convertible and a Mitsubishi Evo X. Speaking of the Evo, Jason and Tiff put the Mitsubishi Evo X and the new-ish Subaru Impreza WRX STi to the test to determine which was the best track day weapon. Jonny showed that scrap metal is not always worth more than the sum of its parts. Tom tried to see if the Ford Kuga was a stick in the mud, and, well, it was, even if he reckons it’s otherwise okay. Cast your mind back the the slick Roger Moore James Bond era and you’ll see exactly where Rinspeed’s inspiration for the sQuba came from (pictured above).
See you next week.
In a bid to reduce the chances of vehicle re-birthing Hyundai has joined Audi, Nissan and Renault by introducing self-voiding vehicle identification labels. The labels are cheap to produce and will be rendered useless if removed from the car. The new labelling will replace the familiar aluminium compliance plates found on most other cars sold in Australia. The older style compliance plates are easily reused in a re-birthing industry that costs Australians around $250 million every year.
“Improved vehicle identification is a major focus of the National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council” said NRMA Insurance Head of Research Robert McDonald, “vehicle identification technology such as self-voiding labels, cost less than $2 and are one of the best defences against professional car theft.”
Hyundai’s announcement follows the release yesterday of NRMA Insurance’s annual Vehicle Theft Ratings, which measure the ability of a car to resist being broken into, stolen and re-birthed. Hyundai’s Sonata was one of the top three performers in the medium car category, whilst the Grandeur scored the highest security rating in the large car category. Although the Vehicle Theft Ratings revealed that Subaru, BMW, Audi and Porsche were the standout manufacturers in 2008, with all of their vehicles performing well.
Subaru has unveiled its new generation All-Wheel Drive Impreza World Rally Car 2008, in time for its competitive debut at this month’s Acropolis Rally in Greece.
For the first time, Subaru World Rally Team will use a hatchback design. Following a successful research, development and testing phase, the Impreza WRC 2008 will be driven by Australia’s Chris Atkinson and Norwegian Petter Solberg in the Acropolis Rally starting 29 May.
Subaru Australia has released a statement announcing that abnormal wear on conrod big end bearings and could affect over 1200 Australian delivered vehicles, of which 171 have already been sold to local customers. The cars affected are all fitted with the 2.5 litre turbo engine. Further, production and sale of all vehicles with this engine has been suspended by the Japanese manufacturer. This comes as a bitter blow to Subaru, just weeks after their new Forester range and WRX STi have gone on sale.
Australian delivered cars affected are as follows:
Source: GoAuto