Friday, May 1, 1992 - North Shore News a a een SUBARU’S NEW Legacy Touring Wagon features full-time four-wheel-drive, a 160-horsepower turbocharged four-cylinder engine, four-speed automatic transmission, power windows and door locks and an 80-watt, four-speaker stereo system. Subaru Legacy Touring Wagon Smooth powertrain enhances well-equipped all-weather sedan WHEN SUBARU introduced the Legacy sedan in 1989, I was particularly impressed with its unique, smooth-running horizontally-opposed four-cylinder engine. With cylinders located opposite each other rather than in a line, Subaru’s 2.2-litre ‘boxer’? engine has inherently fewer engine vibrations at speed. I was also impressed that the Legacy was available with full-time four-wheel drive for about the same price as many compact cars with front-wheel drive. A year later, when the tur- bocharged Legacy was introduced, I commented that there was more technology packed into this com- pact sedan than any other car in its class. I wasn’t alone in my praise. The Legacy has twice been voted ‘‘Best New Sedan of the Year’’ by the Automobile Journalists Associa- tion of Canada, a group of about 60 Canadian automotive writers. Subaru has a long history of building four-wheel-drive cars. All their models, the SVX, Legacy, Loyale, and even the tiny Justy, are available with four- wheel drive as well as front-wheel drive (except the SVX). The supe- rior traction of 4WD on snow, ice and gravel makes Subarus very popular with skiers, doctors, trav- elling salespeople and those who drive in the colder, more rugged regions of our province. The newest Subaru is the Legacy Touring Wagon, basically a station wagon model of the Legacy Turbo sedan. Priced close to $28,000, the Legacy Touring Wagon is not cheap, but it is very well equipped. A full-time four-wheel-drive system with a variable computer- controlled torque split between the front and rear axles is standard Greg Wilson TEST DRIVE equipment. So are 2 turbocharged 160-horsepower 2.2-litre four- cylinder engine, four-wheel vented disc brakes with an anti-lock braking system, alloy wheels, a four-speed automatic transmis- sion, fully independent sport suspension, and power-assisted, engine-speed-sensing rack-and- pinion steering. On the inside, standard features include air conditioning, driver's side airbag, power windows, power door locks with central locking, cruise control, power sunroof, tilt steering wheel, front sport seats with height adjust- ment, fold-down rear seats, and an 80-watt AM/FM _ stereo cassette with graphic equalizer. As you can see, this is a very sophisticated and luxuriously equipped compact station wagon. The only other vehicle in this class that offers this combination of features is the supercharged VW Passat G60 station wagon with all-wheel drive. During my test-drive of the Legacy Touring Wagon, I was once again impressed at how easi- ly and quietly it will cruise at over 100 kph. The engine is almost silent, turning over 2,400 rpm in top gear at 100 kph. Why other car companies (aside from Porsche and Fervari) have not caught on to the advantages of the boxer engine, I don’t know. The engine just never seems to tire. The turbocharger on this engine is designed to produce maximum boost at very low engine revolu- tions (1,750 rpm). Translation: there is no lag in power when you “Technical data Price as tested: $27,499 Type: Five-passenger, door station wagon Layout: Transverse engine/alf-wheel drive Engine: 2.2-litre four-cylinder (horizontally opposed) tur- bocharged. SOHC, 16 valves, four- front need it. Depress the gas pedal, and you will hear a slight turbo whine and feel the power come on quickly. This is in contrast to other turbocharged and _ super- charged engines that experience “turbo-lag"' at low engine speeds. The electronically-controlled four-speed automatic transmission works well with this engine, almost sliding from gear to gear. It has both Normal and Power modes, which are selected automatically depending on how hard the accelerator is depressed. The driver can also select a man- ual mode for shifting. The operation of the full-time four-wheel drive system is virtual- ly undetectable from the cockpit. On dry surfaces, most of the power goes to the front wheels, but if the vehicle loses traction, power is automatically allocated to the wheels with the most trac- tion. One of the penalties of 4WD is the added weight of the extra hardware. The Touring Wagon is about 133 kilograms heavier than the front-wheel-drive Legacy sequential multi-port fuel in- jection Horsepower: 160 @ 5,600 rpm Torque: 181 Ibs-ft @ 2,800 rpm Transmission: Four-speed automatic, electronically con- trolled Tires: Bridgestone 195/601IR15 curb weight: 1,430 kg/3,153 bs Wheeibase: 2,580 mm/1!01.6 in. wagon, and gas mileage is about 15% worse. The Touring Wagon averages 11.2 litres per 100 kilometres (25 mpg) in combined city/highway driving, and uses premium unleaded fuel. The Touring Wagon’s interior is both attractive and functional, finished in a sturdy cloth and vinyl combination. Front head- room is surprisingly generous, considering the car has a standard sunroof (sunroofs often decrease headroom because of their depth). The front reclining sport seats of- fer a handy height adjustment and are very comfortable. The rear bench seat, however, felt rather stiff. Both rear seats can be folded forward to create an almost-flat surface. The Legacy Touring Wagon is a unique vehicle, offering a com- bination of safety (anti-lock brakes, four-wheel drive and driver’s airbag), performance (turbocharged engine, sport suspension), and practicality (five-passenger seating and lots of cargo space) that few other wagons can match. Length: 4,620 mm/181.9 in. Width: 1,690 mm/66.5 in. Height: 1,390 mm/54.7 in. Cargo volume: 1,019 litres/36 cubic feet (seat up); 2,010 litres/71 cu. ft. (seat down) Fuel economy: City 12.9 L/100 km, 22 mpg; Hwy 9.4 L/100 km, 30 mpg. Warranty: Basic 3 yrs/60,000 km, Major Comp 5 yrs/ 100,000 km