Subaru Liberty 2003 review

Subaru Australia general manager Nick Senior is confident the Liberty will lift the stakes in the battle for a greater share of a market segment stuffed full of European-manufactured competition.

"With the advances in interior and exterior design, the Liberty will appeal to a much wider audience . . . with even more appeal to traditional buyers of European prestige vehicles," Senior says.

"The core Subaru strengths of innovative engineering, NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) levels, build quality and overall quality of materials have been addressed to achieve a result we are confident takes Liberty and Outback to a whole new level."

Senior concedes the improvements to Liberty and Outback the jacked-up soft-roader version of the model which will be launched at about the same time will mean a price rise but he has declined to say how much.

"(This week) we will sit down and sort it all out," Senior says. "The improvements in the car over the outgoing model are substantial across the range and it will be competing directly against European competition.

"Of course, we are getting some help from the strength of the dollar and, while we don't have a figure, it is pretty obvious that domestically (in Japan) the increases are in the order of 5 per cent."

The entry model for the new range will be a SOHC 2-litre wagon and sedan with either a four-speed automatic or five-speed manual.

In the middle of the range, in place of the RX and Heritage models, will be the 2.5-litre naturally aspirated wagon and sedan with manual and automatic gearboxes, while the range-topper will be an automatic-only 2-litre turbocharged sedan or wagon badged as a GT to replace the B4.

The current model range extends from the GX manual at $29,990 to the B4 at $55,130.

Badged as a Legacy in all markets except Australia, the fourth generation of the car, which settled Subaru as an all-wheel-drive manufacturer when it first was launched in 1989, will reach Australian showrooms in September.

The fresh-faced Liberty shows the strong influences of Greek-born designer Andreas Zapatinas, who joined Subaru from Alfa Romeo early last year fresh from his success with the Alfa 147.

Zapatinas has an impeccable heritage in Euro design, having worked with Chris Bangle at Fiat and then at BMW for a short stint before moving back to Alfa as head of design at the Italian manufacturer's Centro Stile studio.

Both the sedan and the wagon have finer, more flowing lines than the outgoing model, giving the cars a compact stance despite their marginally larger dimensions.

The rear of the sedan is reminiscent of an Alfa 156 but it is the wagon which is destined to be the star of the range, with a sweeping roofline and sloping rear side glass giving it such an instant attraction that hiding it in a garage would be selfish.

In engineering the new Liberty, the development team was set the goal of retaining traditional family design elements in a more rigid, lighter and performance-orientated package, senior general manager for product and portfolio planning Hideki Ishido explains.

"The traditional key Subaru elements of maximum driving pleasure, symmetrical all-wheel-drive and driver-in-control are retained in the new Liberty," Hideki says.

"The three elements of sport, speed and safety are present in the reassuring performance of active driving and active safety."

Re-engineering of the safety cell and the use of lighter materials throughout the chassis and body shell including extensive use of aluminium in the redesigned suspension resulted in a 230kg weight loss over the previous model.

With 130kg of that given back in structural strength to ensure a stiffer chassis and improved sound-proofing for NVH, there still is a 100kg net benefit.

Coupled with engines which have had about 80 per cent of components re-engineered, the benefits in power and emission outputs have breathed new life into the horizontally opposed boxer engines.

Precise specifications for the Australian cars have not been finalised but they will run fairly close to the Japanese domestic models, with front and side airbags, the superb Macintosh 13-speaker sound system in the GT, a new range of 16-inch and 17-inch alloy wheels, sports shift on all automatic models and a full-sized steel spare in place of the space-saver in the Japanese market.

DID YOU KNOW?

Subaru's new Liberty was developed with a close eye on the car's environmental performance, mindful of previous criticism of fuel economy and emission performance levels of previous horizontally opposed (boxer)engines.

The 2-litre SOHC engine in the Australian entry-level model is the first Subaru engine to comply with Japan's Ultra Low Emission Vehicle standards set by the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. The 2.5-litre and 2-litre turbo engines meet Good Low Emission Vehicle standards. To qualify for U-LEV recognition, emission levels must be 75percent below those of 2000, while G-LEV requires a 25percent reduction.

The engines, with the exception of the 2-litre turbo, meet Japan's 2010 fuel economy standards.

Exterior plastic components in the Liberty are increasingly recyclable through the use of polypropylene similar to that used for interior plastics. Recycled plastic materials have been utilised in its manufacture.

The use of lead in the manufacturing process has been greatly reduced. The level of lead used in the new Liberty has reached the 2005 target of the Voluntary Action Plan of the Japanese Automobile Manufacturers Association to cut levels to one third of those in 1996.