Subaru to drop Liberty wagon

Liberty wagon and Exiga to join Tribeca among discontinued models ahead of 2015 Liberty and Outback arrivals.

Subaru is now fighting to refill the gaps left by the demise of the Tribeca, the likely end of the Exiga and the news that the 2015 Liberty range won't include a wagon.

Subaru Australia spokesman David Rowley says "there is no 2015 Liberty wagon. That will be taken up by the Outback''.
Subaru isn't alone in reducing its exposure to the wagon market. Toyota dropped the Camry wagon, there's no Nissan Altima wagon and Holden's Malibu is available only as a sedan.

These manufacturers have pushed wagon buyers onto their SUV models. For Subaru, that will mean Liberty wagon buyers will have to go to the Outback – a car that doesn't arrive in its new version until early in 2015.

Though not official, Subaru appears to be waving off the Liberty-based Exiga, the last remaining Subaru with seven seats after the demise earlier of the Tribeca. The Exiga departs because it's on the old Liberty platform.

The new Liberty is here as a sedan-only model in December. The withdrawal of three wagons from its range will impact further on dwindling Subaru sales.
Subaru Liberty sales are down 62 per cent in the year to June compared with 2013. Outback sales are 1325 in the six-month period, a slip of 35 per cent, but are still more than double those of the 593 sedans and wagons of the Liberty range.

Subaru Australia spokesman David Rowley says declining sales of Liberty are attributable to the model's run out before the new model in December.
"Stock is getting short,"he says. But while Subaru Australia has put its hand up for the Levorg wagon – an Impreza-based wagon first shown in 2013 as a concept and now on sale in Japan – it still has no positive answer from Japan.

"Nick (Senior, Subaru Australia managing director) continues talking to Japan about a business case for Levorg but there is no decision yet,"Mr Rowley says. Levorg, commonly called the "WRX wagon"and available in Japan as a turbocharged 125kW/250Nm 1.6 or 221kW/400Nm 2-litre, slots in above the XV and under the Liberty/Outback.

Mr Rowley says Levorg was always intended to be a Japan-only model but because it shares Australia's right-hand drive configuration – and because of the demise of up to three wagons on our market – it is of interest here.

However, it's unlikely to arrive in time to fill the gap left by the departing Liberty wagon and the run-out Outback. The 2015 Outback is not due until early 2015.

Subaru gave the current Outback a makeover late in 2013. It included a return to the plastic side-cladding and more rugged nose last used when the model was launched in 2009.

The 2015 Liberty and Outback models will debut a new generation of Subaru's Eyesight radar-camera collision avoidance technology.