Subaru Liberty vs Audi E-Tron Gt

What's the difference?

Subaru's Liberty is probably one of the most recognised badges in the country. Talk to anyone outside of Australia, though, and unless they know their cars, they haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about. It's a mark of Subaru's respect of the Australian market - the company renamed it from Legacy for local consumption - and the power of a brand that's approaching 30 years old.

Just about every Australian reading these words has been in a Liberty of one age or another. Some even remember it for Colin McRae's heroics at the wheel of the blue-and-yellow machine in the early '90s before the switch to another famous Subaru, the Impreza.

The Liberty is now well into its sixth iteration which means time for a mid-life nip and tuck. Subaru has worked above and below the skin to breathe a bit of life into its mainstay sedan.

It can be easy to dismiss electric cars as an imperfect solution to the world’s problems. But that would be missing one big point - they’re really, really fast.

Carmakers twigged that not everyone was enamoured with the environmental credentials of electric vehicles (EVs), especially luxury brands, and thus pivoted to the new sales tacit of performance and prestige.

Which is why Audi’s current performance flagship vehicle is not a mid-engined V10-powered replacement for the R8, but rather the all-electric RS e-tron GT. And for the new model year they have not only updated the range, bringing (you guessed it) more power, but also added a new hero model - the RS e-tron GT Performance.

It leads a new three-pronged line-up for the four rings brand, with the RS e-tron GT Performance sitting above the RS e-tron GT and the new S e-tron GT; the latter effectively replacing the previous ‘entry-grade’ model known only as the e-tron GT.

These arrive as part of a mid-life update for the model, with some minor styling tweaks (inside and out) along with enhancements to the battery and changes to the specifications.

The new range has just arrived in Australia and Audi will be hoping it can turn around the sales performance, which saw the outgoing e-tron GT and RS e-tron GT find just 84 customers in 2024. That was a decline of 75 per cent on 2023 sales, and nearly 200 less than the closely related Porsche Taycan.