Test Drive: 2010 Subaru Outback

By Kevin Harrison

People love to throw words around all the time when they don’t really make much sense. For instance, the word ‘epic’ is grossly overused. Have you noticed that? Somehow everything is ‘epic’ these days.

“What an epic goal!”

“Epic fail!”

“That pizza I just ate was epic”

And so fourth. But really, the only thing that’s “epic” these days is the tolerance I have for people who overuse the word.

Likewise, people (car manufacturers specifically) are all about the word ‘crossover’. But what exactly is a crossover? Some people say it’s a vehicle that looks like an SUV, but has a car-like ride. Oh really? Then why not just buy a car? Why do you need to ‘crossover’ into another vehicle segment?

In my mind, a true crossover is a vehicle that can handle all the elements. That is, it can handle all sorts of terrain, can swallow all sorts of cargo, can hold its own performance wise, is safe, looks good, is decent on gas, can hold a lot of people comfortably and won’t cost you an arm and a leg. If you’re going to ‘crossover’ different vehicle segments, might as well cross them all to be a true crossover.

A lot of people say Subaru was the first to do this with its Outback. Now completely redesigned for 2010, does the crossover that started the whole craze still have the goods?

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Mark July 9th On Your Calendars!

Mark July 9th on your calendars and buy some champagne because the very last Chrysler PT Cruiser ever is going to roll off the line that day! That’s right, the Chrysler PT Cruiser has officially been discontinued!

Possibly the worst and ugliest car ever made, the fug-mobile was first introduced in 2000 and essentially went unchanged for ten years. It was an idiotic version of the Neon, which was a horrible car itself. I hated the PT Cruiser along with anyone who owned one.

Chrysler then decided it was actually possible to make the PT Cruiser uglier by adding a convertible variant. Thankfully, it didn’t sell too well, but it’s considered bad luck whenever you see one around. Okay, I made that up, but seriously, you must’ve done something wrong if karma forces you to lay eyes on a PT Cruiser convertible.

On top of horrendous styling, the PT Cruiser was notoriously unsafe. It scored only two out of five stars for front impact ratings, which pretty much guaranteed certain death if you were ever in an accident in one. It was also very unreliable. It did badly on gas considering its size, it didn’t hold its value and was miserable for any kind of performance. This begged the question, why did it even exist? Well because there are a lot of fools out there, that’s why. Chrysler knows its customer base well.

Anyway, July 9th can’t come soon enough. I hate you PT Cruiser. With a passion. I will be celebrating your demise with a beer. Or several.

[Detroit Free Press]

Jeremy Clarkson Shows Us Why Three-Wheeled Cars Don’t Work

If you’ve ever been to Europe, you’ve likely noticed that the type of cars they drive over there are awesome. Sometimes, though, they come up with some pretty crazy ideas. Case in point, the Reliant Robin – a three wheeled car.

What is the point of a three wheeled car you might ask? Well apparently in Britain, if you purchased a three wheeled car back in the day, you got a 55 pound tax credit. Yeah, that’s pretty much it.

As you’d imagine, and as Jeremy hilariously shows us, three wheeled cars don’t exactly work. Yet shockingly, there seems to be quite  a following for them even today.

Check out Jeremy’s antics in the video above. Part two is after the jump.

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