The Subaru Mystique
Disclaimer: These views are all my own and do not represent the views of my employer. I am writing this piece purely out of my passion for automobiles. This discussion does not use or reflect any proprietary information. I have no relationship with Subaru and no financial interest in it (as if I have the power to affect a company’s stock price).
We own two Subaru cars, a fourth-generation 2017 Forester SUV and a fifth-generation 2017 Impreza hatchback. I bought them mostly because they were the safest cars I could afford. There is a rationalist case for buying the safest version of a product that is likely to kill or injure you, accidentally of course.
I chose the cars after a lot of research and, perhaps unwisely, zero cross shopping, but I do not regret the decision at all. After owning our Subarus for awhile I could not help noticing they felt weirdly special, setting aside my automotive obsession and limited exposure to other brands and models. Over time I found myself deep in thought about …
What Makes a Subaru a Subaru
The singular answer is the boxer engine, which helps Subaru differentiate its cars from every other brand in fundamental ways, adding up to a unique ownership experience that is, in marketing speak, delightful. This largely comes down to the fact that a boxer is flatter than conventional engines. Even Subaru’s rear-wheel drive sports coupe, the BRZ, has a boxer. The only other brand that uses boxers is Porsche, which is playing a different sport from Subaru and frankly every other car company.
A boxer engine has two banks of cylinders horizontally opposed from each other. Each horizontally opposed pair of cylinders moves in and out at the same time because their crankshafts are offset 180 degrees too.
The vast majority of internal combustion cars have inline four-cylinder engines, because they are economical and simple. The vast majority of other cars are V-6s or V-8s. Inline sixes are making a comeback because their design can piggyback off of a straight-four. Only exotic cars use V-12s. V-10s are found in a handful of exotics like Lamborghinis and the Audi R8. (The Porsche 919 linked above has an ultra-rare V-4.)
Boxer-fours are uncommon because of their significant disadvantages compared with inline-fours. Boxers:
- Weigh more
- Require two separate cylinder heads and sets of camshafts, so they are more complex and expensive to manufacture
- Are wider and overall larger, making them tricky to package
However, boxers have two advantages. The most obvious is reduced vibration. Because each pair of cylinders moves inward and outward simultaneously, boxers are inherently balanced, requiring fewer counterweights and mass dampers. In a boxer-four, the primary forces of the cylinders moving back and forth cancel out. Boxers sixes are even more balanced, because the secondary forces — cylinders’ varying rate of acceleration as they travel back and forth — also cancel out. (Straight sixes’ primary and secondary forces cancel out too.)
And as noted, boxers are flatter and shorter than other engines. This offers some packaging benefits and feeds into several major design decisions Subaru makes. People justifiably love their Subarus and the company’s old tagline — confidence in motion — makes all the sense in the world once you understand how it takes advantage of the boxer engine layout.
“Symmetrical” All-Wheel Drive
Most Subarus since the 1990s have been all-wheel drive. The cars are designed around it from the ground up. Their differentials and driveshafts are bigger and more robust than the tacked-on AWD systems of most cars, which are fundamentally front-wheel drive. Those cars usually disconnect the rear axle to save fuel, but an AWD Subaru is always powering all four wheels.
Subaru calls its AWD “symmetrical” mostly because the shafts running from the differentials to the wheels are all the same length. In theory this makes the drivetrain’s power delivery neutral, balanced, and predictable. Either way the design is elegant, because of the boxer engine.
A Subaru boxer is mounted longitudinally, thanks to its short length, with the crankshaft running straight back into the transmission, which runs straight back into the robust differentials and shafts that send power to the wheels. Fundamentally front-wheel drive typically have an inline-four or V-6 mounted transversely, with the crankshaft perpendicular to the car. That makes engine power’s path to the rear wheels significantly less direct.
Digression: The Snow Tire Debate
I want to address a debate among car enthusiasts about snow traction. Highbrow car nuts correctly note that all-wheel drive is less valuable in the snow than dedicated winter tires. But most cars only ever wear all-season tires designed to be passable in the snow. Given this reality, the purists undersell the benefits of a great all-wheel drive system — like Subaru’s, even compared to mediocre systems.
When traction is limited you only want to ask one thing of your tires at a time: Accelerating, turning, or braking. All-wheel drive cars obviously accelerate better in snow and ice than cars driving only two wheels. Stopping is a function of the tires themselves and weight, so no likely benefit there.
But the difference can be big in the turns, where a good all-wheel drive system will direct power away from the front tires, which are busy turning. The rear wheels can help the car rotate through the turn. Front-wheel drive obviously cannot do that. In snow our Subarus drive palpably differently than my old front-wheel drive Honda CR-V did.
Stable, Agile Handling
This is probably the most important and underrated element of the Subaru driving experience. The flat boxer engine blesses its cars with a low center of gravity that allows them to change direction more quickly and smoothly than, say, a Nissan. In emergency maneuvering the car is less likely to lose control, especially with a regular person behind the wheel.
Pretty much all Subarus are secretly fun to toss around in, ahem, spirited driving. Tail of the dragon will be fun in our Forester post-pandemic. In a Toyota RAV4, not so much. As for my Impreza, “the chassis is a gem,” in the words of TopGear.com. One of my fondest memories is tackling some amazing little backroads near Staunton River State Park in far southern Virginia during a birthday vacation. My hatchback delivered the kind of fun and pure bliss people automatically associate with a sports car.
Excellent Outward Visibility
This is a bit speculative but stay with me. Subarus as a rule have excellent outward visibility and large windows, with the prime example being the Forester, one of the original car-based crossovers. Its extra large greenhouse is almost iconic. Glass is heavy relative to metal. Logically, the boxer’s low center of gravity reduces the dynamic penalty of lots of glass up high in Subaru’s cars. Our Forester has a giant sunroof, ideal for driving into and out of a trailhead.
High Ground Clearance
I now take you into deep speculation space with a few broad assertions I cannot be bothered to look up. Subarus tend to have more ground clearance than equivalent cars. They certainly do better on gravel and, as we have discussed, in snow. Much like a twisty backroad, a dirt trail or mountain pass is a much more natural habitat for a Forester than a RAV4 or CR-V. A fun illustration is this hero who moderately modified his Subaru Legacy sedan to tackle Hell’s Revenge 4x4 Trail in Moab, Utah.
What does that have to do with the boxer? Well, a flatter engine should create space below as well as above, right? If nothing else, a lower center of mass would offset a few more inches of suspension. I could be totally off-base here!
Utilitarian Interior Space
Boxer engines and all-wheel drive do add cost and complexity, not to mention weight, which Subaru offsets ingeniously, with careful branding. Subaru interiors tend to be simple bordering on spartan, with more hard plastics than competing brands. This saves money but makes the interior less pleasant and noisier. Soft surfaces and fabric absorb sound. Subaru gets around this by pitching its vehicles, credibly, as rugged, practical, and outdoorsy. Hard plastics are also harder to scratch or dent and easier to clean.
The simplicity is elegant too. Reviewers of my Impreza said the interior was ergonomic, attractive, had all of the current features people want, but was somehow too simple. I have to ask, is that a bad thing? Should cars be a bit extra complicated visually or otherwise just because?
I like the little touches of the cars. The Eyesight adaptive cruise control system tells you when the car in front has moved ahead. The buttons on the steering wheel are illuminated in red, which is minimally stimulating and distracting at night. Subarus are utilitarian, but mostly for the better. Squeaks and rattles have more to do with fit and finish, basically how well the car is screwed together, which is tough for a small, expanding company. Subaru will probably have to grow a lot to catch up in that area.
X Factor: Excellent Passive Safety
This final differentiator of Subarus actually has little to do with the flat boxer engine, but it is not speculative. These cars are made differently from others. The suspension components are basically stamped steel like any Honda, Toyota, or Hyundai, but the structure around the passengers uses lots of high-strength steel. Subarus are built differently from most cars in the way Volvo bragged about in the 1980s.
My fifth-generation 2017 Impreza is the first model Subaru moved to its Subaru Global Architecture, designed for stiffness and a low center of gravity, and to be strong enough to meet crash test standards through 2025. Its boxer engine is designed to slide under the passenger cabin in a frontal impact.
After totaling my 2009 CR-V, I was leaning toward the Impreza and asked my insurance adjuster, who spends his days looking at crashed cars, what he thought. The adjuster said that Toyotas and Hondas deform more upon impact and that, personally, he would want his family in a Subaru.
Love & Confidence
I am not trying to sell you a Subaru. They are not for everyone. Their real-world fuel economy is pretty bad. Their interiors are noisy and could be better-assembled. Subaru is still a small company struggling to keep up with demand, so quality control is iffy. Its boxer engines are objectively less powerful, efficient, and refined than the competition — but flatter too!
Subarus have something else in common with Porsches: An unusually high number remain on the road for ten years or longer. Subarus are not exceptionally reliable cars. In fact some generations are marred by head gasket failures. But people hang onto them, for reasons they may not be able to explain. Those reasons turn out to be real and tangible. Subaru cars really are special, which is worth celebrating in a world full of un-special, mediocre, forgettable stuff. The exploding popularity of a small, opinionated car company determined to do things its own way is worth celebrating too.
