Subaru Legacy Boxer Diesel - Coming to America. Eventually

摘要

Now that the air-cooled Volkswagen Beetle and its siblings rest in peace, only Porsche and Subaru stand by the boxer-iengine principle.. In a worldwide first, the Japanese have now taught the horizontally opposed piston engine to feed on diesel fuel. The layout? A 2.0-liter, aluminum-block, four-cam four-cylinder. We tried the promising fuel miser in the Legacy sedan and the Outback wagon, and we came away impressed. Like all horizontally opposed engines, Subaru's new diesel eliminates second-order shaking forces. The end result is a smoothness-and a lack of noise-not usually associated with an oil burner. The 148-hp four-cylinder revs to a 4400-rpm redline, and although it's not ridiculously quick (60 mph arrives in 8.5 seconds, according to Subaru), prompt accelerator-pedal response and a wide, middle-of-the-tach sweet spot go a long way. Fuel economy is expected to average about 40 mpg in Legacy-based applications, and top speed will likely approach 130 mph.