2010 Motor Trend Sport/Utility Of The Year: Subaru Outback
By Arthur St. Antoine
It's right there in the photo: a spacious, tough, thoroughly modern, exceedingly capable sport/utility vehicle. You're forgiven if all you can see is a svelte station wagon. There's magic at work here.
For the first time since any of us can recall, an automaker has claimed the Motor Trend Sport/Utility of the Year title two years in a row. Last fall, deftly balancing efficiency and size, the all-new 2009 Subaru Forester went home with the Golden Calipers trophy. For 2010, fighting off several tough adversaries -- and undoubtedly some unspoken but very real bias among our judges against repeat winners -- Subaru's new, fourth-generation Outback scored a decisive 10-1 victory in the final voting.
Some vehicles arrive at our annual "Of the Year" competitions (car, sport/utility, truck) staking early claims to a win via bulging engine muscle, beguiling gizmos, fashion-runway sheetmetal. The Outback isn't one of those. In fact, it slipped nearly unnoticed through our early walkarounds; the pre-drives chatter seemed to focus elsewhere -- the ZDX's spaceship lines, the Q5's comparison test-winning moves, the Lincoln's mighty yet efficient Eco Boot V-6. But then, one by one, our test drivers took the Outback into the field. And the buzz began to shift. Once again, it seemed, Subaru was successfully reshaping the very definition of "sport/utility vehicle" -- melding the multi-mission prowess of true SUVs with the driving refinement, fuel-frugality, and easy access of wagons and sedans. Once again, our judges began taking extra notes.
IIHS 2010 Top Safety Pick list
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has introduced its picks for the safest cars for 2010. This study is done every year to determine which vehicles are going to do the best job protecting you and your family. For the first time this year a roof test was added to the criteria since a significant number of deaths due to a car crash are the results of a rollover.
The safety institute employed front, side, rear and now rollover to their crash test for 2010. The IIHS selected 27 cars in five categories for the award, down from the 94 vehicles tested last year thanks to the heightened roof strength standards. Subaru stands out as the only manufacturer to receive a top rating for all four crash tests in every vehicle class it competes. Multiple awards also came from Ford owned, Volvo and German automaker, Volkswagen.
In the roof strength test, a metal plate is pushed against 1 side of a roof at a constant speed. To earn a good rating for rollover protection, the roof must withstand a force of 4 times the vehicle’s weight before reaching 5 inches of crush. This is called a strength-to-weight ratio. For an acceptable rating, the minimum required strength-to-weight ratio is 3.25. A marginal rating value is 2.5. Anything lower than that is rated poor.
Testers say not to worry if your vehicle has not made the list. Although it is clear, some automakers are doing a better job with safety, all vehicles on the road meet the minimum safety standards. The IIHS says that whenever a new test is introduced, it takes about one year for most to catch up. By 2011 most vehicles will have caught up to the new rollover standard.
It’s worth noting that some of last year’s winners have not been tested for the rollover standard. Most notably, the Acura RL, TL and TSX, Audi A4 and A6, BMW 3-Series, Cadillac CTS, Hyundai Genesis, Saab 9-3, Toyota Avalon and Prius, as well as a wide range of midsize SUVs and small sedans, have yet to be tested.
25 out of the 27 winners can be found at a MileOne dealer near you. Visit MileOne.com for more information. See below for all 27 winners.
Large cars
Buick LaCrosse*
Ford Taurus*
Lincoln MKS
Volvo S80*
Midsize cars
Audi A3*
Chevrolet Malibu (built after October 2009)*
Chrysler Sebring sedan (with optional electronic stability control)*
Dodge Avenger (with optional electronic stability control)*
Mercedes C-Class*
Subaru Legacy*
Subaru Outback*
Volkswagen Jetta sedan*
Volkswagen Passat sedan*
Volvo C30*
Small cars
Honda Civic sedan (except Si) (with optional electronic stability control)*
Kia Soul
Nissan Cube*
Subaru Impreza (except WRX)*
Volkswagen Golf four-door*
Vanity Plates
A vanity plate or personalized plate (U.S.), prestige plate, private number plate, or personalised registration (UK) or custom plate or personalised plate (Australia and New Zealand) is a special type of vehicle registration plate on an automobile or other vehicle. The owner of the vehicle will have paid extra money to have his or her own choice of numbers or letters, usually forming a recognisable phrase, slogan, or initialism on their plate. Sales of vanity plates are often a significant source of revenue for North American provincial and state licensing agencies. In some jurisdictions, such as the Canadian province of British Columbia, vanity plates have a different color scheme and design.
In 2007, the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) and Stefan Lonce, author of License to Roam: Vanity License Plates and the Stories They Tell, conducted North America's first state by state and province by province survey of vanity plates, revealing that there are 9.7 million vehicles "vanitized" with personalized vanity license plates.
The survey ranked jurisdictions by "vanity plate penetration rate", which is the percentage of registered motor vehicles that are vanitized. Virginia has the highest U.S. vanity plate penetration rate (16.19%), followed by New Hampshire (13.99%), Illinois (13.41%), Nevada (12.73%), Montana (9.8%), Maine (9.79%), Connecticut (8.14%), New Jersey (6.88%), North Dakota (6.51%) and Vermont (6.11%). Texas had the lowest vanity plate penetration rate (.56%).
According to the Federal Highway Administration, in 2005 there were 242,991,747 privately owned and commercial registered automobiles, trucks, and motorcycles in the U.S., which means that 3.83% of eligible U.S. vehicles are vanitized.
Massachusetts vanity plate on a parked motorcycle in Boston. This licence plate would be considered inappropriate in many jurisdictions, due to the presence of an obscene word.
The survey also found that vanity plates are issued by every state and the District of Columbia, and every province, except for Quebec and Newfoundland and Labrador.
In some states and provinces, optional plates can also be vanity plates and are a choice of motorists who want a more distinctive personalised plate. However, the maximum number of characters on an optional plate may be lower than on a standard-issue plate. For example, the U.S. state of Virginia allows up to 7.5 characters (a space or hyphen is counted as 0.5 character) on a standard-issue plate, but only up to 6 characters on many of its optional plates.
In some states, a motorist may check the availability of a desired combination online.
All U.S. states and Canadian provinces that issue vanity plates have a "blue list" of vanity plates that contains banned words, phrases, or letter/number combinations. The U.S. state of Florida, for example, has banned such plates as "PIMPALA", while the state of New York bans any plates with the letters "FDNY", "NYPD", or "GOD", among others. Often the ban is to eliminate confusion with plates used on governmental vehicles or plates used on other classes of vehicles. However, a licensing authority's discretion to deny or revoke "offensive" vanity plates is finite. For example, some U.S. motorists have successfully sued their state governments on that issue under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The "blue list" is not definitive; in general, the agent processing an application for a vanity plate can reject a plate if it is deemed offensive, even if the phrase does not match a banned word exactly. State DMVs have received complaints about offensive vanity plates. In this case, the DMV can revoke a plate if it is deemed offensive, even if it were previously approved.
Dredging and tonging are methods for harvesting what?
Cranberries
Crabs
Oysters
Potatoes
See answer under Car Doctor.
Ask the Car Doctor
How to Protect Your Car Inside and Out This Winter
Utilizing these tips will help motorists avoid potential roadside issues and eliminate some unnecessary stress while traveling during winter.
Get a basic tune-up — Hoses, belts, spark plugs and wires should be checked and changed if necessary.
Protect against freeze ups — Antifreeze/coolant is extremely important in colder temperatures. If there is too much water and not enough antifreeze/coolant in the system, it can freeze up, expand and crack key engine components. Motorists should check fluid levels and top them off before temperatures plummet.
Check tire tread — Bald tires are not only unsafe, but can potentially lead to a disaster on slick roadways. Tires connect the car to the road, so traction is imperative during winter. In areas with high snow accumulation, winter tires are a solid investment, providing more traction when accelerating, braking and turning.
Replace worn brake pads and shoes — Having maximum stopping power is essential.
Use a winter-formulated washer fluid — Regular blue washer fluids can freeze in the washer reservoir or on the windshield while driving. Special de-icer formulas will stay liquid in the washer reservoir at temperatures as low as -34 degree Farenheit.
Check windshield wipers — If they streak or cause problems, motorists should buy blades especially made for winter conditions. Visibility is crucial this time of year.
Be prepared for an emergency — While routine maintenance can afford drivers a certain level of comfort, having a well-stocked kit provides peace of mind. Keep a cellular phone, extra de-icer washer fluid, a good ice scraper and snowbrush, spray de-icer, blankets, snacks, bottled water and warm clothing in the kit.
Remove snow and ice from the entire car — Not taking the time to clear off all surfaces before venturing onto roadways can create dangerous situations for all motorists. Blowing snow and ice causes reduced visibility and treacherous obstructions.
Pay attention — Take a moment to listen to weather and traffic reports. When the conditions are too hazardous, motorists should stay off the roads. If people must travel when roads are bad, it is important they know their vehicle and use extreme caution. Keeping an 8-10 second distance between cars, reducing speeds on hills, storing sandbags in the trunk of rear-wheel drive cars and wearing seat belts will all help prevent accidents from occurring. It is also a good idea for motorists to always keep at least a half tank of gas in vehicles during winter months — it will be their only source of heat if stranded.
Make sure that your automobile is up to date on its service schedule.
Click Here to schedule a service appointment at your nearest Mile One Service Center.
Dredging and tonging are methods for harvesting oysters.
