Fans of Subarus tend to really love them. Their styling has more often than not been charitably described as quirky. But it's what's under the skin of a Subaru that makes it special. For decades, Subaru has touted the all-weather capability of their full-time all-wheel-drive system. In the past decade, Subaru has also earned something of a performance reputation with their turbocharged boxer engines that have been developed while competing in the World Rally Championship. The one thing these turbocharged traction machines haven't been able to brag about is their fuel efficiency.

No longer is that true. At the 2007 Geneva Motor Show, Subaru unveiled the first diesel-fueled boxer engine for cars. Earlier this year, diesel-powered Subies started to appear in Europe and SmartPlanet has one of the first reviews of the new diesel powered Outback wagon. In their testing, the site recorded 40.6mpg (U.S.) in all around driving for the 4x4 Outback, a pretty impressive performance. They found the engine to be smooth running quiet, and refined. In fact, their only quibble was the car itself which is nearing the end of its lifecycle and is due for replacement in the next couple of years. We'll be getting the Subaru diesel in the U.S. market in 2010, perhaps just in time for a new Legacy/Outback.

[Source: SmartPlanet, thanks to Adam for the tip!]

Last week, we reported on rumors regarding the Subaru WRX getting a diesel engine option, and now it sounds like senior executives at the company are fanning the flames again. According to Autocar, a high performance version of Subaru's existing 2.0 liter diesel engine is being considered for the WRX, while the standard Impreza will get the normal version.

Currently, only the larger Legacy is equipped with the diesel engine and that's only in Europe. We've been expecting the diesel to come here to the U.S. in the Legacy, Impreza and Forrester models. We'd love to add the WRX to that list, and the higher performing diesel engine in that application would be very exciting indeed.

[Source: Autocar]

Click on the photo to see the gallery of high-res shots of the display engine

Over on Autoblog, Damon has a report on the unveiling of the eagerly anticipated new diesel engine from Subaru. Unfortunately, there appears to be no information of any substance forthcoming from Subaru, aside from availability. Even that tidbit is disappointing, with sales apparently limited to Europe beginning in 2008. The only technical detail in the two paragraphs available on the Subaru web-site are that it will drop right in with the Subaru all-wheel drive system. Hopefully, the US market will eventually see this engine because an AWD Impreza diesel could be a pretty impressive piece, because the torque of the oil-burner would help overcome the drag of the all-wheel-drive.

[Source: Autoblog]