The MY05 - MY09 Outback range. A Truck or Not?

Below is an article about the MY05 - 09 Outback range classified as a truck.

Recall we were discussing weather the XT was this or not. I stand enlightened as "Truck" is not limited to the XT model and includes the entire Outback model range. This isn't the WSJ article I'd refered to however it's content is similar.

Have a read....

A nip, a tuck - and suddenly, a truck

Subaru engineers tweak '05 Outback, change its status

By Lindsay Chappell

Automotive News / February 23, 2004

When Don Beardon talks about the re-engineering job on the 2005 Subaru Legacy Outback, he tends to make one small technical mistake.

"It's a completely different car," says Beardon, director of government affairs for Subaru of America Inc.

He is still calling the '05 Outback a "car." But, technically, that's no longer true.

Thanks to the engineering changes undertaken on the project, the Outback will be classified as a truck for U.S. regulatory purposes.

Beardon's conversational slip-up is to be forgiven for Subaru managers. The sales and marketing unit of Japan's Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. is not accustomed to thinking of itself as a truck manufacturer. Its low-selling pickup version of Subaru's Legacy sedan, the Baja, was classified as a truck a year ago. And this month at the Chicago Auto Show, the company introduced a redesigned Legacy Outback that also will receive a truck classification, even though it was spawned by the Legacy sedan.

In an era when auto manufacturers are blurring all recognized lines between vehicle segments, calling a model a car or a truck or a sport wagon or a "crossover" has almost become meaningless.

But for Subaru, the change in the Outback's legal classification required more than a rewording of marketing materials. It required a number of engineering changes keyed to federal regulations. Those changes in turn triggered a list of other body re-engineering chores.

Setting the trends

Subaru is hardly a newcomer to the art of blurring the line. The brand gained some cachet in the 1990s when it adopted all-wheel drive across its product line. The Outback was one of the first hard-to-categorize vehicles in the industry when it appeared as a muscle-clad import wagon, with rugged wheels and heavy-duty luggage and gear racks. The sporty wagon was about as close to an SUV (that means "truck") as the low-volume, cash-constrained carmaker was going to get.

The new Outback goes further. The floorpan is roughly the same as the current Outback, but Fuji engineers in Japan raised it, along with the rest of the car, 1.1 inches, for a ground clearance of 8.4 inches and 8.7 inches on a turbo version.

Ground clearance is a key part of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration's official definition of a truck (see box, at far right). Another key attribute is that the vehicle must be capable of off-road use. Subaru has standard awd on its products, so the raised clearance became the critical focus.

To get there, engineers had to redesign the undercarriage of the vehicle. The wheelbase was extended by 0.8 inch to 105.1 inches. The rear differential had to be modified. And to compensate for the higher stance, the rear bumper had to be enlarged as well as raised for clearance purposes.

Making the Outback taller wasn't enough. The height gain changed its center of gravity. To ensure stability, the project team lowered the drivetrain.

That process required Fuji to redesign the cross members that support the engine and transmission, and to alter the vehicle's suspension system.

In the course of redesigning the metal componentry, engineers made changes to make the body stronger by switching to high-tensile steel in what the company calls its ring-shaped reinforcement design.

The design is a cage structure that fortifies the vehicle cabin. Two steel rings run over the top of the car and down the A-pillar and B-pillar. Both pass down the sides of the car, through the floor pan and across the chassis.

The change in metals helped make the vehicle stronger against impacts. But there were other metal changes.

Body transformed

One of Subaru's objectives was to deliver a more rugged vehicle that delivered better fuel economy. Two key body changes made that possible.

First, engineers adopted a new design for the Outback's front subframe. The new model uses lighter hydroformed steel pieces, subcontracted to a new Fuji supplier, Elsa Corp. of Elwood, Ind. Elsa is owned by Japan's Sakamoto Industrial Co. Ltd., and operates its U.S. steel plant about 50 miles from Subaru of Indiana Automotive Inc. in Lafayette, Ind., where the Outback will be produced starting this summer.

Second, designers decided to mix metals on the body and incorporate an aluminum hood and an aluminum rear liftgate. But that meant making changes at the manufacturing level.

The Indiana Subaru plant stamps its own steel body panels. To mix aluminum lids and gates with steel body panels meant the assembly plant had to invest in new transfer stamping machinery that is capable of switching back and forth between the two.

According to the company, the changes in body construction and metals allowed Subaru to make the new Outback 180 pounds lighter than the current model. The weight improvement improved the Outback's fuel economy by about 3 percent.

"It's not the same car," Beardon says, making his mistake again. "It looks similar. But it's not the same car. The floor pan is similar in size, but this is a brand new car."

Complex equations

As Subaru prepared to unveil the redesign in Chicago, company officials bristled when a press report interpreted the Outback's change to truck status as evidence of a manufacturer with corporate average fuel economy troubles.

When it comes to CAFE - the EPA method of pressing automakers to make fuel-efficient vehicles - manufacturers must count their products either in a truck fleet or a car fleet.

Trucks still get a break from federal regulators. A manufacturer's fleet of light trucks must meet a 21.0 mpg average for the 2005 model year, while cars must meet a 27.5 mpg average, or face fines.

Bumping the Outback into Subaru's fledgling truck fleet will bolster the average of its car fleet, which is heavily populated with four-cylinder engine cars. Meanwhile, the new Outback gained fuel economy over its previous generation's ratings, which at 22 mpg in the city and 28 mpg on the highway, already were a comfortable fit.

Some of Subaru's motivation had to do with EPA regulations, says Beardon, because the automaker is positioning itself to meet fuel-economy rules.

"I've been monitoring the regulations that we think are coming," Beardon says, "trying to make these new vehicles meet the regulations of the future. You're always changing the designs to try to meet what you think the new regulations are going to require. NHTSA is always working. Congress is always working on what NHTSA should do."

But there is more to it than that, the company says. Subaru's motivation was also product-related, Beardon adds. A truck label allows Subaru to do things with the Outback that it couldn't do as a car. It now can have a darkened rear window, for example - a feature that is forbidden to cars for safety reasons. Since the Outback is the company's closest thing to an SUV, the dark window could appeal to customers who want to hide skiing equipment or other gear in the cargo area.

To a larger extent, the truck label is the accurate description for a product that no longer fits the description of a "car."

"It was all marketing driven," Beardon says. "Our owners were asking for more SUV features, such as higher ground clearance for off-road use or deeper snow use. The sales and marketing department made suggestions on improvements for the vehicle based on what customers have been asking for."