Levorg hits the spot as a family wagon
Compact wagon now more driverfocused but also way more practical, writes David Linklater.
Subaru has made its Levorg wagon more family-friendly for 2018 and a bit less familyfriendly at the same time. The former comes courtesy of a range of equipment upgrades that improve safety and practicality. The latter is due to some suspension changes intended to make it a sharper tool on the road.
This could be the best of both worlds or a clash of automotive intentions. Let’s find out.
If you’re thinking the Levorg hasn’t been around long enough to be getting a major model upgrade, you’re probably right. It was launched 18 months ago, ostensibly as a replacement for the much-loved Legacy GT wagon.
Weird name aside, Levorg fills that role quite nicely because it’s about the same size as the Legacy GT in its third and fourthgeneration heyday. It’s that size because while Subaru likes to point out that it’s a stand-alone model, it’s really a wagon version of the WRX (365mm longer and 84kg heavier though), which is itself based on the Impreza platform.
That’s not the current Impreza, mind. The WRX is now a generation behind the much-acclaimed Impreza/XV, which is why the whole model line has had a revamp. And that’s where the Levorg upgrades join in.
There’s some did-you-notice? Stuff like new front bumper and grille designs, new adaptive headlights that turn with the steering wheel and new-design 18-inch alloy wheels (which look remarkably similar to the previous design 18-inch alloy wheels).
Then we go from surprisingly subtle to surprisingly useful.
The new Levorg has Auto Vehicle Hold (AVH), which keeps the car in position when stopped – a ‘‘hill holder’’ if you like, which was a selling point of Subarus two decades ago when they had manual transmissions with low-range. This is an electronic rather than mechanical system, as it was back then and arguably not as necessary in an automatic vehicle, but still a nice touch.
The Levorg has also gained a whole lot more camera technology. It already had Subaru’s excellent EyeSight system with a comprehensive suite of driver-assistance features, the obligatory reversing camera and a funny little fisheye that shows you the offside front wheel when you’re parking.
But the new model gets a Front View Monitor which shows you forward of the car in close parking/ traffic situations and a piece of genius called Smart Rear View Monitor, which uses a camera mounted at the top of the tailgate to project an image of the road behind you onto the rearvision mirror. So if you have a full load (people or cargo) in the back, you can still get a clear view of what’s behind.
That’s a brilliant feature for a family wagon and so is this: the rear seat is now split 40/20/40, which means much greater ability to mixand-match passenger and cargocarrying capabilities. This is not a new thing, but you’re more likely to find it in a Volvo or BMW than a Japanese mainstreamer.
Up front, the driver also now gets a 10-way power-adjustable seat.
Amid all of this focus on making Levorg safer and a bit more practical, there’s apparently been demand from Europe for the model to be firmer on the road.
Not sure we approve of the sentiment: the beauty of Levorg has always been that you get close to WRX performance and looks, but with a lot of extra compliance for real-world driving.
The new model has tweaked Bilstein suspension and also wears uprated brake pads – the latter mimicking a change to the latest WRX’s stoppers, with a claimed 20 per cent improvement in efficiency.
The good news is that the Levorg’s chassis still has a compliant feel, even on lumpy Kiwi backroads. The suspension has plenty of travel and this car can play the family comfort card when you’re not pressing on. All-wheel drive is still the Levorg’s calling card, of course: just grip-and-go.
It’s still just 0.3 seconds slower to 100kmh than a WRX and feels like it’s charging pretty hard at full noise. You also get the opportunity to tailor the car’s responsiveness a fair bit with a choice of Intelligent (think of it as ‘‘comfort’’), Sport and Sport Sharp modes. The latter is only available when the car’s warmed up, but you can really feel the difference.
One thing you can’t have with the Levorg is the WRX’s manualtransmission option. So it’s Subaru Lineartronic Transmission (SLT) all the way, which is CVT by another name. It’s actually a great execution of the technology, and in Sport Sharp the SLT will even simulate gears by racing through eight closely stacked ‘‘steps’’ as part of its automatic operation.
It’s relaxed in town and can feel suitably fast and furious when you want it to, but SLT or CVT or whatever does still feel a bit weird in what is essentially an old-school car: it’s a WRX derivative after all and a station wagon rather than an SUV. But Subaru has plenty of those as well; we should be grateful to have the choice.