Ask what a boxer engine is? One that wears the grandfather-styled CK underwear? In short, a boxer engine or a flat engine has its cylinders positioned horizontally opposed. It is not common as the Inline or V engines, nor it is sexy at all. But Subaru, a company partially owned by Toyota has its fame on this technology. However, Subaru is not the company that invented boxer engine, it was patented by Karl Benz in 1896 from Germany.
So what's good on this type of engine? After many years of development, the power it could produce is still no match to inline or V engines, and to service the engine, you could need to lift the unit out, even for the not simple spark plug change. All-Wheel-Drive is not exclusive to a boxer engine setup, though Subaru makes people think so since it mainly market its cars will this as standard. The only thing a boxer engine outperform is it could reduce the center of gravity due to its layout. Looks at how many pulleys (8 visible) are connected to the drive belt, you will worry how many moving parts will fail!
There are usually 2 types of people that want a Subaru:
- People that want a Japanese made sport car - like the Subaru WRX STI. If not for the turbo engine, it has nothing impressive.
- Soccer mom that want a big space and stay in area where snow is common sight, for the need of All-Wheel-Drive, like the Subaru Forrester.
The Subaru XV, with a 2.0-litre boxer engine, could only make a desperately low 150HP/196Nm power and torque, in which other Japanese makers could do much better with their Inline engines many years back. However, XV is a crossover where Toyota, Honda and Nissan have no such offering in their product lines in Malaysia. The unit uses a CVT transmission, thus it is not for the sporty in mind.
The interior of the XV is plain, with a after market Kenwood double-din unit. Again, at this age of days, isn't an integrated player make it looks more elegant. I just hated the idea to have the USB drive or iPod hanging from the player. All car manufacturer should have the USB or AUX-in port design at a convenient location instead.
Motor Image is now offering the XV at RM135k OTR, from the usual price of RM151k, which is a good deal. But with limited service centres and low volume on the road, the car could be a pain to maintain.
