Motoring
The first estate
Alan Judd
• e many essentially useless and superfluous persons, I venerate utility. The fact that something does its job well, is durable and achieves a perfect integrity of design and function is sufficient to endow it, in my eyes, with some of the better human qualities. Thus, an old and hand- some walking-stick may be a greater plea- sure — and certainly more sustaining — than many whose hands might sully it.
So it was that my childhood enthusiasm for tractors, steam-rollers, lorries and mili- tary vehicles — all things that look as if they're for something — became one of the strata of so-called mature personality. My unfulfilled youthful longing for my father to have a Morris Minor Traveller or shoot- ing-brake, as they were commonly called (or, better still, the larger Morris Oxford version), translated itself into a fondness for estate cars that survives to this day. I didn't need spouse, children, labradors and wellies to prod me into my first Volvo estate; I got one anyway and derived great pleasure from driving around imagining how much it could accommodate if it had anything to carry. Requests from friends to help them move house gave me weeks of pleasurable anticipation and, on the day, a glow of achieved utility. It's easy to please the useless.
Thus, when the Legacy Outback, Sub- aru's top of the range estate, came to stay for a week I searched eagerly for load-lug- ging tasks, but with typical mistiming our house-move was a fortnight later. There was a fair bit of running around nonethe- less, enough anyway to get the feel of the beast. Is it a good estate? Yes. Would I like one on celebrity loan? Yes, please (fat chance). Would I buy one? Probably not.
The early four-wheel drive Subaru estates and pick-up had a deservedly high reputation for reliability and durability at reasonable prices, and became favourites among farmers, foresters, vets and horse- owners. Later Subarus were more expen- sive and complicated and had lower ground-clearance, thereby losing a portion of that market which the latest are appar- ently designed to regain. The top of the range 2.5 litre Outback is certainly a capa- ble and well-built vehicle and the one test- ed came with everything — two sunroofs, climate control, leather trim, roof rail, ABS, full-time four-wheel drive and airbags everywhere. You also get Subaru reliability (three-year manufacturer's warranty) and performance (0-62 in 9.6 seconds, 123 mph) with a combined urban/extra-urban fuel consumption of 29.1 mpg. It is com- fortable, quiet and responsive, passing both hat and back test. It will tow just under two tons, has about 60 cubic feet of load space and ground-clearance of a healthy 7.8 inch- es. The almost undetectable automatic gearbox combines with the climate control to make for restful riding. It's a good, luxu- rious car.
Why no buy, then? To start with, it's expensive: £25,045 on the road for this model. Admittedly, the Legacy estate range starts at £15,170 but ground-clearance for these lesser breeds is given as 6.1 inches (the 7.8 inch Outback start at f21,995). The cockpit is rather cluttered, lacking both simplicity and imagination, and the exterior appearance also seems slightly fussy. It has something of the rugged and imposing quality that good estates have, but the lines are not clean enough. It will last because it is well-built, but it will also date. And for 25 grand you ought to have air-condition- ing that copes with the hottest of British weather, which this surprisingly does not, as well as three diagonal belts and an extra headrest for the rear seat. Look at it by all means but, unless four-wheel drive is essential, look too at the competition, espe- cially from VW and Volvo.
But if you do want four-wheel drive look at another Subaru product, the Forester (Arts, 17 January). At f16,450-£18,550 (the latter for air-conditioning and all the bits, with automatic £1,000 extra) this rugged, good-looking, good-handling and useful carrier should do for the modern market exactly what the early Subaru estates did. With the Forester the company has satis- factorily filled the niche that the Outback is allegedly aimed at, and with a better value product, too.
In The Spectator of 6 June, 1998 I wrote affectionately of the Morris Minor, particu- larly of the desirable Tourer model (the convertibles). Following that article I heard from a Mr Black of Edinburgh, long-time owner of a 1968 almond-green Tourer with a tan hood and new exhaust and tyres. He is looking for a good home for it and, since these things are not well understood north of the border, asked for advice on selling, or offers in the region of £.3,000. Ring him on 0131 445 3136.
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