As I headed south through the wooded hills and blackened slag heaps of Appalachia in the new Subaru Outback 3.6R, my mind turned to the business of marketing, and the gambits used to stoke the fires of consumer demand.What makes us buy a car – or anything else? By way of case studies, consider the television ad for an app called Game of War: Fire Age. The app lets you pretend you’re Alexander the Great on your iPhone, assembling armies, constructing siege engines and laying waste to competing civilizations.
But the main character in the ad is Kate Upton, a blonde model who rose to fame on the cover of Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit edition. You might wonder exactly what Ms. Upton has to do with military conquest, but marketing isn’t about logic – it’s about getting attention and triggering desire. Cue Ms. Upton: sex sells.
But then we come to Subaru, a company that eschews the swimsuit model and the low-cut top in favour of practicality, solid engineering and a killer all-wheel-drive system. The Outback’s place in the consumer ecosystem is not based on sex.
After logging more than 1,000 kilometres on the road, I was deeply impressed with the Outback’s capabilities. It had carried me down the interstate with the competence and smoothness of a great touring sedan. It had also clawed its way up the side of a gravel heap, followed a Jeep down an unplowed back road and brought me safely through an unexpected blizzard.
For decades, Subarus were seen as cult cars. They were the chosen ride of back-to-the-landers and New Englanders with long, frozen driveways. BMW owners bought their cars so everyone would look at them when they rolled up at the velvet rope. Subaru owners bought theirs so they could plow through snow banks – it was hard to look cool in a two-ton Legacy wagon.
But cult-car status can be both a blessing and a curse. Like Tilley sunhats or the walking sticks favoured by middle-aged hikers, Subarus may be excellent products, but you won’t catch Kim Kardashian in one.
My time in the Outback made me realize how misguided that mindset really is. The Outback is a truly excellent car. One of its standout features, the advanced all-wheel-drive system, routes power through a sophisticated set of electronically controlled differentials to maximize traction. When the alley behind our house got snowed in, the Outback churned through the drifts without missing a beat. My own car would have been stuck.
Casting around for a destination that would highlight the Outback’s capabilities, I decided on Centralia, a Pennsylvania mining town abandoned after its coal mine caught fire. The fire started in 1962, and it’s still burning today.
Driving south through the hills of New York, the Outback proved to be a fast, smooth highway cruiser. I set the cruise control, tuned on the satellite radio and relaxed. (The Outback is available with a choice of engines – a 2.5-litre four, or a 3.6-litre six. Mine had the larger engine, which I liked for its smooth, effortless thrust.)
And yet, I met half a dozen people who had come to see Centralia.
Nearby, I met a young local named Mike who was loading coal into his grandfather’s basement from an old pickup truck. I asked him why anyone would stay in Centralia: “They were born here, and this is where they want to die, too,” he replied. “Just stubborn, I guess.”
Years ago, the mine fire sent clouds of coal smoke through Centralia, turning it into a giant barbecue pit. Today, you can still smell the fire, but you have to look hard to find it. I clicked the Subaru into X-Mode, which increases traction, and headed into the woods. I eventually found a collection of low, blackened hills with thin streams of smoke rising above them.
The only way up was a rutted dirt track that looked like the place for a Jeep Wrangler, not a passenger car. But the Subaru clawed its way to the top without breaking a sweat, smoothly transferring power to whichever wheel had traction. I parked at the top and noticed large patches where the snow had melted. I got out and put my palm on the ground – it felt like a warm stovetop. The fire was still burning deep underground.
According to locals, the Centralia fire started when someone decided to burn trash next to an open coal vein known as a “stripper hole.” Another version of the legend attributes the fire to a carelessly discarded cigarette butt. Whether the fire will ever go out is anyone’s guess.
The Outback had given me a unique experience, and the test wasn’t over yet. In the farm country of western New York State, snow started to fall. Before long, it was a full-on blizzard. The Outback had good winter tires, and the all-wheel drive system was flawless, pulling up the icy hills with zero wheel spin. The ABS system was also superb, giving me perfect braking as I headed down a steep, winding hill. Two cars were in the ditch, but mine wouldn’t be joining them.
Back in Toronto, I’ve been using the Outback for day-to-day errands and measuring it up for some of my other missions – like hauling mountain bikes to Durham Forest, and towing a glider trailer. (It’s ideal for both, with a built-in roof rack, and a tow capacity of 1360 kilograms.)
This is a car you need time to appreciate. Subaru cultists, of course, don’t need convincing – they already know the value of a useful, everyday car with advanced all-wheel drive and a great defroster system. But for the buyer who chooses a car based on tire kicking and a fair-weather test drive, these qualities are hard to convey.
The Outback is part of a vehicle category aimed at discriminating buyers who want a Swiss Army knife of a car that’s adept in a wide variety of situations. Competitors include the Audi A4 Allroad and the Volvo XC60. These are cars that can haul a kayak and navigate a switchback dirt road, but they’re also good for highway trips and grocery runs. So why don’t more people buy cars like these? Mass marketing is based on catering to the unsubtle desires of the crowd – and they want SUVs. Selling sophisticated technology is tougher. Convincing someone to buy your car because it has a superior all-wheel-drive system is like marrying off a brilliant but faintly unattractive child – its qualities are revealed over the course of time, when the Pulitzer Prize is won, the snowstorm conquered and the slag heap climbed. But in the showroom and the singles bar, it is Kate Upton in the warrior goddess gown that gets immediate attention.
Never mind: A car like the Subaru Outback is the kind you marry.
After almost a month and more than 4,500 kilometres Peter Cheney evaluates the Outback
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