Asphalt, Dirt, Mud and Muck – Subaru Eco Adventure Drive

Motor Image Pilipinas, local distributor of Subaru recently held an event for the media to showcase their Forester, XV, WRX, WRX-STI, Outback and Legacy variants. We all met up bright and early at the Motor Image showroom along EDSA in Greenhills.

Called the Eco Adventure Drive, we were split into groups of three to four and made our way to the nearest Shell service station to where we filled up our tanks to the brim and made our way to the big Shell station on NLEX for some fun challenges. Along the way we had a fun fuel economy challenge between the teams for all the vehicles we drove on the trip which was more than a hundred kilometres through a mix of both highway and city driving conditions.

The teams were split into driving the WRX STi, WRX, Outback 3.6R-S, XV 2.0i, XV 2.0i Premium, Forester XT, Forester 2.0 i-L and the Legacy 2.5i-S. Subaru is well known for is rally bred sporty handling cars and we were going to see another side to their vehicles with this Eco Adventure Drive.

The weather was a bit gloomy, but with the right team mates, road trips are always fun, and I was teamed up with Brent of AutoIndustriya.com and Ferdie of Turbo Zone. Through some light rain, we all made it driving carefully, within the speed limit and economically to the Widus Hotel where we had an awesome steak lunch at Pepper 21.

Here are the results of our fun fuel economy run:

Subaru Forester 2.0i-L – 14.02 km/l

Subaru Forester 2.0 XT – 13.02km/l

Subaru XV – 2.0i – 13.89km/l

Subaru XV 2.0i Premium – 14.18km/l

Subaru Legacy 2.5i S – 13.49 km/l

Subaru Outback 3.6 R-S 11.24 km/l

Subaru WRX M/T 14.68 km/l

Subaru WRX STi M/T 11.00 km/l

Shortly after lunch, there was a part two to our road trip, we were shown the Subaru’s offroad capabilities at Clark’s backyard lahar marshlands that connects to the Sacobia River.

The Foresters and XV’s made short work of traversing the river crossings, up and downhill slopes and muddy areas, all of this under the watchful eyes of off-road instructors of course. It helped having these guys around, most would think twice about driving through knee deep slush, but they helped us overcome our doubts and see what the Subaru’s are really capable of doing.

Subaru’s are equipped a Boxer engine mated to their Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive with Active Torque Split which puts power to all four wheels. The Foresters and XV’s have the new generation engine which is just as powerful yet more economical than the past generation’s, Electric Power Steering, for easier, lighter handling which also lessens the load on the engine and now the Lineartronic Continuously Variable Transmission, offering better economy, and power with the X-Mode system.

All these features showcased during The Eco Adventure Drive make these new generation Subaru vehicles even better than they were before and will ensure that you’ll have the confidence to forge on no matter the weather and terrain conditions.

Words and photos by Neil Pagulayan