Back behind the wheel

Whilst I do love to model wheeled vehicles, I’ve never actually built a non-military one! And that’s odd since I have always had an interest in 1:1 scale automotive stuff. I purchased a Tamiya GR86 kit a little while back as I had once owned a Subaru BRZ but am still yet to build it! I suspect that as I'm so accustomed to applying a myriad of weathering effects over an operational vehicle's often rushed paintjob, I am a little intimidated by the smooth unblemished, immaculate paint finish that would be required.

I’ve always fancied building a few scale representations of cars I’ve driven over the years and that got me thinking about another predicament I found myself in. Getting the mancave ready to work in again I had planned a few upgrades, and one of them involved a trip to a hardware store. Trouble is, I didn't actually have a 1:1 scale car to pick the stuff up with!

I’ve been without my own mode of transport for almost nine months now and whilst I have had full access to my wife’s car, I’ve missed that automotive independence that most of us take for granted. I’m no spring chicken anymore and whilst I love driving, owning a few track cars along the way too, speed is no longer as addictive as it once was. Priorities still include good build quality, good durability and good handling characteristics, but I’m more inclined towards comfort with a more compliant ride and better cabin refinement than all out performance these days. 

My old 2017 Subaru BRZ taken at Trac Mon (Anglesey racing circuit) 

 

The track was built on an old army camp 

 

 

I’ve been actively looking for something for the past six months, but so far nothing has piqued my interest. You see I’m quite particular about the cars I drive. They are after all a depreciating asset, and sadly all too often these days, are only built to last out the warranty term. With a couple of exceptions, I nearly always end up buying pre-owned, I don’t want an EV, and I'm not a fan of SUVs, and 42 years of experience has taught me to stay well clear of the majority of European brands. These lessons learnt steered me towards Japanese cars many moons ago, as I found pound for pound, they offered the best value and very little if anything goes wrong with them. Which has definitely proved true from my experience.

2006 Subaru Forester XT (a rapid little toaster) 

 

Apart from a couple of other manufacturers (Volvo & Audi) that’s all I’ve owned over the last twenty-five years! Yes, Japanese car styling is highly subjective, often blending traditional aesthetics like minimalism whilst prioritising function over form, which inevitably leads to much consternation and diverse opinions. But you cannot deny they have a strong, well-earned reputation for exceptional reliability, durability, and longevity. And although not for everyone that is exactly what I value most in a car apparently 😊

I’ve purchased a few JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) exports over the years and although they are usually 5-10 years old, they have not been exposed to salty roads. Hence being presented in a much better condition externally than any UK car of a similar age. Not only are they still a relatively rare site on UK roads they are almost always available in a far superior spec than anything we receive domestically, if we got it at all! The Japanese have always reserved the best stuff for themselves. 

My smiles per miles JDM 330BHP Subaru Forester STI 

Since 2022 I’ve been without a car of my own for almost two years on and off and have always relied on using my wife’s car when I can. It’s not an ideal situation as we really do need another set of wheels. Mainly as her 2020 Subaru XV is the hound runaround! Its set up primarily as transport for our four dogs. Apart from our Japanese Shiba Inu all of them work or take part in canine activities like man trailing or agility, and it’s utilised almost every day in one canine capacity or other. It’s a great little utility vehicle, but it’s usually filthy inside and out and can be a bit whiffy and always full of dog paraphernalia! So, its far from ideally suited for general transport duties. Thus, our usual preference is to have a second vehicle with a little more grandeur and ideally oomph, to waft the family around in. 

 Dog wheels. Our recently acquired gen 2 Subaru XV

  

                Japanese car & Japanese Dog. Our Shiba Inu, Hatchi and my old track prepped Gen 1 Subaru BRZ

Apart from a few racetrack orientated vehicles I’ve always preferred estate cars for the road, more familiarly known as wagons in the US, or tourers in Europe. They make great utility vehicles. Big enough to haul stuff around but still fun to pilot about, unlike most of the unwieldy and gargantuanly proportioned SUVs that now seem to dominate the automotive landscape. 

The last estate car I owned was a 2011 JDM imported Honda Accord K24 Type S wagon. It was never available in this spec in the UK and although it only came in FWD it was an exceptionally good handling car considering its bulk. The build quality was also very good. I only sold it as I had an offer well over and above what I purchased it for, and that was after two years and 20k miles of use!  Not something, unless its a classic, you generally experience when purchasing domestically! 

 JDM Honda Accord K24 Type S Wagon

Before the Honda I had driven mainly Subaru’s, a brand I really have a soft spot for, mainly because each and every one of the eight we have previously owned has propelled our family around safely and without drama or fault for thousands of miles, whatever the weather. One, a flat six Legacy I ran for almost 10 years and 100k miles was without any major fault, and not a single trip was made to the dealer other than for routine servicing over the whole period of ownership. 

 Loved my old Legacy BP4 Flat 6 tourer

 

Unfortunately, Subaru are not the automotive force they once were in the UK. Their well know halo car, the Impreza WRX/STI is long gone, and the UK has not offered any turbo models since 2017! A steady reduction to the range of vehicles on offer has meant sales have plummeted! This is mainly due to their continued use of mechanical AWD utilising the boxer engine with its high emissions, which EU law heavily penalises. As of writing, the UK range consists of just three cars: a hybrid Forester, a hybrid Crosstrek and an all-electric Solterra!  The final phase of sales of the last all-petrol model, the Outback, took place in late 2025 and we won't be getting the gen 7 petrol model! The gen 2 BRZ also never came to these shores, and all Legacy production ended in 2020! 

Being a big fan of the brand it’s sad to slowly witness the likely demise of their presence in the UK in the very near future.  With the full-time mechanical AWD being heavy on fuel, the competition caught up in the mid noughties and has since moved on to electronically controlled 4WD systems that convert to 2WD on tarmac. They have been seen as a niche brand in the UK for a long while now, marketing their cars as safe above all else, relying on a dwindling selection of mainly rurally located dealers.

The younger generations generally don’t aspire to own cars outright anymore, they aren’t interested in long term reliability, or durability, they look at them as they would white goods. Like a fridge or a microwave. They’re just another disposable item with the monthly PCP finance figure often being THE most important factor of the purchase. Suitably behind the curve as usual Subaru UK state the new E-Outback and Trailblazer will arrive here in mid-2026, but both will be EV’s only and not hybrids, which is a big mistake IMO! Since the massive invasion of cheap Chinese EVs over the last few years that ship has long sailed ☹

Since I sold the Honda in April 25, I’ve test driven countless vehicles and even rejected one after only two months of ownership. (I won’t be entertaining another BMW dealer anytime soon😠) but nothing so far has ticked all the boxes. Until a few days ago!

Pre Digi dash BMW 535i F11 Touring. Lovely car to drive but appalling dealer network experience!

  

As already mentioned, my wife’s car is mainly for hauling the dogs around and living rurally we do pile the miles on. Our local supermarket is a forty-mile round shopping trip so we tend to replace them every 4-5 years. The XV is currently nearing the 100k miles mark, so a few weeks ago we planned a trip out to test drive a newer model. And this is when the strangest moment of serendipity occurred! 

For the trip we figured there was already enough mileage on our XV, so we booked a 48hr rental car. Upon arriving at the Enterprise car rental garage, I noticed a brand new Subaru Outback Touring in their car park. This was a 2025-plate car and therefore one of the very last model years of boxer powered, pure petrol Outback’s registered in the UK. And incredibly I’d still never seen one in the flesh this close up! I have only ever seen a couple whilst out on the road since they came to our shores in 2021! In fact, unlike in the US or Australia so few were sold in the UK you could be safe in assuming you will likely never ever see one over here! 

Although I mentioned the Outback in passing to the rental staff, unfortunately it was not to be the car they had prepared for us! That was to be a Nissan Juke😬 Miraculously we never got to savour the Juke’s driving prowess because the gearstick fell off in the sales lady’s hand whilst she was showing me around the controls! I'm not making this up; the actual gearstick came off! So, it turned out that although the Outback was already booked out the following day, it was now the only replacement they could offer us at short notice. Result 😊

And so, we ended up with having what turned out to be a fantastic 48hr, 600-mile test drive! And that really should be time enough to determine whether a vehicle is worthy enough to warrant serious purchase consideration.

The gen 6 Subaru Outback was never on my initial ‘cars to test drive’ shortlist. Looking at images, I felt it somewhat awkward looking externally, particularly from the rear. But the main reason for not pursing further interest was because the naturally aspirated only available model looked somewhat underpowered on paper. 

So, taking a look around it during hand over I felt the copious amounts of plastic cladding was going to have to grow on me. Inside it still had the DNA of earlier models, watered down somewhat, but still undeniably present. It's still a long way behind anything the Europeans offer, sticking to the minimalist approach, rather than over excessive bling ornamentation. The seating position is good, the large integrated tablet sized screen is a bit 'in your face' and the graphics a bit 'old school' but the Bowers & Wilkins sound system is a massive improvement over any OE Subaru system of old. Although it comes with far too many nanny-state safety features within Subaru's 'Eyesight' system these days, you can at least turn the most dangerous intrusive ones off.   

Its quick enough; I’m going to keep telling myself, and the high speed ride is composed, especially for a vehicle with so much ground clearance. It's not the type of vehicle that was designed to be hustled around, more of a long distance tourer, with the added flexibility of turning into an amazingly proficient light off-roader should the tarmac run out! 

Its well-built, the seats are extremely comfy, the cockpit is covered in plenty of real leather, and it has a nice air of quality about it. Think Japanese Volvo. It is unquestionably quirky and undoubtably rare, and I like that. It will also likely turn out to be one of the last pure boxer petrol models ever sold here and likely Subaru's combustion engined swansong in the UK!

With that in mind and the fact that I really got on well with it, it pretty much convinced me to go look for one.

And so, it came to be that a completely out of the blue event has left me not only with a new set of wheels, but also back behind the wheel of a Subaru. And that has put a big smile on my face again😊 

And seeing this is a scale modelling blog this is my Tamiya 1/24 scale kit photo-shopped onto a backdrop image. 

 

I'm playing around, it's the best image I had of the real thing that looked like it could be a scale model😀 

I very much doubt Tamiya will be tooling up an Outback model anytime soon, but I don't care, I've got the full fat version now😀