508 September 2006





Subaru's Liberty has always been sexy ... now, according to the Japanese manufacturer, it is also intelligent.

The city-smart Liberty and its country cousin, the Outback, have been given a mid-life styling freshen and a much more significant injection of smarts with the SI-Drive (Subaru Intelligent Drive) technology on all 3.0-litre and turbo models.

"SI-Drive gives the driver three cars; a performance version or an economical version depending on the road, the conditions or the driver's emotions," Subaru Australia managing director Nick Senior says.

"We are particularly excited about being able to offer this technology as it has previously been the domain of much more expensive vehicles."
SI-Drive is the culmination of almost two decades of determination and belief in an idea Liberty project general manager Toshio Masuda had as a young engineering student.

"When I was a student I imagined the day when you would not have to change the engine in your car to get very different characteristics," Masuda says at the Australian launch of SI-Drive. "I kept a belief in my idea and when I became a senior engineer with Subaru I knew it was time to introduce this idea to the world."
But although the theory of SI-Drive was sound, he says resistance from some sections of the company was difficult to overcome. "Many in the company thought this (SI-Drive) was not possible because of the technical challenges ... challenges we have been able to overcome," he says.

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