Subaru’s North American operations have long been known for advertising catastrophes, but rarely have they laid an egg as big as the October 2010 viral campaign for the “2011 Mediocrity”. The car chosen to be the butt of the joke was an old Kia Optima, which simply proved that neither the ad agency nor Subaru had the guts to start with a brand-new Camry. If Subaru was hoping for a sales boost for the new Legacy, it didn’t happen.
The campaign’s long gone, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take a moment to look at some pictures and make some snarky comments, right?
Let’s start by looking at the new Legacy:
Who knew that the current Acura TL had any fans in the styling departments, eh? Is anything about that car recognizably “Subaru”? Let’s take a look at another Subaru and count the similarities:
Not seeing it, really. How about this?
Now we are getting somewhere. Except that’s a Camry. Oh well. Let’s go see what Kia is up to.
If you ask me, it would be a nice, sharp comeback for Kia to make a “Mediocrity II” campaign featuring a lightly fiberglassed current-generation Legacy… but it looks like they’re saving the boldness for the design.
I was a huge fan of the Legacy/Outback circa 2005 and still consider it one of the best designs they’ve ever done, right down to the crazy red leather you could get in the GT sedan. The newer Subarus make me want to scream. I do not get the bug styling, the rediculous fenders, and those terrible hamhock roof racks on the outback. I’ve never seen a company so steadfastly committed to hideous design outside of Acura. both companies are almost German in stubborness, and that’s saying something since even BMW booted that Bangle clown.
Agreed. That’s a truly great looking sedan to my eyes. The current one is automotive off-white paint.
I’d also like to mention Subaru’s current ad campaigns. My room mates and I have a running joke about how absolutely, unforgiveably terrible their current commercials are. The one about never forgetting your first “Subaru” (aka losing your virginity), the ridiculous wedding/honeymoon in the tent schlock, the stupider-than-stupid soccer (hockey) mom driving her three dumb kids to their hockey games in different towns (why the hell???) and blabbering about how she wants a “dependable” car (then, at the end, they tell you how SAFE the Forester is, not how dependable it is at all). And all three are set to sappy, horrible, wannabe-John Mayer adult contemporary/alternative songs that you instantly hate…
I agree and not because I own a 2006 Legacy Wagon. :) The current Legacy/Outback are a mess. What you have to remember is the 2005-2009 Legacy/Outback were a good looking anomaly for Subaru. Subaru went back to their usual ways with the current gen Legacy.
+1 – I own a 2006 Legacy wagon and agree the previous generation is much better than the current model. Maybe part of the reason why in 2011 Subaru sales have actually slightly fallen even though the overall market is up 10%. It seems mediocrity has hit them!
I don’t mind the current Legacy, but agree that the Outback is a mess.
Is there any irony that in 2005 was the start of Toyota’s influence crept into FHI (Subaru’s owner) when GM sold part of its stake to them.
I feel likewise about the present generation versus the first four generations. At least the current ones have a low beltline by modern standards, as these photos show. We have an ’03 Legacy wagon (5-speed) and if anything ever happens to it, I hope we can find a nice ’07 to replace it – there aren’t any ’08 or ’09 Legacy wagons in the U.S., dammit.
Did the Toyota influence lead to window frames on Subarus? Seems to me that Subaru catalogs used to point out frameless windows as an engineering/safety advantage…
+1 to everything said about their current styling. It’s horrific. The previous generation Legacy sedan was very pleasant, in a first generation Acura TL kind of way. Same with the Outback.
The current Outback is so overwrought and the current Forester so dated that I feel like they’ve gone from one extreme to the other.
As to the ad campaign – it’s not my style, but I understand where they are aiming with it, and I think it’s doing its job. My wife always thinks the ads are cute, and that helped land a Subaru sale in our house as well as in my mom’s house.
They need to stop trying so hard in the styling department and refine other aspects of the car: noisy auto trannies, too much road noise, crappy navigation systems and cheap control knobs.
I love Subaru, but they’re a case where I feel justified in saying: “Good job, now do it better.” Subaru is walking that dangerous tightrope of success that Honda has plummeted from the past 10 years. If they’re not careful they might fall into the same trap.
I guess I should be damned happy with what I have: a first-gen TL and a third-gen Outback. Frameless windows and longitudinal engines.
My wife primarily drives the Outback, and while she likes having a stick she wishes it had more power. We’ve talked about getting a tent trailer too. She wants a newer 3.6R, I’d rather find an older 3.0R/LL Bean. I told her the older ones have a bigger sunroof, she was sold.
Subaru is walking that dangerous tightrope of success that Honda has plummeted from the past 10 years.
What, you mean the one that, excepting the recession, saw Honda sell more and more cars every year, to critical acclaim from non-enthusiasts?
Yeah, some fall… If that’s failure, I’m sure Subaru—and more than a few others—would like to fail, too.
I’ll admit the current Civic is not as good as the car it replaced, and Acura is in a world of hurt, but Honda’s generally done pretty well.
The previous generation was a great looking car. The proportions were right, there were nice sharp angles in the right places. Just saw a silver Outback and it was beautiful; looked like it was carved from a single block of polished titanium.
But while the current Outback is a horrendous blob, they fixed some major problems that would have kept me from ever buying the previous one. Rear seats are finally competitive with other midsizers. The front seats no longer feel like they are mounted 2 inches above the floorboards. And the 24 mpg highway from a slow 4 was almost a deal killer in and of itself. It’s still slow but at least it drinks less.
Style was sacrificed for utility. It’s ugly and feels cheaper inside, but it performs better in nearly every way that is important to people looking for a family wagon.
And Subaru has been posting month over month sales gains.
Just sayin :)
I have to agree. The new Legacy is hideous. I really wanted a used previous gen 3.0R, but at the time dealers wanted used G35 money for them. If I new it was going to be like…like this I would have found a way to make it work and got one when I had the chance.
Somewhere, probably just in my imagination, the previous generation TL and the previous generation Legacy are sharing a bottle of J&B like Keith David and Kurt Russell. Waiting for the end.
A reference to my favorite movie… Love it.
As an 11-year Scooby owner I am also very unhappy with the current lineup. I’ll drive my ’00 RS until it falls to pieces, I guess. Fortunately I love it now more than the day I bought it, so that isn’t much of a burden.
Oh man, was that previous gen Legacy beautiful. The second gen one is also nice.
They’re also expensive here, and difficult to find with a manual.
And for the beige, I think you choose the wrong appliance model. You should have gone with the previous gen one.
While the marketing campaign was kind of douchy, sales of the Legacy, and its wagon on stilts counterpart the Outback were better than the previous generation until that douchy earthquake in Japan came along and disrupted the whole supply chain thing.
The styling cues on the newest gen Legacy is a bit douchy and freakish, but that’s typical of Subaru, at least they’ve found some styling continuity with the ’12 Impreza and have followed some of the douchy design language of the Legacy and passed it onto the Impreza, but without making it a total douche clone.
While your snark is almost at a Jalopnik douche level, your angst is truly misguided as it was the douche earthquake and douche tsunami that caused sales problems for the Legacy, not douchy styling issues. If you haven’t noticed, nobody has ever bought a Subaru based on its looks.
“If you haven’t noticed, nobody has ever bought a Subaru based on its looks.”
This. The 2005-2009 Legacy was an aberration. It actually looked very nice, especially in 2.5 GT format. Most Subarus past and present aren’t exactly attractive cars.
The old Forester is ugly, but it has character. It’s the automotive style equivalent of the plaid flannel shirt. (I hate the look of plaid flannel shirts.) And it is utilitarian in the mode of the plaid flannel shirt.
Does anyone buy any car these days based on looks? Besides new Korean cars?
“your angst is truly misguided as it was the douche earthquake and douche tsunami that caused sales problems for the Legacy, not douchy styling issues”
Uh, yeah, you might want to look at the top of the chart referenced in the article; it’s a car that was produced three days a week for an entire month due to the aforementioned Massengill mayhem.
Your link goes to the front page, not a specific article.
The difference between journalism and blog is proof-reading. I first read it on this blog.
I don’t think I have ever read the word “douche” more times in a single thread.
Let’s take a look at another Subaru and count the similarities
Not really fair. You could play “count the similarities” between that Brat and a contemporary Camry or Accord just as easily.
Excepting automotive coelacanths like Porsche 911, cars tend to look more or less like their contemporaries, rather more than they do their successors and antecedents. I know it’s fun to play “Car xxxx has lost it’s soul” but in all honesty, most cars, even in the old days, didn’t have much soul to begin with.
I’m sure that in thirty years someone will dig up a photo of the current Legacy and how much it doesn’t look like the 2011 one, but does resemble the MY2042 Camry. And the next generation of greybeards will b1tch about it.
Not to mention the fact that none of these cars really compete with each other in the same segments exactly, the great divider being that the Subaru Legacy and Outback are obviously AWD.
Nobody who lives in a snowy clime is going to cross shop a Kia Optima (which is a handsome car BTW) against a Jeep Cherokee the way the Legacy out Outback would be a potential candidate.
Finding a grainy, unflattering picture of a base model Legacy with plastic hubcaps, instead of showing a decked out Legacy GT, or even the 3.6R is almost as douchy as celebrating a decline in sales of a vehicle because of a natural disaster.
Keep up the good work Jack.
In the comments
I saw a creature, morose, farcical,
Who, typing from his mom’s basement,
Held his liver in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Why do you hate me so?”
“I am bitter – bitter,” he answered;
“But I do it
Because you are awesome,
And because I have a crush on Ken Block.”
You sure you didn’t see it through a mirror?
I don’t have a crush on Kenny from the block, I’ve sold out to the coupons he gave me for being a course marshal at LSPR a few years ago.
The coupons were good for 50% off anything on the DC Shoes website!
I never used the coupon, seeing how his clothes and shoes were uglier than the Subaru he was racing at the time.
…”Automotive coelacanths”….I LIKE that. It’s Baruthian…..
I think I’m going to go cry a puddle. My writing’s Baruthian?
Geeze, at least I don’t have hair like Jack’s any longer.
There was definitely an unmistakeable irony in this campaign, considering how boring the redesigned Legacy is compared to its predecessor. Looking at the profile shots of it and the Camry, I’d say the Camry is a better looking car.
But hey, the new Impreza looks like it will go a long way towards washing off the stink from the current one.
Agreed, if I had to replace my 98 TL then I think the Impreza and Focus would be at the top of my list.
Yeah, current Legacy is a fat blob. CAN look good from an angle or two, but that’s about it. The interior is pleasing to my eyes.
Two things though. I don’t know how design works. Maybe engineering requirements dictate certain design compromises. I read somewhere once that, since our TSX is the European Accord, it HAD to be widened to accommodate the new Honda diesel engine (we would never get). Therefore the design had to change significantly no matter how loved. That it dialed down its driving dynamics is related but not the same issue, of course.
Second, when current Legacy’s styling is shrunk in the new Impreza, it might look better. Some cars look longish, others wideish, others tallish… Legacy’s just fat, but Impreza’s tallish looks may work. Or not.
The sales Subaru has had over the past couple of years since the mediocre redesign shows how profitable mediocrity can be.
They have to pay their bills. They have to grow the business. Sorry if your favorite indie band signed up with a major organization and now appears mainstream.
It is working for them.
Or would you like for them to go the way of SAAB?
Subaru was going the way of SAAB and was nearly on the brink of existence until Paul Hogan helped bring the Outback to the populace as the worlds first Sport Utility Wagon.
It’s amazing what a bit of body cladding and some body spacers can do for an entire brand.
It’s amazing what a bit of body cladding and some body spacers can do for an entire brand.
Someone should have told Pontiac that.
Then their was the whole GM debacle where Subaru was donating cars to the Saab line. Impreza/9-2X and then the original 9-4X which was never released and the tooling went to the reskinned 2010 Subaru Tribeca instead.
@Garbage.
Those SAABarus weren’t all that bad really. They were a more civilized WRX as they had the same engine as the WRX, with a few STI suspension bits and more sound deadening material thrown in.
I can’t say I was too thrilled about anything that was in relation to the Tribeca or any potential SAAB cousins.
My Subaru insider tells me that Legacy sedan sales were never that good to begin with and that the new Forester cannibalized Outback and Legacy sales both.
…….I sold Subarus from 1978-1986, and remember my dismay when one of the big carmags of the day, in an otherwise complimentary review, referred to the styling as “deranged”.
When the first XT Turbo came out, I grabbed one of the first ones off the hauler as my eagerly awaited demo/driver. It’s big claim to fame was an incredibly low 0.29 aerodynamic drag coefficient, and was way ahead of it’s time in that respect. On one of my first excursions downtown, stopped at a red light, and beaming with pride over my new ride, a ruffian in a beat-up rustbucket Cutlass rolled down his window, caught my eye, and uttered “man, what an ugly car!” I was crestfallen AND speechless…..my day was ruined.
Over drinks with friends later that night I was further humbled when a few of them candidly agreed with that bozo’s impromptu styling analysis. I liked it’s hi-speed cruising capabilities, though, and could always count on getting a few laughs from the passenger when wiggling it’s insane tilt wheel/tilt dashboard at 100mph.
I got stuck with a 1984 Subaru wagon.
Yellow.
It was so embarrassing driving it around. What an ugly car.
Subaru has a restored 1986 XT Turbo on display at their SEMA booth this year. That steering wheel, that shifter…
20 years ago we were starting to accept that all cars would eventually look the same because of packaging and aerodynamics. Virtually every upscale sedan is shaped like a slippery bar of soap… but real design is not how differentiated a car is… but how the differentiation happens.
Audi A6: Slippery bar of soap with fuggy grill on the front. Ugh
Ford Focus: Beautiful slippery bar of soap with fuggy grill. Missed opportunity
Mazda 6: Slippery bar of soap with hints of aggression. Nice.
VW CC: Slippery boar of soap with haughty German austerity. Nice.
Never owned a Subaru before but for 18 grand, an AWD hatch with a stick that gets 33mp is a bargain imo. Especially since that doesn’t even get you into a mid grade (FWD) Honda Civic, Mazda3 or Corolla.
After I turned in my ’94 Audi 90 quattro following only a two year lease, I needed a winter beater. Got an ’88 GL Turbo wagon, which was named the Warthog by all and sundry. More reliable in the two years I had it than that last(of 5 Audis) Audi. Had an original look Impreza for 9 years and then an ’08 Legacy GT since then. Both very reliable, and at least not ugly.
The new ones, blech! Subaru advertising, awful. Forester sheet metal, thin. New Outback looks, Sears garden shed on wheels in profile. Driving new Legacy feels like driving new Sonata, wobbly, but with a lot less guts. Embarassing.
C’mon someone has to be the awkward person at any gathering. Subaru has fulfilled that role for decades. I’m hoping the new Breeze will be a step in the right direction.
This means I’m always looking for a half-decent looking AWD car.
What motivates this company to produce visual clangers is beyond me. They must think the looks are fine.
as a former SVX owner, I take issue with the claims that all subarus were ugly before the 2005 Legacy came along.
*shakes fist angrily*
The Styling Mojo that the 05-09 Legacy lost appears to have reappeared in the new Impreza. From the Xt to the Window within a Window on the SVX to the Edsel inspired front clip on the 1st Gen Tribeca Subaru has a long tradition of styling mishaps.
For people who want cheap reliable Subaru has almost no competition. Toyota killed the AWD Matrix and the Suzuki SX4 has no distribution.
Call me a fanboi if you must, but that brat looks better than anything else in this post. As to Subi design of late, if my current car gets totaled I’m looking at the Koreans first.
+1 fanboi. Love the Sooby BRAT. Totally useless for most things other than having two friends in those weird plastic jump seats in the bed while dragging another on a snow-saucer through snowy streets in the winter.