THE Subaru XV is another strange concoction from the bestiary of the Dadaist Japanese car-makers.
The late Robin Williams had a stand-up routine imagining God stoned out of his mind putting a duck’s beak on an egg-laying beaver and taking the mickey out of Charles Darwin. Hmm. So, too, the XV?
If the moniker stands for a crossover vehicle, that would fit, I suppose, the design brief of this platypus of a car. It’s just what is crossed over with what and towards what end that I can’t quite fathom, in spite of the car’s many impressive features.
Like all Subarus, it scores well in the safety tests. Not only in Europe, but in Australia, too. In Japan, it recorded the highest ever off-set frontal impact score and, in the USA, the Institute of Highway Safety gave the XV its Top Safety Pick prize.
Like all Subarus, the XV is great in the mucky stuff. It has enormous ground clearance—almost 9in compared with, say, the Skoda Yeti’s or Honda HRV’s 7in.
The car’s proprietary SAWD (symmetrical all-wheel drive) sends power to all four wheels all of the time. This tends to make Scoobys thirstier than many so-called all-wheel-drive rivals, which are only two-wheel drive for much of the time, but it tends to make them better off-road, too.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July 17, 2019 من Country Life UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة July 17, 2019 من Country Life UK.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Tales as old as time
By appointing writers-in-residence to landscape locations, the National Trust is hoping to spark in us a new engagement with our ancient surroundings, finds Richard Smyth
Do the active farmer test
Farming is a profession, not a lifestyle choice’ and, therefore, the Budget is unfair
Night Thoughts by Howard Hodgkin
Charlotte Mullins comments on Moght Thoughts
SOS: save our wild salmon
Jane Wheatley examines the dire situation facing the king of fish
Into the deep
Beneath the crystal-clear, alien world of water lie the great piscean survivors of the Ice Age. The Lake District is a fish-spotter's paradise, reports John Lewis-Stempel
It's alive!
Living, burping and bubbling fermented masses of flour, yeast and water that spawn countless loaves—Emma Hughes charts the rise and rise) of sourdough starters
There's orange gold in them thar fields
A kitchen staple that is easily taken for granted, the carrot is actually an incredibly tricky customer to cultivate that could reduce a grown man to tears, says Sarah Todd
True blues
I HAVE been planting English bluebells. They grow in their millions in the beechwoods that surround us—but not in our own garden. They are, however, a protected species. The law is clear and uncompromising: ‘It is illegal to dig up bluebells or their bulbs from the wild, or to trade or sell wild bluebell bulbs and seeds.’ I have, therefore, had to buy them from a respectable bulb-merchant.
Oh so hip
Stay the hand that itches to deadhead spent roses and you can enjoy their glittering fruits instead, writes John Hoyland
A best kept secret
Oft-forgotten Rutland, England's smallest county, is a 'Notswold' haven deserving of more attention, finds Nicola Venning
