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Supposedly the car will be announced at the New York Auto show in March, here is a press release from a Florida dealership jumping the gun a bit: http://www.onlineprnews.com/news/347634-1361287236-subaru-to-unveil-its-first-hybrid-vehicle.html It says in the release that earlier rumblings of a Forester were quashed. Either way, looks like we might have the real answer very soon! I see now they have had the Touring concept around for a few years, the one at the 2011 auto show Shawn posted did have a few styling updates from the 2009 one Jeszek posted. Since it is rumored as a 2.0 turbo variant, and Forester is supposedly now excluded - that pretty much leaves Impreza or Crosstrek. If the early 'touring' concept holds, I'd put my wager on a Crosstrek variant.

The article says the concept has a turbocharged boxer engine in it. It will probably be impossible to meet tightening CAFE standards over time without adding hybrids and/or electric vehicles to the mix. Subaru has some wiggle room compared to other manufacturers, because even though they take a hit with the AWD systems, they do not offer extra large 'gas guzzler' vehicles which kill the fleet average of other mfrs. Passenger cars require a 5% annual economy improvement starting in 2016, while light trucks will require 3.5% per year improvement until 2022, thereafter 5% per year until 2025. While reduced transportation energy requirements are good, there will likely be a net effect of smaller production cars being built, as well as possible price increases due to more exotic drive trains and lightweight materials selection. The standards increases are likely why some mini trucks disappeared in the last few years as well, the Ford Ranger being one example.

Sticking out the back is far better than on the roof rack IMO. Most states that I know of will allow that during daylight hours with a red safety flag attached. Factory roof racks really aren't very good lumber racks, and 32 sq. ft. of plywood can generate a lot of lift going down the road. The other problem specifically with plywood is it will cut those nylon straps like a hot knife through butter at the edge of the sheet - it's too sharp. You need to protect the straps with a radius edge of some kind. I make my own corner protectors out of dimensional lumber on a router for that purpose.

Nice work, and Deadmau5 FTW as some 'work music'. I use it regularly!

Welcome to the RX club. You'll definitely enjoy your stay!

Welcome, glad you decided to join finally! You've done a lot of nice mods there, you should get a build/project topic going ASAP!

Welcome aboard! We just made a lot of upgrades to our site and there are many more to come, hope you can stick around for awhile. 5 speed is the ONLY way to go IMO, drives my wife nuts, though. I have one old Subaru that is a project car, and you'll find a lot more knowledgeable and interesting people around here that love all things Subaru.

As a "shop", the liability issue is tough. But, check out hackerspaces.org - they can have any "feature" you want including auto bays and lifts, the model is time tested and the liability has not been a problem under this model (you do need insurance), they have people doing things far more dangerous than basic auto repair. Tons of resources on how to set them up. You can run them as a coop, for-profit, some even go full non-profit route as well. So much info on them, I can't really put it all here, check it out!

The Army Tanker tool bag will put most nylon bags to shame. It's not huge at 19" x 9" x 6" but it carries what you need for a car or truck mechanical bag. The canvas on these bags is super tough, we used them on the M1A1's and they took a lot of abuse. Great for a yard bag. I always choose a bag over a box for truly portable or "in the field" use. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Olive-Drab-Military-Heavyweight-Canvas-Tanker-Tool-Bag-/130730094987#vi-content

Toughbooks come in different levels of ruggedness. I have had one fully ruggedized (CF-28) and a semi-rugged (CF73). There might also be a step down from semi-rugged as well, that leaves off the port caps and carry handle entirely. The fully rugged have the fully sealed body, metal hinged port caps/doors, sealed keyboards, the works. The semi rugged had rubber port caps and was not fully sealed, i.e no sealed keyboard and had an opening for heat exhaust. The lighter duty ones are also significantly thinner and lighter weight - still far better than any plastic laptop. I bought all of mine on eBay, that's where I was able to find the best pricess. I fully recommend the Toughbooks for shop use if you can find a good deal - I also always bought ones with a serial port for backwards compatibility with older instruments and programmers as well, fwiw. If you don't mind the small screens, any cheap netbook is also a consideration, I have used my wife's in the garage on many occasions, its small size and 'disposability' were key factors.

I am thinking of picking up a Meguairs kit for my headlights, it comes with the polishing wheel for the drill and the PlastX polish compound. I used the Permatex kit by hand on my wife's old car and it took way too long for my tastes!

Thread moved to the "Old Gen" section from "Site Help", you should get better exposure for your problem in here!

I had a Chevy truck once that I had a tail shaft seal leak on the automatic - completely stripped the undercoating right off where it slung the (relatively small amount of) fluid around - might work really well in a engine wand but I don't know what kind of undercoating that was, or if that is the best way to go about it...

My DNS is not updated yet, I can retrieve the thread(s) and PM the text to you.

There was a path error to the file, should be fixed now.