by Dominic Franco
The first generation Subaru Liberty was introduced
in 1989 as both a 4 door sedan and wagon. Subaru
chose the name Liberty rather than the standard
moniker of Legacy (as was being used in other markets
around the world), due to the naming conflict with
the Legacy war veterans organisation.
Initially only
sold in sedan form and as a front wheel drive,
the station wagon would soon follow, it offering
both
front wheel drive (FWD) and All Wheel Drive
(AWD).
Two trim levels were available, the standard
LX and a more luxurious GX, the latter iteration
including features such as cruise control, power
windows and central locking.
The All Wheel Drive
wagon was only available in GX trim. The notably
larger Liberty replaced the Leone sedan in Australia
and supplemented the L Series wagons until 1994 when
it was discontinued.
In keeping
with Subaru’s formula of using
a water-cooled longitudinally mounted horizontally
opposed "Boxer" engine, the EJ22 powerplant was
a 2.2 litre SOC fuel injected
unit, delivering a neat 100 kW and producing 189Nm
@ 4800rpm.
Best of all, the EJ22 used five
main bearings instead of three, the extra bearings
providing a much smoother and more tractable engine.
The boxer engines other great advantage was that,
by its design, the weight was kept much lower than
that of a traditional engine layout. That Subaru
manufacture a sweet chassis is well known, and the
resultant lowering of the centre of gravity provided
by the boxer made the Liberty arguably the best handling
wagon around.
But best of all, the
conventional styling was at least no "ugly duckling",
a label often used when describing the rather awkward
styling of the earlier model Sub's. In 1990 the model range was increased to include
the luxury "Heritage" model, again available
in both Front Wheel and All Wheel Drive. At the same
time, Subaru made the GX sedan available
in All Wheel Drive. No changes were made to the mechanicals,
and the available
transmissions were
either a 5 speed manual or a 4 speed automatic.
The
model range was expanded again in 1992 to include
a Rallye version, and then the "RS". This latter
iteration was blessed with the awesome EJ20 engine,
the 2.0 litre
turbocharged DOHC unit delivering
a maximum power of 147 kW. Unfortunately those
looking for a "hot wagon" would be disappointed,
the RS being restricted to sedan (manual) version
only.