New Outback wide as all outdoors

The Australian version of the Subaru Outback will be built on the Japanese market's narrow-body platform, not the new wide-body version developed for the American market.

Subaru unveiled the wider Outback at the New York International Auto Show -- along with the Legacy donor model, also wider than the Japanese equivalent (more here).

We'll see new generations of the Legacy and the Outback here later this year (with the Legacy rebadged as the Liberty for Australian sensibilities), but both the local-spec vehicles will share body and floorpan with the narrower Japanese models.

Subaru Australia Public Relations Executive Alicia Cannon informed us earlier today that the Australian-spec cars will arrive here late in the third quarter of this year with a fourth quarter launch scheduled for the diesel Outback.

"The local release for both our Liberty and Outback will be around September this year and we expect the Outback diesel to be a little bit later in the year," she said.

Subsequently, Ms Cannon advised that both Australian-spec models (Liberty and Outback), would be based on the narrow-body Japanese platform.

Expect to see the Outback offered here with the same engines as power the US model -- a more economical 2.5-litre 'boxer' four or 3.6-litre flat six -- as well as the late-arriving diesel (more here). 

US-market vehicles will be offered with the options of six-speed manual or CVT transmissions, which will presumably come here in our Outback range as well.