SPY PICS: Subtly restyled Subaru Liberty

Although the next generation of the mid-size Subaru Liberty is reportedly on the corporate calendar for introduction in 2019, it appears we'd best not get too excited about how it will look.

These spy photos, snapped recently in Detroit, indicate that while the car is tipped to be all new, the styling will be almost disturbingly evolutionary – a visual rinse-and-repeat of the current model. About the only elements indicating the next Subaru Liberty will be new from the ground up are the front-end proportions, the position of the upper side character lines running between the door handles, the boot profiling, and what appears to be a slightly different C pillar.

What's most important about the next-gen Subaru Liberty is under the skin, starting with Subaru's modular global platform (SGP), which already underpins the small Impreza and XV models.

Other Subaru models will migrate to this platform in time – a strategy employed by the company since early days when Impreza and Liberty models shared the same platform. As well as introducing further refinement to suspension designs, SGP is expected to bring tauter construction and lighter weight – as well as cost reductions.

Word is that Subaru is also doing further refinement work on its range of boxer engines: Direct injection, lean-burn technology and cylinder deactivation are said to be under development with the intention of improving overall efficiency.

It also seems certain that Subaru will follow popular down-sizing trends by replacing the silky 3.6-litre boxer six-cylinder engine with a 2.0-litre turbo four-cylinder. It's not like the company hasn't had some experience with that configuration...

The Subaru Liberty, on current year-to-date figures, is Subaru's fourth-best seller, and the fifth-best seller in the mid-size segment, where it competes against Toyota's Camry, Mazda6, Ford Mondeo and Skoda Octavia.

It's expected the next-gen Subaru Liberty will debut, as a 2020 model, some time in 2019.