Stalkers

A strange choice for a comparison, right? And all because, when will this article, dealers will have to form packages of orders for the new Outback. A present that lasts on the market since 2003, surviving single restyling, leaves the scene, incidentally taking away from a major off-road in the form of a chip demultiplicator which is put with the manual transmission. This does not mean that the Outback would be the road "vegetable" that can move only through the expansion joints on asphalt, and wading pools to overcome the entrance. It's just that the driver will be less freedom of action, albeit for the most part, only psychologically. It seems that Subaru just played enough in the "rallistov of life", incidentally, by the way, leaving the Championship WRC, and stormed the segment of luxury-wheel-drive station wagons. Segment, which for many years to attain to the level Audi Allroad.No we deliberately did not wait for the new Subaru Outback, to compare it with off-road version of the A4. We are interested not remember a smart mine, from which the Japanese have refused in the pursuit of respectability German "gryazemeshalki" and test it in practice. Experience, yet there is a possibility, and the "old", "Outback" off the production line in Yajima, which is 150 miles from Tokyo. Audi A4 Allroad A will act as a destination for the ideas of engineers and marketers Subaru: Outback because new is more expensive than the previous by about 15%, thereby catching up with ingolshtadskogo competitor. Ace in the hole, as the difference price, thrown in the trash. This sought? Take that, and we will try to crack if it's true most affordable Old-Outback worse the new A4 in third of a million rubley.Teatr begins with a hanger, the army - with littered session, and a car on the driver's door. Here it is, the difference in approach: the massive wing "Audi", collapsing with a juicy "chpok" hides leather and plastic paradise, framed by wooden panels. Behind the door, "Subaru", one that has no limits, everything is much more mundane: ordinary trim, plain dark color palette. Quality - is also common, with no ups and dips, but find fault with the fitting of panels of stiff plastic chairs prosto.Regulirovok not enough in both machines, which allows good base, but the higher the driver more comfortable to be behind the wheel of a German - there is a range of settings, steering wheel just turns his head. Investigation of functional A4 Allroad looks like a study of the "iPhone" after years of use wired rotary phone. Initially, much of it is perceived as a show-off, an attempt to justify the price tag immodest, but it's worth drop deeper and understand - all the damn logical. Information is duplicated on two screens, access to main functions - service, music, navigation, and - by a single click on a thick middle tunnel. But the first thing that catches your eye when transplanted into the Outback - how better to read instruments A4! Stylish, but already had time to date a Japanese salon boring, and "premium" does not pull. Imagination is not that! Our car was fitted with an alien navigator, implanted in the upper part of the console, but even with automatic panel looked куце.Гидротрансформаторный Subaru has five stages, when aggregated with a 3.0 liter engine, and just four, if under the hood in the Outback oppozitnik 2.5 liters. After a 7-speed DSG gearbox for Audi seems a throwback, but at a moderate off-road it is still preferable, since less inclined to regard peregrevu.Chto tracks ... Allroad shoots to the top hundred in 6.9 seconds, in the area 3500 - 5000 RPM powerful driver pushing in the back seat. Preselektivnaya box is able to kick-Down Mode for tenths of seconds to switch to 3 (!) Send down, making any lightning throttle response and predictable. Turbopodhvat in "Audi" - a measured, yet powerful and "delicious", which serves as a oscillator driving this emotsiy.Outback contrary, thoughtful, and heavy in the reactions, although the mass inferior to Audi about 200 kg. A sharp push on the gas provides a nearly tangible pendal in transmission, but the exciting growth of the torque is not happening here already without the turbine can not. In the dispersal of Subaru inferior ingolshtadtskomu heavyweight exactly four seconds, but the slow wagon will not name - it simply speeds up to 173 hp its atmospheric, and does not cause to go faster than it can afford an ancient box ... linger behind the wheel, "Outback" and want more of of the most tenacious no seats, which if all goes well the profile is too soft backrest. Chairs, "Audi", which you can order more, and an optional ottoman, ergonomically perfect, and keep the driver a lot tougher. In addition, on long journeys such "buckets" will save your back and other important organs of the nervous zatekaniya.No stabilization at Audi of subtle after-indifferent sound system on the Subaru driver's loud slap vanity. Yes, you can strangle it by pressing a key on the console, but to let the driver completely - no, no! Where in the mud porridge Outback famously went into a skid when opening the throttle, Allroad began shade. Go? Retard? No, Gas, Gas! Rapid 1650-pound carcass muffled buzzing motor, and dramatically slowed down, hardly begins to roll out 17-inch wheels shod in road "Dunlop." Yes, the differential "Thorsen," which divides the machine with a crossover Q5, allocates time in a ratio of 4:6 in favor of the rear wheels and is good for full control of the car at high speed cornering, but the electronics are too zealously and without compromise lets the engine and brakes. But sometimes it is more important for off-road work suspension. Sophisticated mnogorychazhka "Audi", installed front and rear, set up quite tough, but the roots of the "road" chassis issues with his head on the pavement are 180 mm, separating the housing from the roadway, do not feel it. Banks in corners is minimal, but on rutted comfort component abruptly lost, even though the average roughness of suspension continues to put out with diligence pyatiklashki-schoolboy. "Subaru" off-road behaves stiffer. And much more. If under the wheels of cars are digging potholes, bumps and other horrors to test the power consumption of suspensions of comfort component can be easy to forget. But to knock a powerful suspension, you must have a clear desire to destroy the machine entirely. In addition, the stock of 200 mm to the ground will handicap other crossovers. And with the stabilization of the paddle wheels off in the mud in Japanese turns confidently and assertively, aided by a proprietary all-wheel drive with an equal distribution of torque on the axles. But here's the steering wheel in the mud too heavy, and fast rulitsya "Subaru" is not love, not his stihiya.Slozhny and, again, an optional steering mechanism A4, where he works and hydro-electric power and has four presets, including individual settings. But in any case the response to rotation of steering wheel just lightning. And if the fatal viscous ground tire wheel "Subaru" Rebuilding a sharp "bite", the performance lacked the mechanism of A4 and a far steeper steering manevry.Nastroyka "Audi" head gives out, as the manufacturer recommends to drive. Quick! Powerful, without big lists and accurately as by rail, the A4 Allroad is ready to be reconstructed into the hole in the stream. Where the Outback driver will estimate there will be enough quickness box for a quick jerk, the pilot simply presses the Audi gas. And certainly appears headed in peletona.Zato Subaru Outback is not afraid to get into the dirty shoes - black plastic on the bottom of the front where more practical than a soft, light hair in the German touring. Even more so - this was already said to the owners of second-hand "Olroud" - the dark interior of the plastic parts of German wagon is not too resistant to abrasion, and three or four years of operation are losing species. But if you do not leave the flat roads, this can never know ... The test is over, and the machine, bypassing the sink and moved their own way: "Subaru" at the dealership parking lot, and "Audi" for the night at my house. How is twisted head passersby and motorists in traffic jams! Behind the wheel gryaznyuschego Allroad I literally hid from the crown forward-pointing toes, feeling office plankton middle managers, who, in spite of everything, dipped in the same deep puddle of his glamorous universal.Ne seen Audi as the conqueror of nature. You go into the swamp, and seemed to fill in an expensive suit trouser leg canvas boots. Uncomfortable, yes? Because these views, and fingers, and a rapid pulse after each potholes: the bumper did not touch? Protect all right? The rapids on the spot? But when the asphalt under the wheels equal to "Audi" among sredneramernyh estate net.Subaru honest. Plastic clothes, which will crack (rubbed, deformed) from first contact with the stone a little more it does not at all, but a set of functional, even with the old automatic transmission, would be enough for pokatushek, and for more serious off-road tasks. Yes, the "Outback" off-road behaves aggressively, but at the same time it is more understandable to the driver who used to rely more on themselves than on electronics. To have the most advanced manual transmission with razdatki, for the most hurried - 3.0 liter, 245-horsepower engine. And powerful, impenetrable, neubivaemaya suspension, which can withstand a lot. And I confess - when behind the wheel of a new "Outback" for a spread-out rural road after the rain I peredernet as it was in "Olroud", it will be not the best day of my life.