Fast Facts

Verdict:
Subaru’s contender in the MPV sector matches its rivals everywhere, but will it be enough?

Lots of headroom, drives as well as the opposition, quiet cabin, safety features

Short equipment list, unflattering engine note, last row gets hot on warm days

Subaru joins the Multi Purpose Vehicle fray with the Exiga

By Derryn Wong

AS YOU MIGHT have noticed we at CarBuyer pride ourselves on our car-name related puns. However, a few cars are simply named too strangely for us to able to put our considerable language skills to good use and make a snappy-sounding and funny (or so we think) title. Japanese manufacturers are the usual culprits, with names like Yaris, Sylphy and now it’s Subaru’s turn to confound us with the funnily-named MPV, the Exiga.

We don’t know what it means either, but there is a very good reason for the weird nomenclature: modern cars face stiff competition from all quarters and in every category you can think of, so it helps to have anything that helps you stick out from the crowd. Which kind of makes sense since the Exiga doesn’t have any ‘party tricks’ engineering or features-wise, but concentrates on doing the MPV thing as best it can: ferrying around seven people in comfort through maximising space and utility.

The Exiga concept debuted in last year’s Tokyo Motor Show and impressively, the production car retains quite a bit of the looks and overall dimensions of the show car such as the high roofline and huge front windscreen. Predictably though, it loses the funky headlights, as the car gets more normal-looking angular units. The long nose and big windshield give the Exiga a look of forward purpose, though the trade-off is probably a smaller rear overhang and consequentially less third-row space.

A chrome-lined front grille with the Subaru badge and integrated fog-lamps help things along in terms of sportiness-factor and also encourage the family resemblance between the MPV and the Subaru Impreza as well as the Legacy.