Subaru Solterra In the Flesh

Tim Healey
by Tim Healey

We’ve already covered the Subaru Solterra EV, so I don’t have much to add.

Instead, you can enjoy two poorly-lit pics from the 2021 Los Angeles Auto Show.

Auto-show lighting sucks, but the Solterra does look decent up close. Not head-turning, but more cohesive than I thought based on press photos.

Two key numbers to remember — the car has 8.3 inches of ground clearance and an estimated range of at least 220 miles.

If I can add interior photos over the next day or two, I will.

And no, the car isn’t floating. Blame a video display and bad lighting.

That’s about it from L.A. for today. Expect us to check in tomorrow or Friday with news about VinFast and … Barbie? Yes, Barbie. What a world we live in.

[Images © 2021 Tim Healey/TTAC]

Tim Healey
Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

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  • 28-Cars-Later Let's review Ol' Joe's earlier thoughts on the matterTrump doesn’t get the basics. He thinks his tariffs are being paid by China. Any freshman econ student could tell you that the American people are paying his tariffs.The cashiers at Target see what’s going on – they know more about economics than Trump. #TeamJoe 1:59 PM · Jun 11, 2019I think the cashiers may also know more about managing the presidency too Joe. What is it you do again?
  • 28-Cars-Later So the company whose BEVs are without proven lifespan and mired in recalls wants to further cheapen materials and mfg costs of the very same thing they already cannot sell? I don't know if Ford is going to still exist in 2030 (assuming the nation still does of course).
  • Fred We want our manufacturing to pay good wages, provide healthcare, not pollute and provide a safe workplace. Many places around the world don't, so we put a tariff on them to force them. That's the way it should be, but I'm afraid this is just a political move by Biden to take away one of Trump's talking points.
  • Orange260z Modern Cadillac sedans look and drive great. Yeah, the interior materials aren't quite as good as the competition, but if they undercut them in price it can offset. IMHO, they need to step up in a big way on their warranty, service and customer service. H/K/G shows confidence in the quality of the product by offering long standard B2B warranties and low-cost exclusionary extensions. My Caddy became a money pit after the warranty with only 75K kms; yes, the Germans do that, but they have the established cachet that they get away with it. They need to make sure that their cars still look good after 10 years (i.e. no trim issues, no undercarriage rust issues, etc) - my CTS was all rusty underneath after two years, they told me that was acceptable and not under warranty. Cadillac needs to do more.In Canada, there are few (if any) standalone Cadillac dealerships; they are typically co-located with all the other (remaining) GM brands. However, this doesn't have to be a kiss of death - Lexus successfully built their rep despite co-location, by investing in dedicated Lexus sales areas, sales people, service advisors, technicians, lounge areas with private offices, perks (free coffee/treats, car wash and vacuum with any service, a large complimentary Lexus loaner fleet available for any service visit), etc. By contrast, for Cadillac service I would line up with the 20 other people waiting for one of 5-7 service writers that know nothing about my car because they service 10,000 different GM models, answering a question about maintenance requirements "How am I supposed to know?". During the first 4 years I had access to complimentary Enterprise rental cars as loaners, but I had to spend 20-30 mins going through a car rental process every time. The guy who would do complimentary service washes did so with a big scrub brush he just used to wash a work truck that was covered in mud. They can't sell a premium car with crappy service like that, they have to be better than their competition.If it weren't for these issues I would not have hesitated to buy a new CT5 V-sport (winter DD, want AWD). I bought a G70 instead, we'll see how that goes - but at least I have a long B2B warranty.
  • Jalop1991 Are tariffs the right answer? Ask China and Japan. They've imposed lots of protectionist tariffs over the years, but somehow our doing so is horrible or something like that.Let's do the Japanese inspection to the Chinese junk imports, and make the Chinese pay for them.BYD--now available at Walmart and Amazon.
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