EUROPEANS love diesel engines, and they also love shifting gears themselves.



Australians also love a good oil-burning donk, but we hate swapping cogs the old-fashioned way.

However, because the Australian market is such an anomaly on the world stage, it presents a big challenge to car-makers loathe to tip big money into a low-volume right-hand-drive market too lazy to work a clutch pedal.

It’s a big thing, then, when someone does make the effort, and Subaru is one of them.

Earlier this year, its Outback soft-roader added an automatic transmission, but instead of using a traditional torque converter with a defined set of ratios, Subaru has paired its diesel with a steel belt and a pair of pulleys – a motor scooter-friendly continuously variable transmission.

And you know what? It’s just right for us lazy Aussies.

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