Special test Subaru Outback LPG: day 2 Girona - Montpellier

We continue driving our Subaru Outback LPG and on our second day of the trip to the French capital, today’s route covered nearly 400 km on national and secondary roads, seeing how the Outback handles the fun roads that run from Spain into France across the old border.

Since we left Girona at 10 in the morning heading for Portbou, the last town in Spain before entering French territory. After the jump you’ll find the rest of today’s leg and our driving impressions of the Outback LPG.

Day 2: Girona > Montpellier

We left Girona at 10 in the morning, our plan being to cross into France via the national road border crossing at Portbou, one of the most beautiful spots to enter France. Portbou is a town of great importance in our history, especially its railway station, from which around 100,000 exiles left for France in February 1939.

The roads that run from Portbou to Cerbère and Colliure are perfect for those of us who enjoy driving, since there are mountain bends on the descent and you can see one of the most beautiful coastal landscapes in the area in the distance. Colliure is a coastal town with a fortress and a very picturesque old quarter, where we even saw French army manoeuvres on its beaches (the kind of curiosities you come across).

After lunch in Colliure we set off for Carcassonne, where its medieval fortress stands out as a tourist draw for the area. In addition, the Subaru navigation system, avoiding tolls, took us through a good number of villages along the general roads, and we enjoyed driving through rural areas with a good variety of roads in all kinds of conditions, from poorly surfaced roads to three-lane national roads, all among vineyards.

Driving impressions

On today’s route we saw how the Outback behaves on winding roads, since the road from Portbou to Cerbère was perfect for that purpose, and we were surprised by the response of a car with estate bodywork to have such good balance, except for a certain tendency to lose grip at the rear axle whenever we pushed beyond the vehicle’s limits, with the ESP stepping in to correct it. As a result it has good stability. Furthermore, the LPG lasted us nearly 600 km on a single tank.

We also drove at night, on the way to Montpellier (we arrived around 10 p.m.), and we missed adaptive headlights or even bi-xenon, since the car has xenon but not bi-xenon, and the headlights are not adaptive. That said, the suspension and good ground clearance mean it keeps its comfort on potholed sections and can get through without problems.

Tomorrow we will continue our route from Montpellier to Clermont-Ferrand and again tonight you’ll have all the information about the route.