For SUV shoppers this year, there are just four places to find a flat-four engine, and they’re all Subarus: the Crosstrek, the Outback, the Forester and the Ascent. Though the very first flat-four engines appeared over 100 years ago, it was the sixties before Subaru first started tinkering with them for use in a road car, and since then, it has stuck with it. Decades later, the flat engine configuration is largely relegated to the history books, with various automakers, including Ferrari and Volkswagen, having offered them in historical models. Porsche still builds plenty of flat-four and flat-six engines to power their highest-performing models, but it doesn’t use flat engines in its SUVs.
Â
