You may well know by now the Geneva Motorshow preview is upon us. That mean’s a lot of motoring journalists pretending to interested in the show. What really happens is that these so called motoring journalists end up going on a pub crawl, relying on the hospitality of the manufactures who are only too happy to give away free booze. It’s called buying the media. So in the end you see a lot of motoring hacks stumbling from one show stand to another. But real work really does go on during the press days and Subaru have been busy preping thier stand with the XV Concept. The XV Concept previews the design direction for the next generation of Subaru vehicles, including an all-new XV compact crossover. The Subaru XV Concept is a design study that showcases Subaru’s next-generation ‘DYNAMIC X SOLID’ design philosophy of their go-anywhere All-Wheel Drive range of SUVs. The cabin silhouette tapers and tightens slightly as the bodywork flows towards the rear, leaving an impression of energy without compromising the XV Concept’s innate crossover practicality. The body surfacing is divided by two strong character lines – one extending from the front bumper, along the doors and into the rear shoulder; another rising from the lower half of the doors towards the rear of the car. At the front the concept features the company’s signature hexagonal grille and ‘hawk-eye’ headlamps. Matt black body cladding – which can shrug off light impacts and scrapes in rural or urban environments – runs from the front bumper, over the wheel arches and side sills, and into the rear bumper. The rear of the car echoes the same wide, low and highly stable stance portrayed by the front, with powerful shoulders over the matt black-clad rear bumpers which rise to meet the car’s rear combination lamps. The rear lights share the same design motif as the ‘hawk-eye’ headlamps. Subaru has given the concept an exclusive new paint finish, ‘Glacier Khaki Silica’ – a newly-developed blue-grey tone created to evoke the appearance of glacier ice. Distinctive orange accents appear on the grille, front and rear bumpers, 19-inch aluminium wheels and roof rails.