Why do Australian GTs get 2.5L as opposed to 2.0L?

[Riffnugget]

Hey guys, I can't seem to find any information on this.

So I'm from New Zealand, and I was looking at 07 Legacy gts before I came to Australia and bought my 07 Liberty gt here. One thing I noticed, starting from 2007 (post facelift year models) in Australia we get the 2.5L turbo whereas in New Zealand all the post facelift models had the 2.0L turbo until model year 2010. Only the 2010+ gen Vs have the 2.5L engine? Why is that? Do we get them imported straight from Japan or something?
And do the 2.0L Legacys in NZ have the UEL headers?

I have to say here in Australia we're a bit lucky... kinda glad I didn't end up buying one in nz!

[dr20t]

Because more is less

[Manaz]

There was a belief that the increase to a 2.5L engine would provide more off-boost torque. This largely came out of the US market for the WRX (though it crossed over to the Legacy too), and the AUDM cars followed suit.

NZ has a *lot* more JDM imports than Australia, as there's no local car manufacturing cartel to protect. I suspect many manufacturers don't specifically make cars to suit the NZ market, they just throw whatever came from their primary domestic market at NZ, knowing that with looser rules, things will JustWork(tm) there.