50 Fun Facts About Subaru

What does the word 'Subaru' mean in Japanese?

The 'Seven Sisters' cluster gives the logo its six visible stars — tradition says one sister is invisible — and nods to the companies that merged to form the parent firm.

How many stars appear on the Subaru logo?

Six, for the visible sisters of the star cluster; the cluster's brightest star also gave the SVX coupe its Japanese name.

What was Subaru's parent company called before it renamed itself Subaru Corporation?

FHI was formed between 1953 and 1955 from five of the twelve companies the post-war government had split the old aircraft maker into.

Subaru's ancestor, founded in 1915 by Chikuhei Nakajima, was a major wartime supplier of what?

The Aircraft Research Laboratory became the Nakajima Aircraft Company; after the war it was broken up under anti-zaibatsu law and partly reassembled into Subaru's later parent.

What was the Fuji Rabbit, built in 1946 from spare parts left over from the war?

The scooter kept the company alive after the war; a scooter maker, Fuji Kogyo, was one of the firms that later merged into the reorganized parent.

Which FHI chief executive named the company's first car 'Subaru'?

He had canvassed staff for names for the P-1 prototype and liked none of them; the resulting Subaru 1500 was built only in tiny numbers.

How many examples of the first Subaru car, the 1500, were built?

Supply problems killed it; the tiny 360 of 1958 became the first Subaru to sell in volume.

The Subaru 360's name came from what?

The 356 cc two-stroke fit Japan's kei-car tax class; the whole car weighed about 450 kg and had rear-hinged 'suicide' doors.

Which entrepreneur imported the Subaru 360 to the U.S. in 1968 and founded Subaru of America?

He advertised it as 'Cheap and Ugly' at $1,297; Consumer Reports clocked 0–50 mph in about 37 seconds. Bricklin later built his own gullwing sports car.

Which model, introduced in 1965, was the company's first production car with a boxer engine?

It was also one of Japan's first front-wheel-drive cars; boxer engines have been in most Subarus over 1.5 litres ever since.

In what year did Subaru introduce its Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive layout?

Both AWD and the boxer engine became standard on mid-size and smaller Subarus in most markets by 1996; the rear-drive BRZ is the notable exception.

Which 2012 Subaru model, built with Toyota, is rear-wheel drive rather than all-wheel?

Sold by its partner as the Scion FR-S in North America until 2018 and then as the Toyota 86.

Which Japanese automaker bought a 20.7% stake in Subaru's parent in 1968?

The government-encouraged tie-up meant Subaru's 4EAT automatic ended up in the first Nissan Pathfinder; the stake was sold to GM in 1999.

During GM's period as a shareholder, a rebadged Impreza was sold in the U.S. under which brand?

A Tribeca-based Saab 9-6X was planned but dropped when GM sold its FHI holdings in 2005; the styling was recycled into the 2008 Tribeca facelift.

The Subaru Solterra, launched in 2022, is a rebadged version of which electric SUV?

It is Subaru's first mass-market battery-electric vehicle; Lexus sells a sibling as the RZ.

In what year did Subaru introduce the Impreza, replacing the Leone?

Announced October 22, 1992, it brought the new EJ engine series and spawned the WRX, whose rally variants dominated the 1990s.

Which British motorsport firm ran the Subaru World Rally Team from 1989, based in Banbury?

STI president Ryuichiro Kuze forged the partnership; Prodrive founder David Richards was team principal.

In which three consecutive years did Subaru win the World Rally Championship for manufacturers?

The team also took three drivers' titles — 1995, 2001 and 2003 — before withdrawing at the end of 2008 amid the financial crisis.

Which Scot won the 1995 WRC title in a Subaru, becoming the youngest champion ever at 27?

He was the first British driver to win the crown; the age record stood until 2022.

Which English driver won the 2001 World Rally Championship for Subaru?

Burns had been runner-up in 1999 and 2000; he died of a brain tumour in 2005, aged 34.

Which Norwegian took Subaru's last drivers' title, in 2003?

He and co-driver Phil Mills won 13 rallies together; his brother Henning was five-time Norwegian champion.

The rally team's blue-and-yellow livery came from a sponsorship deal with what?

The BAT brand's 555 logos ran on the cars from 1993 to 2003; the colours outlived the sponsor and still define the WRX STI look.

The original Outback wagon of 1994 was derived from which Subaru model?

A raised, cladded second-generation Legacy wagon, it created the 'sport utility wagon' niche; a smaller Impreza-based Outback Sport followed.

In what year did the Forester go on sale in Japan?

It debuted as the Streega concept at the 1995 Tokyo Motor Show and was built on the Impreza platform as a taller wagon — one of the first crossovers.

The BRAT, sold from 1978 to 1994, was based on which model?

It was developed at the request of Subaru of America's president to fight small Japanese pickups, and every one had four-wheel drive.

What did the SVX coupe of 1991–96 carry as its Japanese-market name?

It is the brightest star in the Pleiades; the car had a distinctive 'window-within-a-window' side glass.

Which Italian designer styled the SVX?

It debuted as a concept at the 1989 Tokyo Auto Show and was Subaru's first shot at the luxury-performance market.

In which Indiana city is Subaru's main overseas assembly plant?

It opened in 1989 as a joint venture with another Japanese maker and later built Camrys alongside Subarus.

With which company did Subaru originally share its Indiana plant?

The plant began producing Subaru's mid-size sedan and Isuzu's pickup on September 11, 1989, after Indiana offered $86 million in incentives.

In which Japanese city are Subaru's car factories located?

The Yajima plant builds all current Subarus, Subaru-chō builds the BRZ and its twin, and Otakita — once a Nakajima aircraft site — builds kei trucks.

Where is Subaru of America headquartered since 2018?

The company had earlier been in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsauken and Cherry Hill before building a new 250,000-square-foot HQ in Camden.

Which slogan did Subaru introduce in North America in 2008?

The 'Love' campaign launched in 2008 and ran for well over a decade; 'Confidence in Motion' was an early-2010s U.S. line, and the UK once ran 'The World's Favourite Four Wheel Drive.'

Which demographic did a 1990s ad agency find Subaru's all-wheel-drive cars unexpectedly popular with?

The campaign is now a case study in niche marketing and helped cement Subaru's outdoorsy, inclusive brand image.

What was Subaru's slogan in the U.S. during the 1970s and early 1980s?

'All 4 The Driver' is Australia's line; 'What to Drive' and 'Driven by What's Inside' came later.

Which anime studio co-developed Subaru's 2011 magical-girl web series Wish Upon the Pleiades?

The four-part series appeared on YouTube with a protagonist named Subaru; a full TV series followed in 2015.

Which was the last kei vehicle Subaru built itself, ending 54 years of production in March 2012?

After its partner raised its stake, Subaru stopped developing its own kei cars and now sells rebadged Daihatsus.

Roughly what share of Subarus sold internationally were made in Japan as of early 2016?

That made Subaru unusual among Japanese brands, most of which had shifted heavily to overseas production.

The Subaru Telescope, which shares the brand's name, sits on which mountain?

The 8.2-metre instrument belongs to the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and took its first scientific images in January 1999.

In 2019 Subaru opened a joint-venture plant in Bangkok with which Hong Kong-listed distributor?

The former Mitsubishi Fuso factory supplies Asian markets including Australia and New Zealand; Tan Chong holds 74.9%.

Which country twice rejected a proposed Subaru–Chery joint venture, in 2011 and 2012?

Authorities ruled that Toyota, an FHI affiliate, already had the maximum two joint ventures; overcapacity was cited the second time.

Which Subaru model, sold from 2003, was a car-based pickup?

The Tribeca followed in 2005; the Traviq was a rebadged Opel Zafira sold in Japan in exchange for Foresters wearing Chevrolet badges in India.

Under which Toyota youth brand was the BRZ sold in the US and Canada until 2018?

It became the Toyota 86 after Scion was discontinued in 2016.

Which Toyota sedan began rolling off Subaru's Indiana line in April 2007?

Toyota had picked up 8.7% of Subaru's parent from GM's liquidated stake in 2005 and raised it to 16.5% in 2008.

For how much did Isuzu sell its stake in the Indiana plant to Fuji Heavy Industries in 2001?

Subaru-Isuzu Automotive had built the Legacy and Isuzu Rodeo there since 1989.

Subaru's Indiana factory was the first US car plant to earn which environmental designation?

The National Wildlife Federation has also designated it a backyard wildlife habitat.

What kind of sensor did Subaru's EyeSight system use when it launched in 2008?

The CCD cameras sit at the top of the windshield; early generations cut injury-causing rear-end crashes by 85 percent.

Which small Subaru set a 1989 world speed record for non-turbo cars under 1.0 litre, at 123 mph?

The Legacy set several endurance records in the early and mid-1990s.

Which driver set a lap record at the Isle of Man TT course in a stock Impreza in 2011?

He broke it again in 2016 in a modified WRX STI.

Which Formula One team's 1990 flat-12 engine was badged as a Subaru?

The engine was actually an existing Motori Moderni design that merely shared the boxer layout.

In which Tokyo district is Subaru's corporate headquarters?

Its car factories, by contrast, are clustered in Ōta in Gunma Prefecture.