Subaru Trivia
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50 free Subaru trivia questions with answers — technology quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades, which is why there are six stars on the badge and why the company's first luxury coupe was called Alcyone. The brand grew out of the Nakajima Aircraft Company, sold its first American cars as 'Cheap and Ugly,' put a boxer engine in the 1000 in 1965 and Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive in the Leone in 1972, and then spent the 1990s winning World Rally Championships in blue and gold. This quiz covers the whole story: Fuji Heavy Industries and CEO Kenji Kita's naming of the P-1, the Subaru 360 and Malcolm Bricklin, the Nissan, GM and Toyota partnerships, the Impreza and WRX, Colin McRae, Richard Burns and Petter Solberg, the Outback, Forester, BRAT, SVX and BRZ, the Lafayette, Indiana plant, the Solterra and the ad slogans. Some questions are easy for any owner; others will test the people who can name every EJ engine variant. Every answer is checked against a reference source and each question links to where the fact was confirmed.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What does the word 'Subaru' mean in Japanese?
The Pleiades cluster
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.
Q 02How many stars appear on the Subaru logo?
Six
Six, for the visible sisters of the star cluster; the cluster's brightest star also gave the SVX coupe its Japanese name.
Q 03What was Subaru's parent company called before it renamed itself Subaru Corporation?
Fuji Heavy Industries
FHI was formed between 1953 and 1955 from five of the twelve companies the post-war government had split the old aircraft maker into.
Q 04Subaru's ancestor, founded in 1915 by Chikuhei Nakajima, was a major wartime supplier of what?
Warplanes
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.
Q 05What was the Fuji Rabbit, built in 1946 from spare parts left over from the war?
A motor scooter
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.
Q 06Which FHI chief executive named the company's first car 'Subaru'?
Kenji Kita
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.
Q 07How many examples of the first Subaru car, the 1500, were built?
Twenty
Supply problems killed it; the tiny 360 of 1958 became the first Subaru to sell in volume.
Q 08The Subaru 360's name came from what?
Its engine displacement in cubic centimetres
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.
Q 09Which entrepreneur imported the Subaru 360 to the U.S. in 1968 and founded Subaru of America?
Malcolm Bricklin
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.
Q 10Which model, introduced in 1965, was the company's first production car with a boxer engine?
The 1000
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.
Q 11In what year did Subaru introduce its Symmetrical All-Wheel Drive layout?
1972
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.
Q 12Which 2012 Subaru model, built with Toyota, is rear-wheel drive rather than all-wheel?
BRZ
Sold by its partner as the Scion FR-S in North America until 2018 and then as the Toyota 86.
Q 13Which Japanese automaker bought a 20.7% stake in Subaru's parent in 1968?
Nissan
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.
Q 21Which Norwegian took Subaru's last drivers' title, in 2003?
Petter Solberg
He and co-driver Phil Mills won 13 rallies together; his brother Henning was five-time Norwegian champion.
Q 22The rally team's blue-and-yellow livery came from a sponsorship deal with what?
State Express 555 cigarettes
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.
Q 23The original Outback wagon of 1994 was derived from which Subaru model?
The Legacy
A raised, cladded second-generation Legacy wagon, it created the 'sport utility wagon' niche; a smaller Impreza-based Outback Sport followed.
Q 14During GM's period as a shareholder, a rebadged Impreza was sold in the U.S. under which brand?
Saab, as the 9-2X
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.
Q 15The Subaru Solterra, launched in 2022, is a rebadged version of which electric SUV?
Toyota bZ4X
It is Subaru's first mass-market battery-electric vehicle; Lexus sells a sibling as the RZ.
Q 16In what year did Subaru introduce the Impreza, replacing the Leone?
1992
Announced October 22, 1992, it brought the new EJ engine series and spawned the WRX, whose rally variants dominated the 1990s.
Q 17Which British motorsport firm ran the Subaru World Rally Team from 1989, based in Banbury?
Prodrive
STI president Ryuichiro Kuze forged the partnership; Prodrive founder David Richards was team principal.
Q 18In which three consecutive years did Subaru win the World Rally Championship for manufacturers?
1995, 1996 and 1997
The team also took three drivers' titles — 1995, 2001 and 2003 — before withdrawing at the end of 2008 amid the financial crisis.
Q 19Which Scot won the 1995 WRC title in a Subaru, becoming the youngest champion ever at 27?
Colin McRae
He was the first British driver to win the crown; the age record stood until 2022.
Q 20Which English driver won the 2001 World Rally Championship for Subaru?
Richard Burns
Burns had been runner-up in 1999 and 2000; he died of a brain tumour in 2005, aged 34.
Q 24In what year did the Forester go on sale in Japan?
1997
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.
Q 25The BRAT, sold from 1978 to 1994, was based on which model?
The Leone
It was developed at the request of Subaru of America's president to fight small Japanese pickups, and every one had four-wheel drive.
Q 26What did the SVX coupe of 1991–96 carry as its Japanese-market name?
Alcyone
It is the brightest star in the Pleiades; the car had a distinctive 'window-within-a-window' side glass.
Q 27Which Italian designer styled the SVX?
Giorgetto Giugiaro
It debuted as a concept at the 1989 Tokyo Auto Show and was Subaru's first shot at the luxury-performance market.
Q 28In which Indiana city is Subaru's main overseas assembly plant?
Lafayette
It opened in 1989 as a joint venture with another Japanese maker and later built Camrys alongside Subarus.
Q 29With which company did Subaru originally share its Indiana plant?
Isuzu
The plant began producing Subaru's mid-size sedan and Isuzu's pickup on September 11, 1989, after Indiana offered $86 million in incentives.
Q 30In which Japanese city are Subaru's car factories located?
Ōta, Gunma
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.