Subaru

Subaru was the first Japanese car company to use a name derived from its own language. It refers to a group of six stars - also known by its original Japanese name of mutsuraboshi - in the constellation of Taurus. We'd know them as Pleiades. Subaru is also Japanese for "unite".

(Text from Car Magazine, July 1999. Written by Martin Buckley.)

On February 15, 1967 Malcolm Bricklin and Harvey Lamm form Subaru of America (SoA) in Pennsylvania and contract with Fuji Heavy Industries to import the Subaru and in 1968, the first year, import 332 cars. In 2000 SoA sold 172,216 cars which is 14,351 per month or about 20 cars per hour around the clock every day of the year.

Subaru, a Japanese car company, is a subsidiary of Fuji Heavy Industries. General Motors is a 20% minority shareholder of Fuji Heavy. "Subaru" is the Japanese word for the star cluster Pleiades that is depicted in the company logo. The Pleiades also known as the Seven Sisters has seven stars, the logo's six stars represent the five companies that came together after WW2 to form one large company. While an automotive minnow compared to many of its competitors, Subaru has been a highly profitable company for many years. It is noted for the production of conventional-bodied cars with full-time all wheel drive (in fact, in many markets its entire product range has this feature) and its use of the horizontally-opposed boxer engine (flat engine).

Subaru's best-known vehicles are high performance turbocharged versions of its Legacy (known as Liberty in Australia), and Impreza, which offer outstanding performance and handling at relatively affordable prices. Modified versions of the Impreza WRX and WRX STi have been competing successfully in car rallies and the World Rally Championship for many years. Several endurance records were set in the early and mid-nineties by the Legacy.

Recently GM has developed the Saab 9-2X model, based on the Subaru Impreza WRX, and the upcoming Saab 9-6X model, based on the Subaru B9 Tribeca.