At Home Mechanic

When Subaru was introduced to the American market “Made in Japan” was still a pejorative label so skepticism was high. Compounding that disadvantage was Subaru’s exclusive use of Front Wheel Drive which was a novelty rather than the rule of the current auto industry. Open the hood and you found a horizontally opposed four banger, familiar to VW, Porsche and Aviation mechanics but exotic to most Americans. And the topper was that this collection of mechanical oddities was packaged in some of the ugliest cars to grace the roads of America.

Fate was kind to Subaru, the gas crisis years of the late 1970’s created a demand for all fuel efficient vehicles and they were able to sell even their monstrosities because they could squeeze a few extra miles per gallon of gas. Looking to market their car’s being just more than being merely good on gas, Subaru seized upon their front wheel drive advantage in low traction situations to target the snow states for emphasis. Adding a transfer case and rear wheel drive to assist the driving front axles, Subaru became a low-cost alternative to pricier all wheel drive cars that continued to gain popularity amongst the gravel and steeply sloped driveway market.

Subaru tried to move up market with a 6-cylinder model that failed to ignite any market attention. That engine’s opposed cylinder design aped much more expensive aircraft engines and a whole cottage industry emerged converting the 6 cylinder Subaru engines for use in home built aircraft. The rear axle assembly of the four-wheel drive Subaru’s borrowed the design of the independent rear axle used in the Datsun 510 and 240Z. Datsun enthusiasts are still combing junkyards searching for Subaru rear axles with the highly coveted Limited Slip Differential to bolt directly into their cars with no modifications necessary.

Subaru has worked hard to build a rugged reliable car that could withstand the rigors and hazards found on Third World roadways. Their sedans and station wagons are still not beauty queens but they are acceptably bland enough to blend into traffic without garnering any attention for homeliness.

Conventional wisdom in the auto industry is that “Racing improves the breed” and “Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday” are keys to expanding market share. About ten years ago Subaru targeted the World Rally Championship (WRC) as the best place to race their sturdy cars in an international arena. Adding turbo power to four-wheel drive, the Subaru Rally team has had huge success racing on what would not pass for a rutted logging trail in the US but serve as major highways in the infrastructure-challenged portions of the world. Capitalizing on their unpaved road racing success, Subaru now sells the popular “WRX” (partially using the initials for the World Rally Championship so that consumers know where the model has had racing success) version of their small coupe, sedan and station wagons which packs over 200 horse-power of turbo power with the stick of four wheel drive in a package that sells for less than $30,000. In congruously, the sedate Subaru product line of granola hauling station wagons for the tweed and flannel set is now bipolar with a set of fire breathing hot rods for the generation that had its car consciousness raised by the Fast and Furious movies.

Today Subaru represents the best value in the entry-level performance segment of the car market; the WRX model is the high performance flag bearer for the Subaru product line and can be had from the factory with every boy racer item including flashy wheels, racing style seats, and a huge rear wing hovering over the trunk lid.

Subaru is offering a new model this year that is an exciting development in new car marketing and it represents a trend that I hope will spread throughout the entire automobile industry. Long ago in the 1960’s, it was possible to special order a stripped down compact or mid-sized car with the top-of-the-product-line power train springs and brakes for competitive purposes. Today Subaru has revived that choice for buyers by offering the modestly equipped TR version of the WRC that begs owners to modify it

“TR” stands for Tuner Ready and implies that the owner will customize (or “tune” in the parlance of the sport compact car culture) to his or her specific taste. The TR comes with a very plain interior, standard wheels, low-grade sound system and no exterior wings, stripes or stickers. But what it does have is the highest performance version of the Subaru turbo engine, suspension, and brakes in a plain brown wrapper. In effect, the TR is a blank canvas that allows the weekend enthusiast to build his WRX into a reflection of his own tastes.

Subaru has matured from the experimental arm of Datsun offering quirky oddities, to being a respected maker of solid family haulers that can brave an unplowed snowy suburban side street. But to a new generation of auto sport enthusiasts, Subaru is now the purveyor of pure pavement performance.