Subaru Information

Subaru is the automobile manufacturing division of Japanese transportation conglomerate Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI). Subaru is internationally known for their use of the boxer engine layout popularized in cars by the Volkswagen Beetle and Porsche 911, in most of their vehicles above 1500 cc as well as their use of the all wheel drive drivetrain layout, first introduced in 1972, that became standard equipment for mid-size and smaller cars in most international markets as of 1996, and is now standard in all Subaru vehicles. They also offer many turbocharged versions of their passenger cars, such as the sporty Impreza WRX.

Subaru

Fuji Heavy Industries, the parent company of Subaru, is currently in a partial partnership with Toyota Motor Corporation, which owns 16.5% of FHI. Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster, which in turn inspires the Subaru logo and alludes to the six companies that merged to create FHI.

FHI started out as The Aircraft Research Laboratory in 1915 headed by Chikuhei Nakajima. In 1932, the company was reorganized as Nakajima Aircraft Company, Ltd and soon became the primary manufacturer of aircraft for Japan during World War II. At the end of the Second World War Nakajima Aircraft was again reorganized, this time as Fuji Sangyo Co, Ltd. In 1946, the company created the Fuji Rabbit motor scooter with spare aircraft parts from the war. In 1950, Fuji Sangyo was divided into 12 smaller corporations according to the Japanese Government's 1950 Corporate Credit Rearrangement Act, anti-zaibatsu legislation, but between 1953 and 1955, four of these corporations and a newly formed corporation Fuji Kogyo, a scooter manufacturer; coachbuilders Fuji Jidosha; engine manufacturers Omiya Fuji Kogyo; chassis builders Utsunomiya Sharyo and the Tokyo Fuji Dangyo trading company decided to merge together to form the Fuji Heavy Industries known today.

Subaru Outback

Kenji Kita, the CEO of Fuji Heavy Industries at the time, wanted the new company to be involved in car manufacturing and soon began plans for building a car with the development code-name P-1. Mr. Kita canvassed the Company for suggestions about naming the P1, but none of the proposals were appealing enough. In the end, he gave the car a Japanese name that he had "been cherishing in his heart": Subaru, which is the name of the Pleiades star cluster in Japanese. The first Subaru car was named the Subaru 1500. Only twenty P1s were manufactured owing to multiple supply issues. From 1954 to 2008, the company designed and manufactured dozens of vehicles including the 1500 (1954), the tiny air-cooled 360 (1958), the Sambar (1961), the 1000 (which saw the introduction of the Subaru boxer engine in 1965), the R-2 (1969), the Rex and the Leone (1971), the BRAT (1978), Alcyone (1985), the Legacy (1989), the Impreza (1993), the Forester (1997), the Tribeca (2005), and the Exiga (2008).

Subaru claims to have implemented advanced policies which include recycling, reducing harmful emissions, and educating their employees; continuing their efforts have helped them in their environmental initiatives. The Subaru plant in Lafayette, Indiana (SIA) was the first auto assembly plant to achieve zero landfill status; nothing from the manufacturing process goes into a landfill. The company has also developed a recycling plan for the "end-of-life" of their cars. Most of their modern products use aluminium throughout the vehicle, in the engine, transmission, suspension and elsewhere in each vehicle, that can be recycled when the vehicle is no longer serviceable.

An excerpt from the Subaru website stated "In 2006, SIA was awarded the United States Environmental Protection Agency´s Gold Achievement Award as a top achiever in the agency's WasteWise program to reduce waste and improve recycling." The website also stated that "It also became the first U.S. automotive assembly plant to be designated a wildlife habitat."
Subaru currently offers a Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle (PZEV) certified Legacy, Outback, and Forester models which are available for sale anywhere in the U.S. Other car makers limit vehicles certified as PZEV in states that have adopted California emission standards. Subaru PZEV vehicles meet California's Super-Ultra-Low-Emission Vehicle exhaust emission standard. All other models have been certified LEV2.

Subaru Forester

Current models

North America / Europe / Oceania / Middle East / Asia / Japan Subaru models

• Exiga
• Forester
• Impreza (WRX & WRX STI / Outback Sport / Gravel Express / RV)
• Justy
• Legacy / Liberty (Outback / Grand Wagon / Lancaster)
• Tribeca
• Dex

The following models are sold in Asia and Europe. In Japan, they are in the Kei car class, with either front or all wheel drive, and a straight engine:

• Pleo
• R1
• R2
• Sambar
• Stella