Subaru to end minicar production next February

Subaru to end minicar production next February

Fuji Heavy Industries, which began its automobile business making minicars, is set to stop producing its small Subaru vehicles in February next year, ending a 54-year heritage of doing so.

The company started out with the Subaru 360 in 1958, the first minicar marketed in Japan. Over the years, FHI’s minicars sold well enough, reaching a peak in 1990 when 270,000 units were sold domestically, but in recent times the number has been dwindling – in 2010, sales only registered 93,000 units.

Subaru to end minicar production next February

Production of the Subaru Stella ended in April, and the Sambar commercial vehicle – its mainstay product, in truck and van form – will be the company’s last minicar line, sources within the company said. FHI will however continue selling minicars made by Daihatsu under an OEM arrangement.

Once production ceases, the assembly lines for minicars will be redeployed to assemble vehicles under joint development with Toyota, the sources added.

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Anthony Lim

Anthony Lim believes that nothing is better than a good smoke and a car with character, with good handling aspects being top of the prize heap. Having spent more than a decade and a half with an English tabloid daily never being able to grasp the meaning of brevity or being succinct, he wags his tail furiously at the idea of waffling - in greater detail - about cars and all their intrinsic peculiarities here.

 

Comments

  • make sense.. since no point to have 3 same mini car with 3 different badge, toyota, daihatsu, subaru..

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  • Proton should team up with toyota also!

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    • nebula87 on May 03, 2011 at 5:08 pm

      Proton already wan 2 team up wif Nissan…XD
      *unofficial*…XD

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  • aww.. they will be miss :)

    does anyone remember the small subaru vans that was running around in the 80s and 90s :)

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  • Jerry on May 03, 2011 at 3:06 pm

    Subaru’s R1/R2 models were of commendable efforts. The pair was positioned above the Japanese minicar crowd as ‘premium’ models. They do come in an all-wheel drive variant with an impressive 22.2km/l fuel economy rating (even though real world driving yielded a more realistic 16-17km/L). The 660cc, four-pot EN07 Series engine features variable valve timing paired with an “i-CVT” gearbox. At full chat, the little motor sounds vaguely like Honda’s VTEC engines. Despite its shoebox-sized footprint, the AWD model is perfectly happy on the open roads at 110kph (thanks to four wheels traction, the car refuses to be unraveled by road undulations and expansion joints) as it’s in the city.

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    • Submit on May 04, 2011 at 12:44 am

      But it’s sad that the R2 ended in 2010 and replace by rebadged Daihatsu Tanto

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  • pomen_gtr on May 03, 2011 at 4:03 pm

    there goes my vivio RA-R supercharged…

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  • Stephen on May 25, 2011 at 12:35 am

    This is the latest Subaru Stella kei:

    http://integrityexports.com/2011/05/25/subaru-announces-new-stella-kei-car/

    That’s right – its a Move with a Subaru badge.

    So are they really thinking that consumers are that easily fooled? I mean, what is the point of getting a Stella when you can just go direct to Daihatsu and pick up the original?

    I really don’t get it.

    Either change it a lot (like the Aston Martin Cygnet), or don’t bother.

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