Subaru and GM news
 

Two articles on Subaru in Crain's Automotive News this week.

1st one has GM stating that all plans for a joint Subaru/GM midsized wagon are on hold. Bob Lutz is quoted as saying that "Subaru sees a lot of its brand equity in the horizontally opposed engine"... "So they are undertandably reluctant to engage in programs that result in them having to give up something that they believe to be a core brand value" He went on to say "it would be difficult to market a Fugi-engineered product and "call it something else without everybody immediately saying 'that's nothing but a rebodied Subaru'" I'm sure we'll find a solution, because neither Fuji Heavy nor we want to be just financially linked without getting something great out of it.

Subaru is going ahead with plans independently to develop a mid-sized 7 pass. wagon/ MPV.

2nd one is about the plant layoffs at Fuji saying that 210 were laid off but SIA did a great job shifting workers to avoid laying off the provected 500.

It would seem that they got into an exhcnage, then decided after the fact, 'uh...hm...maybe this wasn't such a great idea...'

I really hope so. The thing I don't understand is with GM rebadging all these Corollas, Swifts, Sidkicks/Vitaras, and now the Matrix why wouldn't they want a nice horizontally opposed engined midsized sedan/wagon as something for all the buyers of these cars to move up to? If I walked into a showroom with no knowledge and bought a Geo Prizm and suppose I liked that car, 5 years later when I was ready to upgrade I'd be at the Toyota dealer buying a Camry not at a Chevy dealer buying a Malibu because the Malibu just didn't "feel" the same.

Subaru doesn't have the reputation that Toyota does. And besides, with the Prizm and Metro, those are lower-end cars and the actual manufacturers' reputations don't count for as much.

Like it or not, a great deal of the US still believes that Japanese cars are poor-quality death-traps. A coworker recently tried to tell me that the only way Japanese cars get these five-star safety ratings is by using lighter dummies.

Lighter dummies. In independent crash tests.

'People believe weird things.' - Michael Shermer.

Suby and GM...
 

During the Q&A session at the SIA plant, I asked the question what was Gm's investment and interest in Subaru.

Mr Nagano replied that GM had a 22 to 25% stake, and that their main interest was in Subarus' AWD system...."The best in the business". Mr. Nagano was evasive as to any joint projects between the two companies....

i hope they don't "collaborate." a Subaru with a cheap GM interior that rattles itself loose after a few years. jeez.

I keep reading that GM was looking forward to using the AWD developed by Subaru. Did anyone think to tell the beancounters at GM that the AWD is pretty much inseperable from N/S mounted engine? The only way to make a Grand Am AWD using the Subaru system is to rotate the engine 90 degrees.

Methinks the techies were not asked, and the beancounters were asked too much.