[benebob]

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.