Let's look at some of the examples you brought up:

Subaru did not "take advantage of free advertising" through the GT series. Don't get the impression that FHI execs were sitting around thinking "Gosh, I wish we could sell our WRXen in the US, if only someone would just advertise it for free! What's this? A video game? By god I think we have it!" Rather, GT was a platform that brought Subaru's attention to the fact that there was a potential market for the WRX in the US. No one at FHI thought that there would be enough sales to justify the expense of re-engineering the WRX for the US market. The GT series, and the subsequent explosion of the tuner aftermarket showed them otherwise. In that sense, the cart really did come before the horse.

The other thing you over simplify is this notion that if Subaru had a "strong following followed by a broad audience" then said audience would eagerly buy whatever Subaru decided to slap it's logo on. Also not even close to the truth. VW has an extremely widespread and loyal market for the Jetta, for instance, and yet the Phaeton, which is a direct result of the kind of hubris you allude to, sells like poison cupcakes, which is to say, hardly any at all. Why? Because the very nature of a broad and strong audience pigeonholes you into the market that you have defined for yourself. To break out of that market requires starting high, and moving downmarket, where the cachet of your name will make sales (like Mercedes with the A and B-Class, and the nasty C-Class hatchback), or attempt to move upmarket. To pull that feat off, which is extremely difficult, you have to convince the public that your brand belongs in the rarified air. It worked for Toyota and Lexus. It barely worked for Nissan and Infiniti, and ironically, unlike Lexus, Infiniti's most successful and desireable offering is it's "entry-level" G35. After the demise of Amati, Mazda tried moving upmarket with the Milennia and the 929, which was met with thundering indifference. VW is finding that there is extreme market resistance above the $40K mark - the Phaeton and the W8 Passat were both resounding failures (the Toureg does well but benefits from the ongoing SUV craze). It took Audi more then 20 years to be seen as an equal player to BMW and Mercedes.

If Subaru strengthens the brand equity that consumers value, then expect to see a kickass Outback or an M5-style Legacy GT sometime down the road, not a luxury GT coupe.

Let's look at another company you cite, Toyota. That Toyota is extremely successful is obvious. Sometime in the next ten years, Toyota will surpass GM as the number one car company in the world. In a time when companies like GM and Ford are losing billions of dollars a year, Toyota usually has between $20-$30 billion in cash reserves. In a business where the average profit margin hovers between 2 and 4%, Toyotas generated an average of 16% profit margin over the last five years. That Toyota has reached this elevated position is the result of fifty years of single minded purpose. Although Lexus is the brand that uses the tag "The relentless pursuit of perfection", that's been the Toyota way since WWII. The Toyota mission statement and production methodology have been covered in dozens of business, manufacturing, and management books as one of the best in the world. Toyota's current position is a result of careful, conservative, and calculating management, slowly and steadily building on the company's strengths. Ever wonder why Toyota does not currently produce any sports cars? They knew there was no money in it. The most exciting two door Toyota is probably the Tacoma X-Runner. No Supra, no Celica, no MR2. Even the passionate cars in Toyota's lineup live and die by Toyota's long term global planning. If a Supra does return to Toyota's lineup, it will be because there was a business case for it, and not simply because it's a cool car, or because they can. The Camry is the number one selling car in America because it does everything competently, has great reliability, and benefits from twenty years of Toyota brand equity emphasizing those values. It is not the number one selling car because it is the fastest, best handling, or best looking. Unlike the VW Phaeton, which was largely a project driven by one man's ego, the Lexus LS430 is a cold, calculating business proposition. That it is so good is more a result of Toyota's passion for fundamental soundness in engineering and design, less a result of hotheaded "wouldn't it be cool if?" thinking.

Incidentally, the Camry outgrew even Toyota's legendary brand equity and marketing abilities. The 1992-1996 model was designed in tandem with the ES300, and content and, by association, cost spiraled out of control. Much like Mercedes did with the S-Class, Toyota engineers had to be restrained for the next generation Camry, with price and cost appropriate content. Prices on that generation Camry was one reason Toyota did not have a stranglehold on the #1 sales slot during those years. The lesson, again, is that brand equity and strong customer loyalty do not equal free pass to make and sell anything for any price, just because a lot of people like your cars.

The success of Hyundai, too, mirrors Toyota's cold-blooded business drive. For twenty years, all Hyundai did was learn to make cars, lessons compressed in two decades that it took American and European carmakes 80 years to learn. The first Hyundais were massive sales successes, due to pricing and marketing. As soon as people figured out that an Excel would fall into pieces within months, people stopped buying them. Hyundai learned that price and marketing were not sufficient and started figuring out quality. Their survival was never in doubt - Hyundai is one of the largest industrial corporations in the world, and the production of cars is a point of national pride in Korea - they just took the fifteen years between the 1991 Sonata and the 2006 Sonata to learn the final lessons of quality and design - lessons I'm not convinced some companies have fully learned in the last century of being in business. And remember that Hyundai's current success comes from three places: Price, as always, Hyundai's offerings are thousands less then competitors, the warranty, which costs Hyundai a ton of money but is calculated as the cost of increasing their brand equity, and last year's surprising JD Powers initial quality survey, which put the Hyundai in the rarified air of Toyota/Lexus, and Honda/Acura. The 2006 Sonata, which is a quantum leap over the previous Sonata, plays to those strengths. But there's a reason that the big Hyundai luxury sedans sold in Korea aren't sold here. They do not reflect the brand values that US consumers identify with Hyundai, and they would not be a sales success, and like Toyota, if it doesn't make business sense, then it's not going to happen, no matter how cool the idea is.

In the car business, ultimately, successful marketing consists of playing to your strengths. It's why GM's divisions always seem to be lost in the wilderness - some of those brands don't know what their strengths are, and it shows in their product and sales numbers. BMW markets to their strengths, and succeed, even with a crop of truly ugly cars. Mercury does not, and may not survive the end of the decade. Porsche can sell a counterintuitive product like the Cayanne because it still plays to Porsche strengths - speed and prestige, while VW cannot sell a counterintuitive product like the Phaeton.

Every car company in the US has the capability to produce an amazing, fast, luxurious flagship vehicle. But the ultimate lesson of Toyota's overwhelming success (they are so far ahead of the competition in terms of market, sales, and overall financial strength it's like comparing Lance Armstrong to a bunch of kids on Big Wheels) is that just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should do something. Subaru is enjoying some successful brand strengthening right now. Subaru had a strong brand back right before the SVX was introduced. The SVX back then had a hand in almost killing Subaru. If you're a real Subaru fan, that's the last thing you'll want to see now, wishful thinking or no.