Road & Track's Guide to the Subaru SVX

[LarryIII]

A long, long time ago in a land far, far away an old SVXer reproduced the R&T SVX Guide on CDs. I have one of those CDs. I was able to use the facilities at DuPont to make color paper copies of each page of this guidefrom that CD . I placed all these pages in a loose leaf binder.

I will bring the binder to the Lancaster Area SVX & Dinner Meet and anyone can peruse it, if they are interested.

[Jamsvx]

I wonder where those piccies came from??



There is are two other shots of the Etna here:

http://www.geocities.com/jamsvx2/initialconcept.html

down the bottom that really show the similarity of the concepts!

I have not had a chance to upload them but the rear lights of the SVX are almost a mirror image of Alfa's from the early 1990's (the 164 and the 33 I think - will check)

Bit of trivia - his 850 broke down upon delivery to him and it had to be sent back to to Germany!!

[Gargoyle]

I just finished reading the R&T guide, & while it makes me love my car more ( as if thats possable )
It allso left me feeling bad for the all the folks who put so much into bringing the car to production... Think about putting you're all into an allmost totally new car with everything they wanted to do to it ( to much to list but *we* know) & then low & behold they DID IT !!!!!!
The SVX made it to production & I think they hit the mark dead on.
But.... In all reality the car failed.
Was it to much to soon ? Was it the price ? Was it the name (Subaru) ?
I think it was a bit of all these.. Was the SVX a decade ahead of it's time ? ( Ya for sure )
Was (is) the car new worth 26-32 K ? Well if you look at whats out there now ( new ) in the same price range, I feel the SVX far surpasses most all GT's
The name?? Ponder for a moment if the exact same car had Lexus or BMW badges instead of subaru.. Dont get me wrong I have allwase liked subarus but growing up in New England I had allwase had the low budget snow buster mindset on Subarus..
So I guess my point is while I love my car i feel bad it didn't have a longer production run & I cant help but feel the disapointment all the fine folks who made the car possable must have felt when it didnt grab more public support....
The SVX in *my* opinon was just to good & under appreciated & got a raw deal from the car buying public..

These are MY feelings & mine alone . I am not looken to get bashed. I just wanted to express my sympathy for the folks at Fuji Heavy Ind. for getting it right & not seeing the proper rewards

[Seraph]

Originally posted by Gargoyle

The SVX made it to production & I think they hit the mark dead on.
But.... In all reality the car failed.
Was it to much to soon ? Was it the price ? Was it the name (Subaru) ?
I think it was a bit of all these.. Was the SVX a decade ahead of it's time ? ( Ya for sure )
Was (is) the car new worth 26-32 K ?

The reason the car failed was due to numerous little things and one big thing. Did you ever see the ad for the SVX? It just plain sucks. Also, SOA wanted to show that the car can go 140+ but the safety authority did not allow them to do so at the time in the 90s. Without the lack of good advertisement, the car is bound to flop. Also, no one really know SUBARU till the WRXes started to win some events

Since no one knows the name subaru, no one wants to spend 30k on a car. 30k was a lot more than 30k today as well.

The SVX is truely an engineer's car compare to the baja which is an accountant's car. Engineer's car as in engineers had the say to what goes in. Baja was designed by enginnners and accountants came and started taking things off making it what it is today.

[Nemesis Destiny]

Did you ever see the ad for the SVX? It just plain sucks.

That's just it, I didn't even know it exisited until after the production run was over, and I consider myself to be a 'car guy.' Besides that, this car is what I've always dreamed of, luxurious yet sporty GT with unique character.

I know what you mean Gargoyle, after reading that I feel badly for the folks at FHI that poured their souls into that car (sort of like the story of Muramasa and Masamune). A friend of mine works in Japan and the way he describes their work ethic... can you imagine how many of Fuji's staff must have spent literally years, working 7 day weeks, 18 hour days?

When I think about that, it truly makes me appreciate this car.

[LarryIII]

Originally posted by Seraph

The SVX is truely an engineer's car compare to the baja which is an accountant's car. Engineer's car as in engineers had the say to what goes in. Baja was designed by enginnners and accountants came and started taking things off making it what it is today.

Lwin,

Sounds exactly like the Corvair.

[Uncamitzi]

Originally posted by LarryIII


Lwin,

Sounds exactly like the Corvair.

Lwin won't understand... Lwin did you ever drive a corvair?

(at 65 mph on the freeway.....

I had 5 corvairs... but I really loved my monza convertible....

[Seraph]

Originally posted by Uncamitzi




Lwin won't understand... Lwin did you ever drive a corvair?

I have never driven one but I have seen a couple before. I wish I could take them out for a spin though.

Hi Allen,

I know what you mean. It's a shame, but it allows us to enjoy these great cars that we might not be able to afford otherwise! I am convinced that if the SVX had a Porsche badge on it they'd be considered one of the best cars ever by the man in the street.

As ND said, even though I'm a car guy, I never heard of or saw an SVX until a few years ago. Even though I was a car magazine subscriber back in the 90's, I probably skipped right by the SVX because it was a Subaru. Not that I though anything BAD about Subaru, but I knew nothing about them and probably ass/u/me'd that an SVX must be just another economy car. I was looking at Ferrari's and Porsches (just to look, I could never buy one) and never realized that Subaru had an interesting and unique car of their own.

I think Seraph hit the nail on the head about advertising. It could have been the key to educate guys like me about Subaru. The WRX's participation in WRC is effectively advertising, and newer generations now know that Subaru's can also be performance cars. In just the few days since I've had my SVX it's gotten the thumbs up from a number of "kids" (approx 18 to 25) which surprised me!

It's fun to have something unique and exclusive but that doesn't bring that "yuppie jerk!" response with it, like a Bmw 850 or a Porsche might. I also drive a 1968 Mini ( http://craig.howell.net/68mini ) and I had the chance to park it next to a new Ferrari once, and the Mini drew a smiling crowd and the Ferrari got nothing but sneers from the few who even looked at it! :-) I'd still have been happy to trade with the owner though!

Cheers!

Craig

Originally posted by Gargoyle

The SVX made it to production & I think they hit the mark dead on.
But.... In all reality the car failed.

The SVX in *my* opinon was just to good & under appreciated & got a raw deal from the car buying public..

[rmjjensen]

please please please please please please please scan it??? I always look for some information on this car and it's hard to find some good articles. I've found some 3-4 pg blurbs but that's about it.

Sounds like the previous owner definitely loved his car.......that svx you have should be in prestine shape! Good luck with it.

Thanks! I said I'd pass on scanning it because I found out that it's already been done by fellow SXV fourum user Rufus, and they're online at the link below:

http://dcss.dyn.dhs.org/svx_iw/road_track/

They look great if you ask me- Scanning that many pages is a big job and much beer is required to get through it... :-)

Cheers,

Craig

Originally posted by rmjjensen
please please please please please please please scan it??? I always look for some information on this car and it's hard to find some good articles. I've found some 3-4 pg blurbs but that's about it.

Sounds like the previous owner definitely loved his car.......that svx you have should be in prestine shape! Good luck with it.

[solarsvx]

Originally posted by Seraph
Concept 2

]

cool looking headlights,, pop ups,, i wonder why they did not go through,

im pretty much like every one else on this,, the svx had poor advertisment, "there was no lance armstrong to help it out maybe LOL" and the subaru name plate

for a car thats over what 11 year old now, it still looks like no other car on the road and still sexy as hell,

and the fit and finish of a jagaur => minus drooping sun visors

[Jamsvx]

I believe they dropped the popup lights (as did most manufacturers of late) since in countries with lights on in daylight rules, they ruin the Cd

With the engineers and designers, I too felt the same thing reading the R&T....unveiling a brilliant car that they have poured their heart and soul into to......silence.



But, when people posted that at the 10th Anniversary meet when two of the engineers who worked on the SVX and were attendance entered, they got a standing ovation....even now, and I was not there, I get a lump in my throat.....for them to see such passionate owners and the growing cult surrounding the car, such can only serve to vindicate their original efforts.

Would have loved to have been there

[LarryIII]

James,

Here's two of them with an amazing piece of art work.
You can see the joy in their eyes.
They almost cried with happiness.

[drivemusicnow]

lack of decent advertisement = nobody knows the car exists
Subaru name = people who are looking at $35-40k cars don't want to buy it
** but most of all, that type of car was dying... toyota supra, BMW 850, SVX, Mazda RX-7... they all died, and the main reason for this, is the rise of the F***ing SUV... that price range was now going towards large luxury SUVs instead of GTs... all of those cars were killed by people not buying them. I think there was even a page dedicated to all the cars SUVs have killed, (think it was posted on here at sometime) the SVX came into the game just a little too late, and combined with other previously stated problems, never sold enough to make it mainstream. (btw this is just my opinion, but feel free to argue against it)