Used Subaru Cars in Pennsylvania
Subaru is the automobile manufacturing division and brand name of Japanese
transportation conglomerate Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI). Fuji Heavy Industries, the parent company of Subaru, is currently in a
partnership with Toyota Motor Corporation, which owns 16.5% of FHI.
Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster, which in turn
inspires the Subaru logo and alludes to the six companies that merged to create
FHI.
FHI started out as The Aircraft Research Laboratory in 1917 headed by Chikuhei
Nakajima. In 1932, the company was reorganized as Nakajima Aircraft Company, Ltd
and soon became the primary manufacturer of aircraft for Japan during World War
II. In 1946, the company created the Fuji Rabbit motor scooter with spare
aircraft parts from the war. In 1950, Fuji Sangyo was divided into 12 smaller
corporations according to the Japanese Government's 1950 Corporate Credit
Rearrangement Act, anti-zaibatsu legislation, but between 1953-1955, four of
these corporations and a newly formed corporation Fuji Kogyo, a scooter
manufacturer; coachbuilders Fuji Jidosha; engine manufacturers Omiya Fuji Kogyo;
chassis builders Utsunomiya Sharyo and the Tokyo Fuji Dangyo trading company decided to merge together to form the Fuji Heavy
Industries known today.
Kenji Kita, the CEO of Fuji Heavy Industries at the time, wanted the new
company to be involved in car manufacturing and soon began plans for building a
car with the development code-name P-1. In the end, he gave the car a Japanese
name that had been his personal favorite from childhood: Subaru. The first
Subaru car was named the Subaru 1500. Only twenty P1s were
manufactured due to multiple supply issues. Subaru Rally Team Japan led by
Noriyuki Koseki (founder of Subaru Tecnica International STI) ran Subaru Leone
coupé, sedan DL, RX (SRX) and RX Turbo in the World Rally Championship between
1980 and 1989 a few rallies per season. Drivers for individual rallies included
Ari Vatanen, Per Eklund, Shekhar Mehta, Mike Kirkland, Possum Bourne and Harald
Demut. Mike Kirkland finished 6th overall and won the A Group at the 1986 Safari
Rally. That year Subaru was one of the only manufactures combining 4WD and
turbo. Subaru changed the rally model to Legacy RS for the 1990-1992 period and
took part in the first complete season in the World Rally Championship with the
same model in 1993.
Find Used Subaru Cars in PA
In June 2006, Fuji Heavy Industries, Inc. (FHI) launched its Subaru Stella
Plug-in electric vehicle, which is a kei car equipped with a lithium-ion battery
pack. FHI plans to start delivery in late July and plans to sell 170 vehicles by
March 2010.
In Japan, Subaru is also currently testing two
electric vehicles called the Subaru G4e and the Subaru R1e.
Subaru Hybrid Tourer Concept, is a four-seat
vehicle with gull-wing doors that combines a 2-liter, turbocharged,
direct-injection gasoline engine with a continuously variable transmission and
two axle-mounted motors. The Toyota FT-86 Concept is a concept car manufactured
jointly by Toyota and Subaru. On April 10, 2008, Toyota approximately doubled
its stake in FHI to 16.5%, and announced that Toyota and Subaru are working on a
2-door coupe together, to be released around 2011. According to an article
posted by Autoblog on May 28, 2008, the coupe that Toyota and Subaru are working
on together will be sold in Japan only as a Toyota, and internationally as a
Subaru. According to an article posted by Carscoop.com, the Toyota coupe will be
sold as the next generation Scion TC, to be introduced in 2011.[31] An article
posted December 22, 2008 on Autoblog stated that the Toyota-Subaru coupe has
been delayed until 2012. According to an article posted by Autoblog February 18,
2009, the delay in production, according to Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda, is due to
incorporating Toyota D-4S direct injection technology to the Subaru boxer
engine. The current code name for the Toyota/Subaru project is "086A", a
reference to the Toyota Levin & Trueno.