“Toyota didn’t have the manufacturing capacity and Subaru had some excess capacity.”
That may well be true in Japan, but in Subaru’s US factory, located in Lafayette, Indiana, they have sharply curtailed the production of Camrys in order to build enough Outbacks & Legacy sedans to meet the increased demand for those vehicles over the past 3-4 years.
When the factory was originally built, it was jointly owned by Subaru & Isuzu, but with the departure of Isuzu from the US market, it became solely a Subaru assembly plant. While Camrys are still assembled there, they are turning out a lot fewer Camrys now than they were ~5 years ago.
@dagosa, I survived many a winter driving a non-posi, 4-spd Buick V6 powered Old Starfire (just like a Chevy Monza) in Ohio snow and ice storms. The V6 had lots of torque and would spin M&S tires in all 4 gears when it snowed. Undriveable with normal tires, the Starfire drove just dandy with 4 winter tires. Now maybe I exaggerated a just a bit but it IS Kentucky, warmer than Ohio. BTW, I drove 2 winters with an '84 Corvette as my only car… THAT was scary in the extreme!
@Mustangman
I know you were just making a point of how important winter tires are; I understand and got your enthusiasm for prepared rwd cars. But, 4wd cars can have winter tires too and that was my point. . I am a strong proponent of rwd, like you I think, and feel if properly prepared with the right (winter) tires PLUS weight in the back to balance the vehicle, they can do very well in snow. You are a rwd man too so you kow what I’m talking about.
My other point to others is that there seems to be some mad rush to make these sports cars Toyota because it appears, that’s what a Toyota dealership might have told them. This is not what happened. These sports cars are decendents from Subaru car show prototypes and Subaru did all the heavy lifting and the lion’s share of the engineering and manufacturing. They even called the initial meeting to collaborate with Toyota to limit financial liability.The transmissions for example are from a subcontractor so you really can’t talk, part for part. That they have , so called, Toyota quality just isn’t what has happened. Subaru makes excellent cars with only a head gasket issue in some, not all of their motors. You are getting a primarily designed and manufactured SUBARU regardless of which make you buy. How each wants to parce it out in the news, is automobile politics only.
Does anyone actually think that if it were a Toyota initiated project, they couldn’t come up with a four cylinder that wasn’t a flat four from their stable and rwd experience. It’s a Subaru, both cars. If the idea seems to catch on, Toyota is then poised to committ them selves with their own engineering and possibly separate from this project and make their own ; they will not have flat fours if that happens but Toyota motors. In the meantime, expect a turbo at some time.
Per the new Consmer Reports car issue, first year reliability has been poor. Surprising given that Subie gets almost universally high reliability ratings from CR.
I wouldn’t own either the BRZ or FRS as a daily driver in snow country. They have skinny tires which might be good for grip in the snow, but their low stance will leave you wanting more ground clearance on unplowed roads.
The Civic Si is a completely different animal compared to the Toyotabaru, but something better than the Si would be the MazdaSpeed 3
I decided to revisit this thread out of curiosity. Thanks to all that contributed some more info as I am eager to test drive one of these vehicles to see how I like.
I owe @pvtpublic an apology: sorry I jumped all over you initially. What you said about the aircraft engines was correct and all, I was just wanting to discuss the car more so than the differences etc so I guess you caught me on a bad day. Again, sorry.
@the same mountainbike sorry if I offended you as well. I realized that my comments were out of line and that simply saying nothing in return to pvt would have been acceptable too. Please accept my apologies and thanks for your contributions here.
I also got rid of my proclaimed “flag” on pvt’s post initially, in a further attempt to make amends. I guess the learning experience for me here is to come to talk about cars specifically, not airplanes (being an airplane enthusiast as well, I simply cannot help it at times). Thanks again,
Apology accepted.
But I fear you may have learned the wrong lesson. Many of us here are also aircraft afficiados, myself former Air Force of B52 bomber expertise. Go back to your early replys and I think you’ll find that you were less than accepting of the comments of others.
