Posted Wednesday, January 17, 2024 at 10:06pm
When Subaru first came to the United States, it sold small funky cars that were decidedly un-American. As the company grew its own identity and became more established in the U.S., it became the first automaker to offer an all-wheel-drive passenger car in 1975. Subaru was also an early-adopter of turbocharged engines to bring more power to its line of quirky cars and wagons. Subaru was also one of the first manufacturers to produce a crossover SUV with the Forester in the late ’90s.
As the crossover craze has rapidly ballooned into a crossover pandemic, Subaru didn’t have to abandon its history to align with consumer demand, it just kept producing the same kind of vehicle it had produced since 1975. In contrast, the world stopped when Porsche first introduced the original Cayenne in 2002 because an SUV was a sacrilegious departure from Porsche’s history of producing racing legends and ultra-high-performance cars. When Subaru introduced the Forester as its first crack at an SUV, it flew under the radar since it still aligned with Subaru’s history.
