RWD Subaru not yet confirmed for Australia
2 Jun, 2008
31 Comments 
Although not confirmed, Inside line is reporting that Toyota is expected to keep its new Rear-Wheel-Drive reasonably priced sports car to the Japanese Domestic Market only while its project partner, Subaru, will take the car to worldwide markets.
Is it true? Previous reports indicated that Toyota and Subaru will both sell the cars in the same market, with the Subaru variant being slightly better specified (possibly more power too). We asked Subaru Australia if the RWD Subaru is on the cards for our market.
Subaru Public Relations spokesman David Rowley told CarAdvice that although Subaru Australia is interested to see specifications on the joint project, currently there are no plans for the car to sell in Australia or any timeframe for production in Japan.
Mr Rowley also emphasised that Subaru’s long-term commitment remains to the All-Wheel Drive and boxer engine combination.
Should Subaru Australia bring the RWD affordable sports car to Australia? Or should it be left in Toyota’s hands?
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June 2nd, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Seems logical for Toyota to bring it here and not Subaru, as Toyota is the one suffering from a boring image. But, Subaru please Bring it here! Nothing wrong with a rearwheeldrive, just never go front!
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June 2nd, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Hmm could be very risky for Subaru, spending a decade convincing us that AWD is best, then selling a rear wheel drive?
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June 2nd, 2008 at 6:17 pm
It’s about time that subaru updated the 22B. STi underpinnings on that bad boy and BRING IT ON!!!
C:\>
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June 2nd, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Toyota have a chance to shake off that boring tag with there joint venture with Subaru and what do they do.They keep the watered down one for domestic markets only and then give the hot one to Subaru to export.Oh well I would probably buy the Subaru anyway if I had the choice even if they where the same spec.
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June 2nd, 2008 at 6:43 pm
finally a subaru face that is actually nice to look at…
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June 2nd, 2008 at 7:09 pm
^Looks better but I would not call it nice still!
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June 2nd, 2008 at 7:17 pm
Do it! Do it! Do it!
A sporty, yet efficient Subi - I would have bought Subaru ages ago if they weren’t so inefficient.
BTW nothing wrong with FWD if its done right
think Golf GTI).
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June 2nd, 2008 at 7:18 pm
It looks awesome duck, change the colour to black and that would be one of the best looking cars on the road…from teh front (although I doubt thats anywhere near what the RWD vehicle would look like)
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June 2nd, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Dunno if Toyota will, I think they are happy on their high pedastal selling average mobile to the average masses raking it all in.
Profits speak louder than words…
That car doesnt look bad at all.
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June 2nd, 2008 at 7:56 pm
Sounds really cool with either brands. But Toyota parts and servicing are usually cheaper soooo….
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June 2nd, 2008 at 7:59 pm
its a
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June 2nd, 2008 at 7:59 pm
from what autoblog and jalopnik said… its most likley staying toyota in JDM only… wich… dosnt make sense for us? toyota need a good strong RWD platform they can pawn to the mod scene…
dam i hope they come to their senses. alot of people would be very very happy to see it here
cookie
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June 2nd, 2008 at 8:03 pm
now that is a grey import i would buy!
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June 2nd, 2008 at 8:04 pm
I feel TRD and the new IS-F will do wonders for Toyota in Australia, boring image depends who you are. I like off-roaders myself and Toyota is far from boring in this field. Boring is what i would call a Rodeo, Ranger or BT50 not a SRS Hilux, Cruiser (70 series or 200) or the new wham-bam TRD Lux. I hope IS-F competes in Targa Tassie next year, will be great i reckon. Rally Queensland is on this month and hope to meet Neil Bates and Simon Evans for the first time. Those fella’s certainly know how to handle a car in the rough, those little Corolla’s rocket. I reckon Toyota is doing OK for themselves.
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June 2nd, 2008 at 8:17 pm
What I really dont get is that toyota has all these great cars in there home market yet they never come over here.Why the hell would toyota even let tehm build the aurion when the crown is a perfectly capaple vechile that looks so much better.just get rid of the camry and aurion and build the crown and the corolla over here make more sense
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June 2nd, 2008 at 8:17 pm
i assume you mean SR5 Hilux?
if you ask me none of the jap trucks look flash in base guise.
but all of the spec’ed up models look as tidy as each other.
once they throw on a skin other than white and add some chrome mirrors with a bull bar, tidy wheels and side steps, neither of them look boring.
the Navara is brobably the least boring if you ask me to pick one.
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June 2nd, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Can we please not bring the toyota v whoever into this? Please?
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June 2nd, 2008 at 9:08 pm
If they brought this here it would compete with Scirocco, and Scirocco would make this look like a Camry.
No contest, so since it’s not coming anyway, just put aside your pennies for the awsome VW.
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June 2nd, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Don’t think joey Loud mouth is dingo at all. The usual pathetic rantings are not there. Looks nice but I still don’t understand why Scoobie on;y wnat a RWD.
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June 2nd, 2008 at 9:41 pm
i actually like it except for the out side of the headlights where it swoops down and the gold rims ive never liked gold rims bout time Toyota go a car that wasn’t boring to look at they haven’t had one since the last supra
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June 2nd, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Hey this is a Dingo sentence “Boring is what i would call a Rodeo, Ranger or BT50 not a SRS Hilux, Cruiser (70 series or 200) or the new wham-bam TRD Lux”.
Ranger or BT50 are not boring, Toyoda Supporters are boring, FULL STOP…………
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June 2nd, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Should be left to Toyota… Subaru in Australia is all about AWD vehicles.
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June 3rd, 2008 at 1:54 am
It does have a good chance of making Australia badged a Toyota…. cannot confirm it..
but as some said here, Subaru’s Australian reputation as a 4WD manufacturer is at stake.
And someone mentioned the Crown and Aurion…
The Crown is a decent looking car, nice actually… but you have to realize the Aurion is styled and designed for Australia…. the Crown is desgined and styled for Japan… and Camry is desgined and styled for Global release..
A lot of yanks actually love the look of the Aurion, also they like the VE and Ford FG also… but thats a given considering they have questionably styling over here….
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June 3rd, 2008 at 6:10 am
The one incentive to sell it as “Subaru” is to charge a price of around $30~$35K for it…. which is a kick on the nuts for Oz, another one…
Someone mentioned the VW Scirroco??
hehe, okay, the only way VW will release that down under is if its priced well ahead of the GTi, as the GTi is already nicely priced at $40K… I expect the Scirroco to be in the 60s…. even maybe higher priced than the R32.. but I hope I’m wrong as I really do like the Scirocco, another alternative for hot hatch market..
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June 3rd, 2008 at 8:40 am
Easy solution would be for toyota to sell a stript out light weight rwd version here, and subaru to sell a more upspec higher power output but AWD version maybe even turbocharged , with the subaru being more expensive obviously so would compete for a diffrent market..
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June 3rd, 2008 at 11:23 am
Just another tidbit…
it kinda reminds me of the Sileighty… but the early mocks of this car looked better IMO…. the lamps on this look too distinct and hard to manufacture for a toyota-managed vehicle…
if you guys arent aware, this vehicle, will mainly be designed by Subaru, mainly Subaru parts, Toyota will simply watch over its quality engineering and other manufacturing concerns.
Which means, the “new” Celica or MR2-S replacement is still alive.
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June 3rd, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Well, this concept picture is interesting…
Hopefully it is a teaser to show us an update of the current Impreza…. if so, this is starting to look how the Impreza should have looked.
Imagine this one beefed up in STI guise, with a bit of scoop and wider guards, maybe, just maybe Subie is coming back?
Please do it, but not as a Toyota.
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June 3rd, 2008 at 4:53 pm
“just get rid of the camry and aurion and build the crown and the corolla over here make more sense”
Agreed O, or even sell the new European Avensis (out next year) and replace the Aurion with the Crown.
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June 3rd, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I believe Subaru won’t sell a RWD car, just as Audi won’t do a BMW by creating a ‘Duo’ instead of Quattro. It will likely come here as a Toyota, maybe a 370Z fighter.
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June 4th, 2008 at 1:52 am
One of them, both of them, just make it and bring it here asap! Market the hell out of them. Make sure it doesn’t have a stupid automated manual gear box like the MR2 spyder.
All the car makers with their rwd coupes in the pipeline due to be out in a few years… I don’t know if petrol will still be relatively affordable especially for driving enthusiastically! No more delays!
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June 4th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
You’re right!
I don’t really care if it’s Toyota or Subaru, as long as it’s less than $25k or $30k, good realiable engine, good styling and RWD with good LSD. Period.
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