Subaru Discontinued These Models (But We Want They Hadn’t) – Jalopnik

You might virtually consider Subaru because the AMC of Japanese carmakers. Just as AMC was the fourth-place American producer, trailing far behind the Big Three of GM, Ford, and Chrysler, Subaru is in fourth place amongst Japanese manufacturers within the U.S. by an enormous margin. AMC competed within the market with unconventional fashions and a concentrate on four-wheel drive (4WD) lengthy earlier than all-wheel drive (AWD) turned widespread in at present’s SUVs. Likewise, Subaru has all the time specialised in quirky, offbeat fashions.

As a consequence, Subaru has made a few of the most original fashions of the previous a number of many years. On roads filled with tens of millions of excellent however typically nameless small automobiles, Subies have all the time stood out. Even at present, it might be exhausting to mistake a WRX, a CrossTrek, or an Outback for a Toyota, Honda, or Hyundai. Plus, since 1988, Subaru’s STI badge has stood for its rally automobile heritage, adorning fanatic favorites just like the WRX STI. Sadly, the brand new WRX STI S210 will not be offered right here within the States.

The WRX STI is only one of many enjoyable, unorthodox Subaru fashions that followers want to have again. Some of them had been financial system automobiles that we purchased as our beloved first new automobiles. Many had been all-wheel drive workhorses that carried us by way of stormy northern winters. Others had been sporty fashions with wildly distinctive styling. Some had been quick. And some Subies had been all of these items, to somebody, someplace alongside the road. These are the fashions we want Subaru had by no means discontinued.

In the 1990 Dudley Moore film “Crazy People,” an promoting govt struggling a nervous breakdown begins to inform the reality in his advertisements. This will get him despatched to an insane asylum by his employer. He might have written the primary American advert marketing campaign for the Subaru 360, which proudly proclaimed the automobile to be “cheap and ugly.” Ironically, the mannequin is beloved by collectors now. Ugly was in all probability all the time a matter of opinion, anyway; This bug-eyed little automobile with a surprisingly swoopy beltline and comically upright greenhouse might simply as simply qualify as cute.

It’s exhausting to dispute that it was low-cost, although. In 1968, when Malcolm Bricklin and Harvey Lamm introduced the 360 to the States as Subaru of America’s first mannequin, it price all of $1,297. This comes out to lower than $10,000 at present. Plus, with a gas effectivity score of 66 miles per gallon, it was low-cost to run, too, because of its rear-mounted 25-horsepower engine. To hold costs down, it was solely out there in white with a pink inside.

Alas, Subaru struggled to promote the 360 in America. Folks on this nation weren’t too involved about gas financial system in 1968, proper on the peak of the muscle automobile period. Plus, it lacked some facilities Americans had been used to; We as soon as took a deep dive into the puzzler of whether or not the Subaru 360 even has a trunk. It additionally did not assist that Subaru needed to cope with a nasty Consumer Reports assessment claiming it was unsafe for American roads. It wasn’t an auspicious begin, however in time, Americans would heat as much as the brand new arrival.

Subaru claimed that BRAT stood for “Bi-Drive Recreational All-Terrain Transporter.” Really, Subaru? C’mon. One may virtually suspect Subaru simply needed to name the factor a brat and got here up with the acronym to justify it. The little BRAT pickup was one of many coolest automobiles Subaru ever made, or a minimum of we predict so. From the second it launched in 1978, it exemplified Subaru’s artistic method to automobile design and engineering, though it was a pickup truck relatively than a automobile.

Or was it? It was primarily based on a Subaru Leone station wagon with the rear of the passenger cabin transformed right into a truck mattress. Therefore, the U.S. authorities was ready to declare it a truck, which meant it might have been topic to the protectionist “chicken tax,” a 25% import tariff on mild pickups. To keep away from the tax, Subaru mounted a pair of rear-facing leap seats within the mattress. Believe it or not, this was sufficient to get it reclassified as a passenger automobile, topic to solely a 2.5% import tax.

In 1978, the BRAT featured a 1.6-liter, 67-hp boxer four-cylinder engine, later upgraded to a 1.8-liter, 73-hp model. A brief-lived turbo mannequin supplied 95 hp and 123 pound-feet of torque, which was fairly respectable on this tiny trucklet. Its part-time all-wheel-drive system gave it respectable dirt-road capabilities. The BRAT solely lasted till 1987 within the U.S., regardless of its common bodaciousness. We undoubtedly think about it an off-roader that deserves a contemporary revival.

The DL/GL collection of sedans and wagons was a mainstay of Subaru for many years, however the GL-trim wagon contained the true essence of a Eighties Subaru. This author drove one as a medical courier within the Nineteen Nineties, and any day that dispatch assigned it to me was an excellent one, proper up till the day that its poor, overworked, high-mileage engine blew a spark plug in a physician’s workplace car parking zone. Sadness!

Not that our firm’s little Subie was ever particularly highly effective. When Car and Driver reviewed the newly launched turbo model of the Subaru GL 4WD Wagon in 1983, they declared that the turbocharger “boosts the GL’s horsepower all the way to adequate.” But additionally they famous that it was the official automobile of the U.S. ski group, hinting on the GL’s actual energy: go-anywhere gutsiness, in any form of climate. The similar was true of its descendants; one Subaru Legacy began after sitting on the underside of a lake for 3 months.

Actually, we’re falling into a well-liked false impression by referring to this automobile because the “GL.” In Japan, this mannequin was referred to as the Leone. Since it was the one Subaru offered in America from 1972 till the introduction of the XT and the Justy within the Eighties, right here it was simply referred to as “the Subaru,” typically adopted by its trim stage: both the downmarket DL trim or the GL trim. It would keep that manner till the introduction of Subaru’s subsequent mass-market mannequin, the Legacy, in 1990. At that point, to tell apart “the Subaru” from the brand new Legacy, the DL/GL automobiles had been renamed the Loyale, the title the collection would bear till the mannequin was discontinued after 1994.

On paper, the Subaru Justy wasn’t an particularly spectacular automobile, apart from one factor: It supplied 4WD in an inexpensive and tiny financial system package deal. Modern automobile producers might do worse than to deliver that components again. The most cost-effective 4WD Justy in 1988, the mannequin’s second 12 months within the U.S. and the primary by which it supplied a 4×4 trim, was priced at $7,066. Using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator, that comes out to $19,836 in 2025. This undercuts the most affordable AWD in 2025, the $23,330 Nissan Kicks, by virtually $3,500.

The Justy was a tiny hatchback, initially solely out there within the U.S. as a three-door mannequin, though a five-door model turned out there in 1989. Between its small dimension and its 1.2-liter inline-three-cylinder motor, it was fairly fuel-efficient. The Justy, as a subcompact automobile, was getting 36 mpg within the metropolis and 39 mpg on the freeway. This noticeably undercuts the AWD Nissan Kicks, which checks in at 27 mpg and 34 mpg, metropolis and freeway, respectively. So the Justy was low-cost to purchase and low-cost to run.

Of course, the Justy achieved these spectacular mileage figures with a 65 hp engine, so one could not count on autobahn-burning straight-line velocity or acceleration from the little Subie. Plus, it supplied an early instance of a constantly variable transmission (CVT), the bane of fanatic drivers. Luckily, a five-speed handbook was out there, too. Plus, in the event you’re fortunate sufficient to discover a Justy that hasn’t rusted out and its little three-cylinder is not sufficient for you, you may all the time drop in an even bigger engine, like this Justy with a twin-turbo Toyota V8.

The Eighties typically get a nasty rap because of the lingering sick results of the Malaise Era, when underpowered and blandly styled automobiles had been widespread. But just a few automobiles actually bucked that pattern, and one of the crucial hanging was the alien wedge form of the Subaru XT. Produced from 1985 by way of 1991, the XT has largely been forgotten, despite the fact that it was undoubtedly a automobile that was far forward of the curve, arguably paving the way in which for the WRX in addition to sporty AWD SUVs from many producers at present.

The 1985 Subaru XT was a radical departure from Subaru’s repute as a purveyor of wise, dependable, all-weather transportation. Subaru moved upmarket into sports-car territory with the XT, though, at a base value of $13,768, it was nonetheless an attainable dream. The 1985 XT supplied a 111-hp, turbocharged 1.8-liter flat-four engine with an aluminum block and port injection. In a 2,640-pound automobile, this was good for a modest 10.3-second 0-60 time — respectable for the mid-’80s, however nothing spectacular.  The base engine was a non-turbo, 94-hp model of that powerplant.

The 1988 XT6 rectified the horsepower shortfall with a 145-hp, usually aspirated 2.7-liter flat-six, which was additionally constructed with an aluminum block and port injection. This boosted the 0-60 time to a extra sporty 9.0 seconds. With a normal self-leveling air suspension and beefed-up anti-roll bars, brakes, wheels, and tires, the ’88 additionally supplied enhancements in dealing with. To catch the zeitgeist of this offbeat Subie, watch a granny hoon an XT6 on some filth roads on this over-the-top Subaru advert from the again within the day.

Following the path blazed by the XT, the 1992-1997 SVX was one other acid journey of a Subaru sports activities automobile. People did not know what to make of it again within the day, however now it is a collectible traditional. It was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, who additionally penned the DeLorean DMC-12, amongst different classics. It featured a few of Giugiaro’s signature design components. For occasion, the aspect home windows featured a window-within-a-window design like that of the DeLorean. Imagine handing over your cash at a toll sales space by way of these tiny portals!

Plus, it was very aerodynamic for its day, with a drag coefficient of simply 0.29. This resulted from a form that was barely much less of a wedge than the XT, though the SVX featured the rounded-off edges extra typical of the Nineteen Nineties. It additionally featured standard headlights relatively than the XT’s pop-ups, though the SVX’s lights had been flush with the vanguard of its low, modern hood. But the general styling impact was unconventional, to say the least, from these aspect home windows to a rear deck lid with its personal built-in ducktail spoiler.

The general impact was a barely jarring combination of modern curves and odd angles, not fairly coming collectively right into a dream automobile model. And whereas it got here with a 230-hp, six-cylinder field engine, it solely supplied a four-speed computerized transmission, leaving some fanatic drivers chilly. However, with a 0-60 time of about 7 seconds and a 154 mph prime velocity, together with AWD and an expensive inside, it nonetheless supplied quite a bit to love. You might argue that Subaru had made a BMW 8 Series for beneath $25,000.

The Subaru Baja was a blast. It was a Twenty first-century BRAT, and we wish it again. Well, a few of us do, anyway, however these of us who prefer it, actually prefer it. There’s undoubtedly an argument in opposition to turning the again of a Legacy wagon right into a pickup mattress that is too small for critical hauling, however on the similar time, this little El Camino-like truck epitomizes the eccentric and offbeat nature of Subaru. It was constructed solely from 2003 by way of 2006, making it uncommon and nicely price preserving if you may get your fingers on one.

The BRAT was the inspiration for the Baja, which was designed and in-built America. If solely it had rear-facing leap seats just like the BRAT! But by the early 2000s, there was no likelihood that trendy security rules would enable seats within the mattress. Besides, in contrast to the BRAT, the Baja had a again seat within the passenger cabin. Plus, regardless of its small mattress, the Baja did supply some cargo utility again there, with choices like bed-extender rails and a motorbike rack.

The Baja initially got here with a 165-hp, 2.5-liter engine, commonplace AWD, and a normal five-speed handbook transmission, with a four-speed computerized as an possibility. A later turbo possibility boosted horsepower to 210, together with a reasonably respectable 235 lb-ft of torque. It was rated for a 1,050-pound payload in its pickup mattress, together with a modest 2,400-pound tow score. Baja gross sales had been disappointing, and Subaru opted to not produce a second technology.

The Subaru Legacy is lifeless. Long dwell the Subaru Legacy! This one could catch some readers off guard, for the reason that Legacy was in showrooms till fairly lately. After a formidable 36-year run, Subaru discontinued the Legacy after the tip of the 2025 mannequin 12 months. The 1990 Legacy arrived to do battle within the midsize sedan phase, taking Subaru up a dimension from the long-running “the Subaru” DL and GL that we checked out above (now renamed the Loyale). The Legacy was the primary Subaru in-built America.

The 1990 Legacy supplied a selection of sedan or wagon our bodies with front-wheel drive or AWD, though the AWD variations did not supply considerably increased floor clearance or another visible clues, in contrast to the later Outback variations of the Legacy. (The Outback, by the way in which, nonetheless exists for the 2026 mannequin 12 months, however with the demise of the Legacy, it is now an all-new, extra SUV-like mannequin.) In 1991, a turbocharged Sport model turned out there. By its second technology in 1997, AWD was commonplace in all Legacies, in addition to all Subarus throughout the board.

The third technology, the one the Baja was primarily based on, debuted in 2000. The fourth technology reintroduced turbocharging, however over the fifth and sixth generations, the Legacy misplaced its manner a bit, turning into extra mainstream however maybe dropping the marginally wild edge that distinguished Subarus. The seventh-generation, which debuted in 2020, supplied a gutsy turbo and completely trendy model, however its mission as a mainstream Subaru was winding down. Subaru’s lineup now leans closely towards SUVs.