Confirmed! Toyota & Subaru co-developed RWD cars for 201

[Jdawg]

Its horrible, y is toyota desgining a car, with one of the world's most crappy car manufactures, this car is obviously being made to keep the choose few going into finace companys for the next few years


Mod Edit: Removed insulting comments.

Because Toyota own 20% of Subaru
"... unconfirmed reports have Toyota nearly doubling its stake in Fuji Heavy Industries, which owns and manufactures Subaru vehicles. In 2005, Toyota acquired 8.7 percent of FHI, and it is expected to increase that stake to 17 percent shortly. The move would infuse FHI with about $275 million in cash that would be partly spent on developing new models. "Nothing has been decided," said Shinichi Murata, FHI's spokesperson in Japan, while Toyota declined to comment.

The news comes at a good time for Subaru, with analysts calling it a saving move by Toyota, according to Bloomberg. Subaru sales in the U.S. dropped by 4.9 percent in the first quarter of 2008, along with a 5 percent fall in Japan.

Subaru assembles Toyota's Camry sedan in its Lafayette, IN plant, and the two companies have been reported to work together on developing Subaru hybrid and diesel vehicles, as well as a new Toyota sports car."

[rolla_fxgt]

And its just been announced that Subaru have been told to stop making kei cars, due to the low profit margins on them & Dihatsu are going to be the toyota conglomerate kei car maker.
So I guess all this points to Toyota wanting to increase its profit margins & lessen R&D costs.

So don't count on this Toybaru sports coupe being that cheap

[rollaholic]

my 225kw sti wrx never blew a diff or anything else for that matter.

i am huge toyota fan but i dont know why people hate subarus so much.

sti wrxs are a nice pretty fast everyday driver, and if looked after are reliable like any car i guess. but i must admit my bzg trueno took a beating everyday like nothing else i have owned and all i replaced was a clutch

i think you answered your own question really

stis are nice if looked after, all other subarus are complete rubbish. average cost of maintaining one defintely above toyota / nissan in my experience.

[UZZ30]

This should go to make quite a unique and interesting car.

Definitely be keen to see what the outcome is in 2011....

Hell Ill be a qualified Electrician by the time its released. Awesome!

[Urban-Cruiser]

Just an update that i got.

toyota ae86 will be for the japanese market only.
subaru ae86 international.

[GTTpower]

Just an update that i got.

toyota ae86 will be for the japanese market only.
subaru ae86 international.

Thats an interesting way of selling it, no doubt we'll get the toyota one anyway.

[barryogen]

Thats an interesting way of selling it, no doubt we'll get the toyota one anyway.

The AE86 is dead... but yeah, we will probably get both eventually anyway as used imports... assuming that we're allowed import by the time it becomes affordable as an import.

[DeeCee]

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/06/04/spy- ... -the-wild/

[DeeCee]

oops.. double up

[GTTpower]

Promising, but still a long way to go in the styling dept

[barryogen]

2.0 litre boxer engine with about 220 horsepower

that should make it a bit more than an Altezza, and if they are making it the mentioned 1100kg, it should be a damn quick car.

[79rolla]

looking forward to a new rwd kid on the block... shame about the motor tho... altho it could turn out quite good yet... expechaly if they beef it up and make it more reliabail... like the legisy b4 is apparently quite reliabail and sti isint too bad... just would be a shame to see toyota rewin its reputation for being soo reliabail by cutting corners and using a shit drive tran.. i expect there will be quite a bit of interest when it comes out too... last thing you need is for it to be is a flop... (they dont need another cavilere lol)
and who knows. if its a suscess maby toyota will get back into making rwd cars again

[Adamal]

Said to be under $20,000 as well. Thats value in anybody's currancy.
Could this be the begining of the end for the FWD? The whole thing that started off FWD's was that they were cheaper to produce, but with a price like that.....

[Alex B]

Is that nz or us $?

[Adamal]

Dunno, which is why I said value for anyones currancy!

[SUBARUCONVERT]

being a .com site id say 20.000 us. i dont understand the bagging of the suabru engine thing happening here, some current JDM market legacys come with a N/A EJ20 making 140kw, with AVCS-i (VVTi-L). if they do the proper thing and make it a true RWD (engine mounted rite back on the firewall) and not a compromise RWD/AWD (engine would need to be mounted forward of the front wheel centerline ala subaru) it could have great handling balance.

[XS1V]

I think celica / austin martin

What a weird combination though, Toyota and Subaru. An NA boxer motor of all things I guess if you want to make B16A power and torque from a 2litre which uses more fuel than a JZA80.

Hmmm weird combination huh? Kind of makes sense since Toyota is the majority share holder in Subaru now huh

Where do you think the influence for going to a hatch for the WRX came from?? Corolla WRC comes to mind, smaller cars are better ballanced for todays rally cars and didnt anyone notice the similarities of the bonnet scoop to the GTT Caldina and AE101 Levin

Toyota dont need to design a car for WRC because they have Subaru to do that for them now with Toyota design to help.

Brad

[barryogen]

Hmmm weird combination huh? Kind of makes sense since Toyota is the majority share holder in Subaru now huh

I thought they only increased their ownership to ~20%(had 8.7, bought another 11.4).

There are rumours they are looking at a majority stake, but nothing concrete until the Jap anti-trust fullas have a look at it.

[XS1V]

You are 100% correct When i say majority stake holder, they hold the most shares over another party and hence have the biggest say in the goings on

http://www.fhi.co.jp/english/ir/share_info/share.html

Brad

[ROBODISCO_20v]

The Plot Thickens: Subaru's RWD Sports To Be Known As Impreza Coupe?


The rumours surrounding the new Toyota/Subaru sports car project sure are flying thick and fast, with the latest news actually putting a name to Subaru's half. According to Auto Express, the Subaru sports car will be known as the Impreza Coupe and if the above rendering is anything to go by, it should sell like hotcakes.

AE speculate that the Impreza coupe will come in two distinct forms: a low-cost naturally-aspirated RWD model and a big-hitting turbocharged all-wheel drive "STI". It's an interesting theory and one that provides a convenient answer to the question of what Subaru's car will be called, but AE put the cost for the RWD variant at GBP 20,000 - over twice the original estimated cost of the car - while the hi-po AWD is expected to fetch GBP 25,000. Will punters be prepared to pony up that much coin? Perhaps for an STI-branded AWD model they might, but the RWD car was originally intended to be a cheap ticket into rear-wheel-drive nirvana, not an overpriced-but-sharp-looking hatchback. What say you?

Of course, you might not have any say at all. If recent rumours prove to be true, then Toyota's half of the RWD project may not even be available outside of Japan, in which case you might be better off waiting for Nissan's own entrant into the low-cost sportscar market. Let's hope that's not the case

Toyobaru Test Mule Spied


The thoroughly mutilated Subaru Legacy you see before you is apparently the latest test mule for the Toyota/Subaru FR sports car. It's no big surprise, as hacked-up Legacies have been spied doing test duty before, but this one now offers us a glimpse inside the new sports car.

There's a couple of Recaro buckets in the front and a curious Toyota emblem in the rear of the cabin, and judging by the occupant's seat height the compact RWD sportscar will be substantially lower than the Legacy's 1420mm. Other than that, there's not much else to give away aside from the wheelbase of the car, which appears to be around 2300mm.

To see more pics of the Legacy test mule, head over to Winding Road and check out their gallery.