l heard that Subaru was originally an Australian manufacturer, but is now Japanese. l also heard it was introduced to the U.S. by the same guy who brought Yugo. Is any of this true?

No, Subaru has always been Japanese. The history of Subaru can be traced to 1917, when it started as ''The Aircraft Research Laboratory''.

In 1931, the company became ''Nakajima Aircraft Co., Ltd''. After World War Two, it became ''Fuji Sangyo Co, Ltd''.

More changes took place till eventually it became known as ''Fuji Heavy Industries''. Subaru is the automobile division.

The first Subaru cars arrived in the United States in 1968, but had no relationship to anybody associated with Yugo. The Subaru 360 was the first Subaru exported to America. Imported from Japan, it was cheap ($1,297), & it was ugly.

The only similarity between the Subaru 360 & the Yugo is that they were both cheap & ugly.

No, Subaru is Japanese a subsduary of Fuji heavy industries.


Subaru is a Japanese car company, is the automotive division of Fuji Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (FHI).

''Subaru'' is the Japanese word for the star cluster Pleiades that is depicted in the company logo. The Pleiades (also known as the Seven Sisters) has only six stars easily visible to the naked eye. Subaru is logo of six stars represents the five companies that came together after World War I l to form one large company. While smaller than many of its competitors, Subaru has been a highly profitable company for many years. It is noted for the production of conventional-bodied cars with full-time AWD (in fact, in many markets its entire product range has this feature) & its use of boxer engines.

It is currently an affiliate of Toyota Motor Corporation, with them owning 8.7% of FHI. They acquired that stake from General Motors, who bought 20% of FH l in 1999 to have an extended presence in international markets, & collaborate technologically with FHI.

l think Bricklin first imported the Subaru cars.

subaru is def japanese

Malcolm Bricklin did ''help'' Subaru into the US. It has been the only automobile to succeeed in the US with his ''help'' so far. It is and always has been a Japanese company, although many new ones are made in North America.