August10
Toyota and Subaru are finalizing plans to co-develop a sports car sold under the Toyota name-plate for the Japanese market. This will be the first time the two companies have worked together since Toyota acquired 8.7% of Subaru’s parent company, Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., in 2005. The car will be aimed at young, urban buyers and will use a 2 liter engine and Subaru’s all-wheel drive. The target price is 2 million Yen, or about $17,000 U.S., and the car should be ready for a 2010 launch.
Also in the deal, Toyota’s subcompact subsidiary Daihatsu will supply Subaru with the Coo compact. For sale in Japan only, Subaru could sell the re-badged Coo as early as next summer and expects sales to hit 6,000 a year according to Asahi. Daihatsu and Subaru already have a similar venutre in Europe where a re-badged Daihatsu, to be named the Subaru Justy, is set to hit the European market this fall. Here in the U.S., Subaru’s Indiana factory has been making the Toyota Camry since April of this year.
What does Subi get out of the deal if they dont get the car.
Lets hope this is not the new Supra. It better not look like the new WRX as that car is hideous.
Good idea. They have to keep the price down to make this work, probably won’t be turbocharged at that price. Unfortunately, GM totally missed the mark with the 92X or whatever it was called in NA.
yes lets hope subaru design team does not do the exterior designing
What does Subaru get? Subaru gets to make lots of money selling their vehicles with a Toyota badge on them. Far, far more money they they ever got with the Sabbarus.
An All wheel drive sports car at that price seems like a can’t lose situation for toyota/subaru
I hope it’s more subaru than toyota.
If it can be had for $17K, it ain’t a sports car
good toyota sure cant make on by themselves.
I doubt it’d be the new Supra. More like a hotted up Corolla or Caldina. Toyota already sells a turbocharged, AWD Caldina anyway, so it’s more likely a Corolla variant.
^^^^^ewwwww discusting a corolla with a subaru drivetrain wouldnt be on my list of cars i would want.
2 liter? Buzzy 4-banger making 200 hp with Corolla or Subaru styling isn’t my idea of a winner. I’ll take the Mazda3 or Gti, xxxx you very much.
Great. Subaru uglyness on a cheap, unreliable POS Toyota. Sounds like a winning, um losing proposition!
This wreck should bring ever increasing sales of the Sky and Solstice to a new level. Unless the chicks get tired of their Porsches and Miatas, then they may give this POS a chance.
THEN! once they see this one is a pile of crap as well, they’ll be over at the GM dealer buying a new Kappa.
Only good can come from this. A tC with AWD and maybe a factory turbo? Are you kidding? You think that wouldn’t sell?
Well… now that you mention it Me, a turbo’d, AWD tC sounds interesting. Especially since I just noticed the headline said “sports car”. I doubt Toyota would use the Subie’s flat four though.
If Toyota want to be taken seriously, why doesn’t it merely just swallow (acquire) Subaru completely?
Even if Toyota wanted to acquire Subaru, Fuji Heavy Industries might not be inclined to let it go.
This WOULD have been a good idea if the sports car was for the US market, not just the Japan market. Toy needs a car that isn’t dead boring here like a Suburu WRX style hatch or a SUPRA!
****, look at the exchange rates: 2,000,000yen=$17000
So were getting a boring looking AWD car yay.
Just what we need… a Toyubaru.
^^ hahaha good one amgoff.
Maybe working together they can build a car with even lower quality than either of them could build on their own.
I was thinking like hostile takeover: buy up all the shares, kick out management with shareholder majority votes, and then TAKE POWER by replacing their management with Toyota management!
All wheel drive.. 2.0 liters.. $17,000… that sounds like a pretty damn nifty tuner platform to me.. take that for $17k, build the motor and turbo/supercharge it, and you’ll have an Evo/STI competitor for far less money.
Im not so sure that all wheel drive is the way to go, to heavy and expensive for a small cheap car.
I prefer the idea of a toyota MR2 successor.
TOZO - why? Toy will just ruin whatever excitement Suburu has with their WRX. Toyota sucks the life and styling out of any manufacturer they take over and replaces it with its own blandness and boringness
It’ll be a Scion if it ever comes over her.
it’s funny when people comment anything related to the big 3 in the states, this has nothing to do with GM or ford but they always pull them in, an ever increasing sales number in sky and solstice, don’t joking me please, they just makes it so hilarious
Ok people what this means is Europe is aligning itself with its own companies/countries and the Japanese are doing the same pulling out of US investments. Since GM sold off shares it was only a matter of time till the Japanese did this, watch as Volvo possibly could be scooped up by a Swedish based firm. This doesnt mean it will ever hit US shores, much like the Toyota/VW/Nissan small cars.
Report the whole thing!!!
TOKYO, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp. (7203.T: Quote, Profile, Research) and Subaru-maker Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (7270.T: Quote, Profile, Research) are finalisingplans to co-develop a sports car under the Toyota brand as part of their recently formed alliance, the Asahi newspaper reported on Friday.
The new car, to be priced under 2 million yen ($16,900) with an engine displacement of less than 2 litres, may use Subaru’s signature symmetrical all-wheel-drive powertrain, the paper said, without citing sources.
The partners aim to sell the car in 2010, and finalise details of the joint development by autumn.Both companies said they could not discuss future product plans.
Toyota, the world’s biggest automaker, took an 8.7 percent stake in Fuji Heavy in late 2005, aiming to tap the latter’s unused production capacity in the United States and find areas of joint development.
Industry watchers had been especially keen to see whether Toyota would make use of Fuji Heavy’s flat-four engine, a trademark technology found only in Subaru and Porsche (PSHG_p.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) cars.
Executives at both companies have been cagey about the possibility but have indicated that doing so made little sense since it could dilute Subaru’s niche brand.
Toyota ended production of its last sports car, the MR-S, last month due to weak sales.
The Asahi also said Toyota’s minivehicle unit, Daihatsu Motor Co. (7262.T: Quote, Profile, Research), would supply Fuji Heavy with its Coo compact car, sold as the bB under the Toyota badge, under an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) deal. Subaru would sell the car as early as next summer, aiming for sales of about 6,000 units a year in Japan.
A Daihatsu spokesman said no such decision had been made.
Fuji Heavy, the maker of the Legacy, Impreza and other all-wheel-drive cars, has seen its sales slide as demand shifts to smaller, fuel-efficient cars in many markets.
Daihatsu and Fuji Heavy already have an OEM deal in Europe, where Subaru will begin selling Daihatsu’s Boon model as its own under the name Justy this autumn, thereby saving money to fully develop its own compact car.
Toyota also has a capital tie-up with truck maker Isuzu Motors Ltd. (7202.T: Quote, Profile, Research) to cooperate in the development of low-emission diesel and other engines.
thats where gm ****ed up^ they had a stake in fuji and squandered the opportunity to get subies awd system, they got a vtec v6 from honda, imagine a cobalt with a honda vtec v6 mated to subies awd. IDIOTS they missed on a great vision, thats what happens when the blind are leading the deaf.
CTS, you have no faith in GM, or have you just given up entirely? You’d rather drive a psuedo American car with a Japanese heart and a Japanese drivetrain?
^ What the ****? CTS is right on the money. Instead of producing a competetive AWD four-banger to take on the Si, GTi, and Mazda3 they produce the hideous Cobalt. The SS with 200 hp? Of COURSE I would rather have the V6 VTEC, are you ****ing kidding?
Sadly, GM has never had much of a mind for small and compact cars. The Cobalt/G5 is a step up from the old J-body cars, but is only just barely more than competent commuter cars in sporty skin.
So many hot tuners are quick to make a cobalt RWD, if only to fit a bigger engine. Gm themselves even strapped together a very competent and potentially competitive AWD Saturn ION Redline Rally. With GM in dire need to really make an impact in this arena, such golden opportunities are not to be passed by. FORD and Chrysler have much the same problem. FORD’s been sitting on the Cosworth Focus for years and only rumored to even be considering importing it. Chrysler has a rough but ready fit with the Caliber SRT-4 but is not pushing it.
For GM, their mindset might change with the Alpha platform, but as for FWD and AWD compact performance vehicles, keep looking to Europe and Japan for the foreseeable future.
Detroit is not going where the money is, just where the most money is. Money is money but reputation is more valuable.
Very true, Commodore. Looking at it not from Toyota’s perspective, for Subaru, the life would be sucked out of its cars by Toyota with blandness & boringness. But Toyota will eventually get tired of bullying around just Daihatsu.
They should call it “Nightmare” with Toyotas mechanical qualities and Subarus overall qualities. They should market “roadside assistance” if they’re going to bet any schmuck to buy it.
Sharpie at the time GM was blind, they had an opportunity to license great technology but sadly didnt, they probably never realized the market potential for theese little hot tuner cars. a market you now see them aiming for but they are 5 years too late.
a lot of maunfacturers share technology it eliminates massive amounts of r&d money. how much is gm going to have to invest to make something similar……a hundred million? even if they just used the japaneese tech for a crutch to get a decent product ( saturn and vtec) to the masses it would have brought up some market share in the small car sector.
No honda engines in Chevrolets!
then keep them in the saturns and and make a decent performance car but at this point its too late they have the 3.6 which is great but 5 years ago they had nothing worthy of being called a performance engine (aside from the v-8`s).
The Honda engine in the Vue did nothing but bring down the reliability and durability ratings. Now that GM uses the 3.6, the Vue should be 100% reliable. Owners will never have to worry about their Vue breaking down in their whole ownership experience.