Subaru Repair and Troubleshooting Tips

Subaru Repair & Troubleshooting by Model

• Subaru B9 Tribeca            • Subaru Impreza
• Subaru Baja                       • Subaru Justy
• Subaru Brat                        • Subaru Legacy
• Subaru DL                          • Subaru Loyale
• Subaru Forester                • Subaru Outback
• Subaru GL                          • Subaru SVX
• Subaru GL-10                    • Subaru XT
• Subaru GLF                       • Subaru XT6

Subaru is the automobile manufacturing division and brand name of Japanese transportation conglomerate Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI).

Subaru is internationally known for their use of boxer engines in most of their vehicles above 1500cc as well as their proponence of the all wheel drive drivetrain layout, first introduced in 1972, and became standard equipment for mid-size and smaller cars in most international markets as of 1996. They also offer many turbocharged versions of their passenger cars, such as the Impreza WRX.

Fuji Heavy Industries, the parent company of Subaru, is currently in a partial partnership with Toyota Motor Corporation, which owns 16.5% of FHI.[1]

Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster, which in turn inspires the Subaru logo and alludes to the six companies that merged to create FHI.[2]

FHI started out as The Aircraft Research Laboratory in 1917 headed by Chikuhei Nakajima. In 1932, the company was reorganized as Nakajima Aircraft Company, Ltd and soon became the primary manufacturer of aircraft for Japan during World War II. At the end of the Second World War Nakajima Aircraft was again reorganized, this time as Fuji Sangyo Co, Ltd. In 1946, the company created the Fuji Rabbit motor scooter with spare aircraft parts from the war.[3] In 1950, Fuji Sangyo was divided into 12 smaller corporations according to the Japanese Government's 1950 Corporate Credit Rearrangement Act, anti-zaibatsu legislation, but between 1953-1955, four of these corporations and a newly formed corporation Fuji Kogyo, a scooter manufacturer; coachbuilders Fuji Jidosha; engine manufacturers Omiya Fuji Kogyo; chassis builders Utsunomiya Sharyo and the Tokyo Fuji Dangyo trading company[citation needed] decided to merge together to form the Fuji Heavy Industries known today.

Subaru 1500, a.k.a the P-1Kenji Kita, the CEO of Fuji Heavy Industries at the time, wanted the new company to be involved in car manufacturing and soon began plans for building a car with the development code-name P-1. Mr. Kita canvassed the Company for suggestions about naming the P1, but none of the proposals were appealing enough. In the end, he gave the car a Japanese name that had been his personal favorite from childhood: Subaru. The first Subaru car was named the Subaru 1500.[4] Only twenty P1s were manufactured due to multiple supply issues. From 1954 to 2008, the company designed and manufactured dozens of vehicles including the 1500 (1954), the tiny air-cooled 360 (1958), the Sambar (1961), the 1000 (which saw the introduction of the Subaru boxer engine in 1965), the R-2 (1969), the Rex and the Leone (1971), the BRAT (1978), Alcyone (1985), the Legacy (1989), the Impreza (1993), the Forester (1997), the Tribeca (2005), and the Exiga (2008).