Subaru will finally introduce a diesel engine – the world’s first horizontally-opposed ‘boxer’ turbo-diesel – at September’s Frankfurt motor show.
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It will be fitted progressively to various models from spring 2008, at last giving the 4×4 SUV specialist the diesel engine essential for full potential here in Europe.
The redesigned Impreza will make its European debut in five-door hatchback form – with 1.5 and two-litre litre engines – aimed, Subaru said, at appealing to a wider audience (previous versions were sedan or wagon) while retaining distinctive ‘boxer’ engines and symmetrical all-wheel drive.
Other exhibits include a restyled US-made Tribeca minivan with larger 3.6 litre engine and more responsive five-speed automatic gearbox and a new one-litre Justy five-door ‘supermini’ now supplied on an OEM basis by Daihatsu.
Here in the UK that is likely to require the building of a ‘Chinese wall’ at importer IM Group, which also distributes Daihatsu.
Subaru originally built its own Justy and then obtained replacement models for Europe from Suzuki, which built them as Swift derivatives in its Hungarian plant.
Daihatsu to build small Subaru
