There’s a cavaclade of Subaru special edition cars coming out this month in celebration of the company’s 50th anniversary. Here’s the kei segment one, the R2 Favorite Edition. Special equipment list after the jump. (more…)
Toyota’s increased stake in Subaru parent Fuji Heavy Industries has apparently obviated a need for FHI-developed kei cars. According to this post on Autoblog, Toyota-owned Daihatsu will now supply Subaru with its kei cars, meaning no more Stella, Sonica, R1 or R2. Well, we’re not so sure. According to Toyota:
Daihatsu is to supply FHI with minivehicles and an FHI version of the Daihatsu “Coo” compact car on an OEM basis… The OEM supply of minivehicles for the Japanese market to FHI by Daihatsu is expected to allow FHI to focus its R&D and production resources on its main products. Such supply is planned to start in the second half of 2009. This arrangement is also expected to enable Daihatsu to improve its business efficiency, such as through increasing its cost competitiveness due to increased production volume.
Well, this certainly looks like Subaru keis are on the chopping block, but the language is sufficiently vague that we won’t discount them just yet.