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Subaru to drop industrial products, focus on making cars

Subaru, the company formerly known as Fuji Heavy Industries, said Monday it is ceasing production of its industrial products after more than 60 years in order to focus on its core automotive business. The change was effective Sept. 30. "By concentrating management resources on Subaru's core automotive business, the company will further reinforce its business structure in the aim of substantially enhancing the Subaru brand and achieving even greater sustainable growth," the company said in a statement. The move appears to mark the culmination of a steady retrenchment from its industrial business. Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. last year announced it was changing its name to Subaru Corp. in order to strengthen the brand and focus on its core automotive and aerospace business. It also moved to integrate its Industrial Products Company within Subaru's automotive business effective Oct. 1, 2016. Subaru is a Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster, and it symbolizes the six companies that merged to form Fuji Heavy Industries in 1953. Subaru's aerospace division is a contractor for the Japan Defense Agency. The automaker's industrial products business began in 1951 when its former Omiya Fuji Industries Co. Ltd. began production of the 540 cc M6 engine. Subaru says its Industrial Products Co. Ltd. affiliate will continue to handle after-sales service of Subaru-built generators, pumps and engines used in construction, agriculture and industrial equipment. The company also says it will cease manufacturing engines for installation in other vehicles as supply contracts expire. Meanwhile, Subaru is busy reorganizing its plant in Lafayette, Ind., to begin production of the Ascent, a three-row, eight-passenger crossover based on its Viziv-7 concept that debuted late last year. Related Video:

2019 Subaru Forester teased again ahead of New York reveal

Subaru continues to dribble out teaser images of its all-new 2019 Forester ahead of its reveal Wednesday at the New York Auto Show. The image, posted to Subaru's Facebook page, once again focuses on Forester's rear end, and specifically, the pincer-shaped right rear taillight that carries over from the Viziv concepts. Only this time, the photo is taken in broad daylight, so we can make out a little more of what's happening on that tailgate area. There are scooped-out recesses above the rear bumper and around the license plate and a wider cargo opening, as noted here previously. There's also some black plastic body cladding. Previous spy shots have suggested the crossover will retain the boxy shape and grille of the current model, but with some subtle sidebody creases like those found on the Impreza and Crosstrek. It's expected to ride on Subaru's global architecture platform, while engine options aren't known. The current Forester's base engine is a 2.5-liter horizontally opposed four-cylinder making 170 horsepower, with an optional turbocharged 2.0-liter that makes 250 hp and 258 lb-ft of torque. We'll know more tomorrow, when Subaru takes the wraps of the redesigned Forester in New York. Related Video: Image Credit: Subaru New York Auto Show Subaru Crossover tailgate subaru viziv

The Subaru Outback is pretty much the entire wagon market

Last year in the United States, Subaru dealers sold a new Outback wagon every 2.94 minutes. Sales were brisker the year before, when dealers sold a new Outback every 2.78 minutes. It cracked the 50,000-units-per-year barrier every year but one starting in 1997, and has shifted more than 100,000 units annually in the United States every year since 2011. From 2013-2015, Kelley Blue Book said the Outback sat on dealer lots for less time than any other car on sale. Here's a starker set of numbers: J.D. Power, as quoted in a CNBC video, put the U.S. station wagon market at 1.4% of the total U.S. car market in 2018. However, the Outback alone was 1.2%, meaning the sales of every other wagon amounted to a minuscule 0.2% of the total car market. Or, as Road & Track put it, "Out of every 20 wagons sold here, 17 are Subaru Outbacks. Damn." Without taking anything away from Subaru, we need to thank Audi again for bringing the RS 6 Avant and A6 Allroad here, even if the best the Ingolstadt brand can do is bleed marketing dollars to scrap it out with every other automaker for, well, scraps.   Related: 2020 Subaru Outback First Drive Review | The big payoff   The CNBC vid doesn't get into how the Outback became the wagon heavyweight save for a mention about it being "part wagon, part crossover" and saying it has "evolved to incorporate more attributes of SUVs and crossovers" like all-wheel drive. That take overlooks the fact that Subaru debuted the jacked-up, bold-faced Legacy Outback at the end of 1994 as a 1995-model-year offering. Subaru designed the Legacy Outback to be a wagon/SUV tweener, well after Subaru was already known for its AWD chops, and before anyone had coined the word "crossover." The Toyota RAV4, now credited as being the first crossover, didn't show until early 1996.