Were Vortexs a disaster in Subaru dealers eyes ?

sammynb · Post by **sammynb** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 2:17 pm

El_Freddo wrote:I wish that they had at least ONE model that was more agricultural like what VW has done with their new 4x4 ute...

Cheers

Bennie

It will never happen though, Nick Senior is to much of a motoring journo for Subaru to go "backwards."
Otherwise Australia would have had the Baja years ago.

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Fri Jun 10, 2011 7:57 pm

No sadly Subaru had to get out of their comfort zone and convince people that 4WD cars were not all Cruisers Patrols and Land / Range Rovers .
It took a LOT of marketing and the the "AWD" catch cry to make people think Subarus were not light trucks .

I agree that it was short sighted of Subaru not to have made an L Series ute based on the coupe and possibly the same with the first Libs . The trouble with Libs is that people would have tried to load them up in the back and maybe structurally they weren't up to it .

I was thinking recently that there was a definite era change from Ls to the first of the Libs and Imprezas , Subaru was losing a kind of mechanical simplicity and while they may not have been exactly luxurious they are at least reasonably straightforward to maintain .
All the manufacturers where entering an era where more and more in the way of electronics was being used to do things that traditional mechanical electric and hydraulics had done in the past .
The era was also one where things like AC/power steer/EFI were integrated from the get go rather than tacked on as an afterthought .

A .

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:30 am

I finally got to talk to the fella that inspired this thread and found out a few interesting things .

He said that in the pre L Series days the public perception was that Subarus were a bit quirky and maybe a bit under developed in some ways .
He reckoned that Brumbys drove themselves off the lots and Ls sold very easily as well .
Where the Vortex he said was a disaster , joke was the term he uses , was that the styling was out there and they didn't offer anything significant to justify looking like a chock . He said they had no real performance compared to most things and well we all know what a std L and Vortexs handle or rather don't handle like .
He said we were supposed to get the XT6 which had better performance and brakes but it never eventuated probably because of the local reaction to XT4s .
He said that back then manufacturers had a licence to bring in X number of cars and its possible that because Vortexs moved slowly they didn't order many . He reckons the SVX was a similar kind of story which is probably why not many were imported .

He also said that Brumby sales would have gone on a lot longer because the market was certainly there but Subaru in Japan kill them at their end .
They also had no interest in an L Series ute even though several markets such as ours was crying out for such a thing .
My personal belief is they saw a larger overall world market in Libs and Imprezas and wanted to throw off the agricultural think and push "more sophisticated" cars for the discerning middle class market .

A .

sammynb · Post by **sammynb** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:22 pm

You have to also consider at that time, the early to mid 90s, the market was changing, especially in the US. The rise of the SUV had just started and Subaru was already half way there as they produced passenger vehicles with awd as standard, just look at how successful the Outback was/is in the states.
In '97 I started working for a PR/advertising supplier for Toyota and I remember TMCA were never worried about Subaru as competitor because the Australian public regarded Subarus as quirky and expensive but the states was a different matter.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 12:57 pm

yes, often seen as f.o.t.e.s who drove them, conservative driver who did not renew cars all that often

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 8:04 pm

Looking through my UK Motor magazines as I thin them out (lucky buggers got one every week!) there was a lot of futuristic designs in cars on offer, in the way of streamlining and um wedge shape. At least Subaru built one with variations of which people could choose based on their budget so long as no kids had to get in the back.

Who has seen the Mazda MX-03 on the roads here, ever? 180mph triple rotor turbo, AWD, AWS - just one to mention.

An agricultural side of things maybe not expected was the Massey Furguson 4WD gearbox from a tractor? in the Jensen Interceptors

Maybe Toyota and Mazda learnt a lesson from Fuji and brought out LEXUS and EUNOS? labels

discopotato03 · Post by **discopotato03** » Tue Jun 21, 2011 11:58 pm

The Jensen you speak of was actually called Jensen FF from memory for Formula Ferguson , sort a Jensen Interceptor with AWD and a big American Chrysler V8 under the lid . It may have had a chain driven transfer case too .

The period of the Brumby L Series and Vortexs was really the 1980s well the latter half anyway and while a few Ls and Utes got over the fence into the 90s I don't know the story with XT4s and XT6s . Did they go to 90-92 in the US or did the RS Legacy kill them off ?

Anyway I think the trends were changing and the Vortexs were a flash in the pan here and the local market though ho hum .
I'm not being insulting to the cars or their owners just gauging what the masses thought at the time .

Shame about the XT6 , may have given a better impression if Zoob had chosen it over XT4s .

A .

sammynb · Post by **sammynb** » Wed Jun 22, 2011 12:44 am

discopotato03 wrote: Shame about the XT6 , may have given a better impression if Zoob had chosen it over XT4s .

A .

'92 for the XT-6 in the States.
And would it have made any difference to its reception in Australia?
I doubt it, it's not as if the SVX was a huge success.

steptoe · Post by **steptoe** » Wed Jun 22, 2011 9:43 am

Can only imagine how much the XT6 would have been here if the all kittd out AWD EA82T hit $34,800 on road!!

It is funny with these Vortices, bit like an ordinary girl with an extraordinary personality that is not so obvious to all around. Just gotta get to know her after the odd fleeting glances and curiosities. If the beast got on the road in 1985 in basic FWD must have been on drawing boards near 1980 to begin with. Inspired by Star Wars?