Fuji Heavy Industries celebrates 60th birthday

Fuji Heavy Industries, the corporate parent of Subaru, celebrated its 60th birthday a few days ago. The storied multinational company makes everything from wind turbines to airplane parts, and conducts business in more than a hundred countries.

Even though the origins of the company date back to 1917, the Fuji Heavy Industries we know today was formed in 1953. But it wasn't until the following year that the world got a look at the first car made by Subaru, the newly formed automotive division, in the form of the Subaru 1500. Subaru went on to achieve a significant number of firsts in the Japanese automotive market, including Japan's first mass-produced all-wheel drive passenger car in the form of the Subaru Leone, which evolved into the Legacy and Outback station wagons and sedans that have become popular in North America.

A few days ago we got a chance to see one of Subaru's first cars, the Subaru 360, which debuted in 1958. The 360 became one of Japan's most popular cars at the time of its release, and was quite a step up from the globally available microcars of the day. The 360 was powered by a transversely mounted air-cooled two-stroke inline two-cylinder 356-cc engine making just 16 hp, though the engine's output went up a little bit by the end of the product cycle. Still, for a car weighing less than a thousand pounds those figures aren't bad, especially in the tax-efficient kei car class for which the 360 was designed.

It wasn't long before the success of Subaru's cars was noticed by Malcolm Bricklin, a well-known importer who first started bringing Subarus to America. Even though the 360 model was not as popular in the U.S. during the 1950s as in other markets, especially given the typical size of American cars of the day, it did give Subaru a foothold in America. While just a few thousand 360s were sold in the U.S. when the it was still new, last year Subaru enjoyed sales of 336,441 cars in America, up 26 percent from the year before. Happy birthday, Subaru!

By Jay Ramey