Exceptions to the rule
The new Subaru Uncharted is the first Subaru without four-wheel drive in years. It is secretly a Toyota, just like the last Subaru with front-wheel drive that was delivered here.
Subarus have a boxer engine and four-wheel drive. That is at least what the stereotype of these eccentric Japanese cars demands, but this doesn’t always apply of course. Subaru built up these unique characteristics over the years and gave them a huge PR boost in the 1990s through successful participation in rally sports. Nowadays, four-wheel drive at Subaru is more associated with safety than sportiness, but an adventurous image remains an important goal.
Models without boxer engines have been common in the meantime, and not only in purely electric form. Small cars like the Justy were based on cars from among others Suzuki and Daihatsu and therefore often had a ‘regular’ four-cylinder inline engine. Over the years, four-wheel drive became an even more sacred cow than that boxer engine. The brand was even very keen to give that small Justy four driven wheels, which made the car extra interesting in countries like the Alpine regions. Less so in the Netherlands, which is why Subaru occasionally offered a front-wheel drive version here and there. These existed based on the Justy, but also based on Imprezas and even Legacies. The last genuine Subaru product with front-wheel drive delivered in the Netherlands was the Impreza hatchback that disappeared from the scene in 2012. After that, there were still two smaller models with Subaru logo in this category: the Justy (Daihatsu Sirion) and the Trezia. The latter lasted until 2015 and was thus until the upcoming Uncharted the last new Subaru with front-wheel drive delivered in the Netherlands.
The Subaru Uncharted is the first Subaru with front-wheel drive in ten years.
That new, electric Uncharted is Subaru’s version of the Toyota CH-R+ and thus also a shorter version of the Solterra, which is in turn based on the Toyota bZ4X. While Subaru even offers that electric Solterra exclusively with four-wheel drive, it wisely chooses to offer versions with a single electric motor for the Uncharted. This increases the chances of success and also creates an interesting bridge to that Trezia, which as a sister model of the Verso S was also the twin brother of a Toyota. Back then too, Toyota was at the basis of the development, although Subaru did get the space to provide the car with its own nose and a unique grille. By the way, 642 Trezias were sold between 2011 and 2015, compared to 6,567 Toyota Verso-S in (more or less) the same period. Let’s hope that’s not an omen for the Uncharted…