GM sell Subaru to Toyota

Good. Toyota and subaru will benefit unless subaru gets toyota styling. Gm affiliations just means cars get crappy GM components- case in point my 94 Isuzu Trooper had all Jap parts except tranny. Guess what went At

I don't know that this is a good thing. When it came to Subaru, GM left well enough alone (exception: Onstar). It seems to me that Toyota will be more likely to tinker with the brand in order to "Toyotafy" it.

I agree. I hope Toyota takes a pretty hands-off apporach. I wonder what this means for all the Subaru-GM joint projects and shared technology. Is this the end of the Saabarus? Is this the sign that we can stick a fork in Saab, cause they're done?

On the subject:

Maybe THIS will:

I just hope that Subaru gets Toyota RELIABILITY!!!!!! It would be nice to go a coupla hundred thousand miles with very few problems.

Financial and real life job ar different some time, GM has left Fiat but this year has started to sell models with Ople GM chassis and GM brands Opel and Suzuki now sell card powerd by Fiat diesel engine. Smallest car sold here with brand Subaru are GM Suzuki cars branded Subaru

Here's a link to an AP story, with some analyst comments:

i think toyotafying a subaru will be great! i love my toyota, it's just screwed together much better than my subaru. i got lucky with my subaru being a '99, which is pre GM. i was worried about replacement time, i didn't want to get a GM subaru, so i started thinking about other brands. but now i'll give toyota a couple of years to get the GM parts out of the bins and i'll seriously consider a new subaru.

My thoughts exactly. Toyota QC is _o_u_t_s_t_a_n_d_i_n_g_.

On another note, Subaru may now get access to the best hybrid system out there. Maybe Subaru can also get some Toyota clutches.

A high-output, turbo H4 would be really cool in an MR2 type vehicle, as well!

The downside is that both brands seem to design exterior bodywork on matchbook covers. I love Toyota trucks, but I accept the fact that they aren't the prettiest vehicles around.

yeah, that'd be great! the clutch in my '89 4runner lasted 212,000 miles, the one in my '99 legacy, only 50,000.

a high-output engine would be nice, but i don't think the problem is that toyota doesn't know how to make high-output engines, i just think they choose to optimize for longevitiy by detuning the engines a bit. in fact, i think the MR2 of the 80's had the same 22RE as my 4runner, but the 4runner engine (now with 250,000 trouble free miles) was detuned to only about 100-110 HP where as the MR2 engine was a bit more powerful.

you're right, toyota's (or even subaru's) new styling isn't that great (although, i really like the lexus IS for some reason), but i really can't think of any company right now that's doing a good job on styling. BMW was doing well for a while and they've completly ruined everything. mercedes is still pretty good, but nothing great. i was happy with vw/audi until this latest generation (although the new passat they have in europe is pretty cool looking).

mike

I'm with ya', but I'm thinking more of the "sportiness". Subie's H4's LOVE R's, staying smooth as silk past the redlines of I4's and V6's

My manual shift '01 Outback, which was a jacked up station wagon (not all that on-road sporty), just taunted you to take it into 5,000 RPM range.

I'm not so sure I want to think about a 22R @ 5,500 RPM on a regular basis.

Thanks for the link.

Of note:

-->GM will make around $725 million from the sale of its entire share of Fuji,

-->GM bought its stake in Fuji five years ago for about $1.3 billion.

OUCH!

-->Merkle said GM failed to leverage its partnership with Subaru.

-->GM had plans to use Subaru's all-wheel-drive technology but

-->never did, Merkle said. GM also should have taken advantage of

-->Subaru's expertise in the growing crossover segment, he said.

~$575 million for the x-sale of Saabarus and Onstar, plus lost opportunities. OUCH^2

-- TomH [ antonomasia gmail com ]

but that wasn't the whole sale. See, they sold only a portion of their haldings of Fuji to Toyota, the rest they will sell on the open market or back to Fuji. In the end they'll lose moolah, but not as bad as it would apear based on these initial numbers.

So, with this new acquisition, is Subaru now 100% owned by Toyota? I saw a Subaru Tribeca today. It seems like a nice car... a modern and nice interior. The exterior seems a little odd, tough.

Will GM plan to sell Saab too?

Perhaps if Toyota, Subaru and other Japanese automaker stop using their design teams in California, they can produce much nicer looking cars. Otherwise, they will be making those yucky styles like HHR, Pontiac Aztek, shoe style PT Cruiser, flat face 300M, Honda element, etc.

You should do some reading. GM sold only 40% of it's shares in Fuji to Toyota, equal to 8.7% ownership. With that, Toyota will become Fuji's largest shareholder. However, GM is selling the other 60% (89M) of it's shares on the open market, and Fuji says it's going to buy back 90M shares from the open market. So in essence, Fuji will be it's own majority share holder.

Steve

Treasury Stock (stock owned by the company who issued it) are not considered to be shares outstanding and have no voting rights.

Hi,

Original reports when GM bought into FHI a coupla years back was they were buying a 20% interest. Don't recall any subsequent purchases. So the most Toyota could own would be 20%, though the reports here say they're only buying a part of GM's holdings.

Local paper reported several weeks ago this option's on the table, but GM's still hashing over what to do w/ SAAB.

I'll agree all those you mentioned run from unattractive to just plain butt ugly, but as long as people keep buying that stuff, mfrs will buy into the styling trends. Witness the Dodge Ram trucks in their current incarnation: when they first appeared it was a love-hate deal with most people WRT styling. But Ford, GM and Toyota all looked at the fact Dodge was selling more trucks than it did before, and now we've got all kinds of clones. Sad. Even marques such as M-B do it: look at a current C230 and tell me it's not a Teutonic Honda Accord! If only it were as reliable...

Rick