Subarus in EU

Thanks. The sites don't seem to indicate where the models are assembled

Probably your guess is as good as mine although research might turn up some more answers. We can say definitively that any given Subaru will have been made either in Lafayette, Indiana, USA or in Gunma, Japan. I'd guess that in any country with right-hand drive the vehicle would come from the Japanese factory but as for the rest it would probably come down to cost of transportation from factory to consumer. Probably the most direct way to find out would be to find a Subaru in the country in question and look at the data plate which will show its origin.

I "believe" Lafayette only buyilds for the Americas, but I could be wrong.

I would think that, too. I suspect there are some Subaru assembly plants in EU, too, but don't know where.

With, of course, the caveat that this is user-contributed information, Wikipedia says that Japan and the U.S. are the only two factories:

Patty

Interesting comparisons. I believe new models from Japan may hit Europe first after being introduced in Japan. They have Levorg and we have Crosstrek and I wonder if the vehicle is the same.

Then there are price comparisons I would like to see. You can find UK and US and all prices are much higher in UK.

Might mention on left hand drive which they have in Japan and several other places. Japan rules are very strict on vehicle maintenance and owners trade in these vehicles more cheaply than maintaining them and Japanese sell these used vehicles in left hand drive countries where rules are less strict.

A friend of mine had a venture where the used cars were returned to the factory and drive switched to the right to sell in the US. He told me he actually had them on the boat but could not get them in because of documentation problems. Each car would have required separate EPA documentation and they could not handle it and venture failed. New cars don't have this problem as one document could handle a boatload of one model. This happened over 20 years ago and could be different today.

First of all, you have it backwards. Britain and Japan use "right hand drive" cars. North America and most of Europe use" left handndrive" cars. The problem with importing JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) vehicles to USA and Canada is Japan uses a different VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) system than North America, as well as having different emissions and safety requirements that go well beyond a switch to Left Hand Drive.

I obviously meant left had drive for driving on left.

The steering wheel had been switched from right to left but what you mentioned was probably part of the problem. Heard of similar things on neighbor on work assignment to Geneva and could not take his car because of safety issues.

Thanks, Patty. Not having assembly plants in EU must mean exorbitant replacement part prices due to the long shipping distances.

Also, I wonder what kind of VIN numbering system is used in Europe.

Same as in North America. First 3 digits indicate where it was manufactured - the first indicating the country, the second themanufacturer.(.for example,1,4,or 5 indicates USA, 2 indicates Canada, 3a-37 is Mexico, J is Japan, VF-VR= france, 9 is Brazil, WA-W0 is Germany, and S is Britain.)- 4-9 idicate vehicle type, and 10 to 17 identify the vehicle. The 9th digit is a check code. The 10th digit indicates year of manufacture, with A designating either 1980 or

JT2 would be a Japanese built toyota passenger car, and JT3 was a Japanese Toyota light truck or utility. A Cambridge built Corolla would be a 2T2 and a Woodstock built RAV4 a 2T3 if I remeber correectly., and The next 5 would indicate the engine and model - fot instance a JT2AE81 was a japanese built toyota passenger car with an A series motor in a corrola sedan (e81) wile an ae86 was a corolla sport coupe with the same engine, and a TE81 was a corolla sedan with a T sries engine.

A JT4FJ42 was a 6 cyl gas (F series engine)shorty Land Cruiser, while BJ42 was a 4 cyl diesel(B series engine) shorty cruiser, and a BJ62 was a diesel land cruiser stationwagon. The JT4 indicates it was built in Japan by the Toyota Hino plant.

For a Subie, a 4s3 indicates a US built Subaru built by Subaru/Isuzu, while a BE63 indicates a Legacy with a 4 cyl EJ22 or EJ25 engine. A japanese built Subaru passenger car would be a JF1, built by Fuji Heavy Industries in Japan

At any rate, any Subaru in the world today would be either a JF# or a

Interestingly, the Scion FR-S is also a JS1, as it is built in the Fuji plant.

Japan has very high taxes on cars as they get older, that keeps the sales of new cars humming along. The tax rules "encourage" people to get rid of older cars and buy new ones.

Thanks for that detailed info. One good thing about only 2 assembly plant is that quality is probably more consistent that way. Especially for J-built cars. My old Honda Accord was also built in Japan and was excellent.

The quality of the Canadiuan built Corolla is about on a par with the Japanese - same with the Alliston built Civic.

Toyota invented modern quality control. In fact, Boeing went to Toyota to copy their QC system as much as could be used on aircraft manufacturing. I assume Toyota enforced the same QC in its foreign plants.

My last American car was a Mercury Lynx assembled in Mexico. It was a lemon and I had to sue Ford and the dealer for engine failure at 11 months. That was many years ago and quality control is probably better today. We had a couple of assembly plants, GM and Chrysler here and I heard stories of workers drinking in the plant and smoking dope in the parking lot.

The quality of my American-built 2015 Outback is every bit as good as my Japanese-built 2014 Forester. Every Camry sold in the USA is built in the Subaru plant in Indiana, Toyota would not use a factory that could not produce a quality product.

More accurately _was_ built. They stopped that a while ago as Subaru sales grew and more assembly capacity was needed for them.

Arnet a lot of Camry sedans still built at Georgetown Kentucky?? I thought the Subaru Indiana plant was just additional capacity.