WHAT WAS IT?
The Subaru 360 was a 2-cylinder microcar briefly imported in the late 1960s.
WHAT WAS THE POINT?
Frankly, it’s hard to tell. For some reason, absent a fuel crisis or any perceptible shift away from the bloated cars popular at the time, the auto entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin struck a deal with Subaru’s parent to bring over the tiny, 25-horsepower, less than 1,000-pound underachiever.
THE COMPANY SAID
Early advertisements, titled “Happy Talk From Subaru,” promoted the car’s 66 m.p.g. fuel economy and $1,200 price. A promotional film was direct and refreshingly honest: “We call it cheap and ugly,” said the narrator, who also pronounced the name Su-BAH-ru.
THE CRITICS SAID
In a 1969 review, Road & Track magazine agreed that the 360 was “a car of uncommon ugliness,” adding that “it is a little humiliating to be gone off and left by an elderly lady in a Chevy II who doesn’t even know she’s racing.”
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