Boise Street Sighting: Subaru 4WD wagon

If there's one Ii love about Boise, it's the cars (and my family of course); for me, car spotting doesn't quite go this well at home. At most, Minnesota brings a rusty-but-trusty fliplight Accord, and maybe if I'm lucky, a ragged-out Z31 sporting an APC muffler and dollar store chrome fender trim. Out here in "dry land", things are a bit different. As you saw earlier, the BMW 2002 is a common occurrence out west, and so are pre-1980 Japanese cars, too.
While many people know Subaru for its Outback lineup, and Forester lineup, as well as the extremely-popular Impreza with its vast fanbase, many people do not realize that before being "just another Japanese automaker", Subaru had a quirky history. Not so much quirky in the way they ran things, but the vehicles they produced. Subaru used to be--up until the 1990s anyway-- a brand of character, of quirkiness. Unlike Honda, Toyota, and Nissan, Subaru has been a maker of funky vehicles right off the bat for all markets. Long before the days of the crossover and "sport utility wagon", Subaru had this: the 4WD Wagon . Appearing at a time when 4WD in passenger cars was completely unheard of, not many people flocked to their local dealers to buy one. And unlike its modern counterpart, these old Subies are, you know, interesting.
While these Subaru wagons have been produced in Japan since 1972, they finally came over to our shores in 1974 as a 1975 model. And look contemporary, they didn't; because they weren't. While Mitsubishi and Toyota had contemporary designs, Subaru sold its three year old car as a new model here in the states-- and not many people cared. Despite Japanese cars not being very popular some forty years ago, Subaru was hit the worst. As the reader can see, even in dry states these cars rusted. In the 1980s, a newer, modern-looking DL lineup was introduced, and it too had 4WD, and had awesome offroadibility--for a car, mind you. Then in the later 1980s things took a tragic turn; instead of quirkiness, Subaru began being noted for building bland imitations of successful cars like the Toyota Camry. While they still had 4WD, their focus turned on quantity rather than quality--if you can call it that. In the 1990s, with the rise of the traditional SUV, Subaru embarked on another quest; the crossover. Rather than simply make a good offroading wagon, the folks decided to kick it up a notch and infuse luxury. And to their surprise, it worked.
The Legacy Outback was so successful that it spawned competition from luxury makers such as Audi and Volvo. Even Pontiac tried the AWD crossover with-well, not all that great results. But point stands. From a marketing standpoint, Subaru is brilliant. And their 4WD legacy (bad pun) is certain proof of this.
I have never seen a first generation Subaru 4WD--ever. Even in Idaho, Subies this old aren't exactly everyday cars. I would write and babble on and on about how it could use a polishing up or what have you, but honestly, this thing is rare enough that I would leave it be. Well, okay, I would at least attempt to fix the rust, but everything else is damn near awesome. Scratch that; it is awesome. And I wouldn't change a thing besides that one little problem.