SVX

About the SVX

Giorgetto Giugiaro designed a grand tourer for a company that made economy wagons. That's the SVX in one sentence — a car that had no business existing, built by a brand with no business building it. Shown at the 1989 Tokyo Auto Show and launched in 1991, the SVX was Subaru's moonshot. The EG33 flat-six was the largest engine the company had ever made — 3.3 liters, the only six-cylinder boxer in the lineup — and it wouldn't be matched for two decades. Symmetrical AWD came standard. The window-within-a-window canopy looked like it belonged on an aircraft, not a Japanese coupe. But Subaru made one choice that sealed its fate: a 4-speed automatic, no manual option. In 1992, that was enough to make every magazine reviewer shrug and move on. Just 24,379 were built worldwide before the line ended in 1996. The SVX was too weird for the GT market and too grand for Subaru's fanbase. It fell through every crack. The people who found one never let go.