William Oliver stumbled into this line up of three oddities in front of an Italian restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Florida. But they’re not all Italian, despite their efforts to appear so. The Fiat 600 on the left is genuine, and the little three wheeled truck looks to be a Piaggio Ape. The car in the middle has “FIAT” painted on its front end, but this is no Fiat 500.
It’s a psychedelic Subaru 360, the car that got Malcom Bricklin his (dubious) start in the automobile business. It’s about the size of a 500, and not that dissimilar, so maybe some folks are fooled. But not us eagle-eyed CCers!
I remember when these were sold in the US in 1969-1970. Eventually, the local Buick-AMC dealer who sold the Subaru 360 ended up selling new ones for $399 just to get rid of the stock. One of the dweebiest kids in high school drove a light blue Sube 360 – it was a marriage made in heaven.
There’s a book that was written in the late 90’s called “Where the Suckers Moon”. The first half is about the history of Subaru, the second have is about an ad campaign for Subaru.
One of the stories about the first half is that the company got a call one day in the late 70’s or early 80’s from a farmer asking them when they were going to get their cars out of her yard. Turned out she had a dozen or two 360’s parked in a field. The company had stored them there at some point and forgotten about them.
Also, one of Bricklin’s schemes to sell these was a go-cart-type racing facility for these. When Subaru bought the company from him, he asked to keep the 360-racing operation, because he was convinced it was the next big thing.
That is an amazingly well executed art car.
Fiat 600: a convertible with a horn hood ornament and a hogg as a rear seat passenger.
Wow, that’s good! Ha ha ha!
Lol 😀
How many of those Subarus still even RUN?
That one has to take Survivor of the Day honors; and of course, nowadays they even have some value among niche collectors (though perhaps they would prefer original paint).
You had to like their advertising, from the “Big Lie” 66 mpg claim, to their slogan: “Cheap and Ugly.” This psychedelic paint actually sort of HIDES the “Ugly.”
“Su-bA-ru… Wow!”
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/subaru-360-ads-cheap-ugly-ads-with-semi-sexy-girl-extolling-cheap-ugly-cars/
Never thought I’d see another car that makes a Fiat 500 look wide.
A Subaru 360 at an Italian Resturant??? Fughettabahtit!!!
I have to give it a pass with that remarkable paint job.
Mazzaro’s!
Wonderful place.
That’s Mazzaro’s!! My grandmother buys all of her Italian meats there for our big holiday family meals!
At least it looks like good advertising .
I remember those 360’s , most of the folks who owned them , loved them .
-Nate
In a case of CC advertising effect, just this weekend I saw a Fiat 600 being used as advertising for an Italian restaurant. It’s parked in one of the concourses of Crabtree Valley Mall in Raleigh, NC.
I wonder which one of those micro-machines, took home the “Lemon Cake” award… The Subaru or the Fiat?
Since, neither one of them were known for their dependability in the 60’s- early 70’s.