(first posted 10/22/2012) Nineteen eighty-five. The year of Back to the Future and The Goonies. The year of songs like “Born in the USA” and “Take on Me”. What better year for a small, quirky automaker like Subaru to stretch its wings by offering their first sporty coupe.
Enter the XT: A vehicle as different from the brand’s existing DL/GL lineup as one could imagine. There wasn’t a blunt curve, chrome accent or rounded window to be seen anywhere. It was almost as if a car had been dropped out of Blade Runner onto North American shores.
North Americans actually got this car in February 1985, a few months before its release in Japan, as the Alcyone. I’m sure that to a Subaru loyalist visiting their local dealership with a GL or BRAT to trade, the XT was the equivalent of a Lotus with Yugo badges.
Yup–the XT looked great for 1985. It had a great drag coefficient of .29, only one windshield wiper and even these neat little flaps, covering the door handles, that you had to push out of the way before you could open the door.
The futuristic theme continued inside. I think the XT is one of the first and/or only vehicles in which the HVAC controls moved along with the steering column. Depending on the model, instrumentation was either sensible analog dials or crazy LCD. And for those who’d reached the limits of their Atari game console, the shifter (whether manual or automatic) closely copied a joystick. The asymmetrical steering wheel looked like it would be more at home in a Citroën.
But after you actually got one of these on the road, any illusion of a car that would magically spirit you forward to 1999 was pretty much ruined. Initially, the XT engine was a flat 1.8-liter mill shared with the Leone (our DL/GL), in either 97-hp or 112-hp (turbo) guise. Neither of these variants provided the kind of otherworldly scoot promised by the exterior. Bear in mind that the XT, for all its futuristic looks, was no lightweight: It weighed 2,877 pounds with the all-wheel-drive system and six-cylinder engine (more on that later), and even the front-drive, non-turbo models topped out at more than 2,600 pounds. That’s just too much weight to make either 97 or 112 horses feel genuinely quick.
Probably in response to this lack of power came the XT6, in 1988. While its 2.7-liter flat-six did make the car feel quite a bit faster, it still was less than sportif with all that weight to drag around.
I remember the XT6 review in Daniel Heraud’s 1989 Road Report (Canuck car folk will recognize this publication). His biggest criticism of the vehicle was that despite the six-cylinder engine, it remained less a sports car than a “comfortable coupe.” He also pointed out that it was pretty expensive, difficult to get into and out of, and not very attractive.
I recall that when I was in high school, a young woman who lived not far from my school purchased an XT6 only a year or two old. Before I learned how they worked, its quirky door handle flaps were a source of much fascination. Hers was painted in that early-1990s calypso green color that would be found on many other Japanese (and North American) cars by mid-decade.
In any case, the XT (and XT-6) never sold that well for Suburu. Still, compared with less than 25,000 sales over six model years for its successor (the quicker, quirkier, pricier and more fragile SVX), the XT looks like a best seller.
(photos by Paul Niedermeyer)
Provided we’re here long enough and I can actually find one, this will be my 4th Subaru. I want an XT like the Yankees want to face ANYONE except the Tigers in the MLB playoffs.
mate theres one for sale in Bega NSW no rego but it is all there about to be towed by shire to there yard i think
steve 0419228567
Another car that I should have test-driven in 1985 but did not. If memory serves, I had already picked up on the fact that it was all show and no go, and I was looking for the opposite.
I always kind of liked the looks of these. Certainly a unique design, as nothing else ever looked quite like one of these. And in the 1980s “decade of pod controls”, these Subie pods on either side of the steering wheel may be the coolest ever.
Maybe its a generational thing, but I do not believe that most 1980s cars have aged well. I think that this one has aged a little better than most of them.
I have to agree with JP above that many cars of the ’80’s have not aged well. A few have, if one wants to consider a box panther or GM B body, but that’s about all I can think of for the moment.
I used to see these Subarus on occasion and they really stood out, especially against a Tempo or Thunderbird of the period. Most other cars were still angular in those years. This Subie especially so.
Those years up to 1987 were lean years for me and my family and we made do with our K-Car and 1976 Dart Lite – aka “The Race Car”, according to my kids. Slowest thing on the road in actuality, but it looked good.
Sports cars were merely a dream back then. Now I have a car that will kick many other cars’ rear ends if I want to open ‘er up, but rarely do…always a cruiser at heart.
As an 80s child it might be a generational thing, but there are a lot of cars that I think have aged well. The XT, along with all of its Subaru contemporaries, is not one of them.
Off the top of my head:
Golf/Jetta
Beretta
BMW E30
4Runner/HiLux
Mercedes 126/124/201
Thunderbird (Aerobird, pre-facelift)
Taurus
Astro van (probably because they made it for 20+ years!)
Accord (the pop-up light gen)
Fiero (facelift)
Cherokee (XJ)
Eighties cars that aged well were mostly of the Aerobird generation. Early eighties had a sharp-edged parallel line look like this XT. Some Toyotas looked for all the world like cassette decks.
Also, the 1988+ GM full-size trucks aged very well. Granted, they were made for more than a decade, but they were a simple, well-proportioned design overall just like the Cherokee.
I think the BMW E34 also holds up well (the only thing that dates it are the headlights, which aren’t objectionable), as do the C3 Audi 100/200.
The Type 4 cars — Alfa Romeo 164, Lancia Thema, et al — still look good, as does the similar-looking Peugeot 405.
The Opel Calibra, introduced in 1989, remains a handsome car and I’ve always had a soft spot for the 1988-1991 Honda Prelude.
+1 on 88-91 Prelude—always thought that these and the same year accords were the most cleanly styled cars in their time.
I hated the styling when it first came out, but over the years it has grown on me. Not to the point where I’d want one, but I can sort of appreciate it.
I always thought that George Jetson might have an XT, which would of course fold up into a briefcase.
I hated the styling when it first came out, and over the years it still has yet to grow on me. I’d never want one, and I still can’t appreciate it.
IMO, it looks like someone took a station wagon & hacked off the roof behind the B-pillar to, perhaps , lighten it up & race it on your local small oval track. It needs some fatter tires to give it a wider stance. It also looks as though it would have tremendous over steer if it were RWD.
It looks like an early attempt at CAD on an Atari 800 that couldn’t render curves.
Maybe they were trying to ape Citroen-esque quirkiness (particularly the steering wheel/dashboard) but the lack of the French styling touch resulted in something awful.
I don’t think it’s aged that badly. Some decent rims, and this isn’t a bad looking car.
Thanks Blake, for taking up the challenge and writing this up.
To me, this looked like a malformed Honda Prelude, or an exceptionally bad copy of one. I guess that may have been the home market competition or at least the target market.
I guess the “gee-whiz” factor of all of the weird stuff on it was the draw in 1985, but again, I was in V8 heaven back then. For the folks who wanted something different, this was it.
I love the creativity and quirkiness of this car! It’s kind of a Prelude on Quaaludes, isn’t it? Too bad the mechanicals didn’t quite measure up to that Honda, though…
The TV spot I remember from this era, which might have been for this car, or maybe the gen-1 legacy, had boys playing football in the street. The boy playing quarterback instructs his receiver to go over by the Subaru. The boy runs back and forth across the street: Which one is the Subaru?
The implication being, of course, that Subarus have always been ugly, so the new stylish Subarus are hard to pick out.
This car wasn’t my taste, but it looked a whole lot better than its immediate successor: the SVX, with its weird half-windows.
I just noticed how awfully ugly those wheels are! Must’ve been influenced by “Blade Runner” or one of the “Star Trek” movies or something. The design ties in to absolutely nothing. Too much MTV/”Max Headroom” for the design team, I guess.
Oh well…
Funny, the funky wheels are one of my favorite period details on the car!
I often wonder who came up with the design first. The 1988 Z/24 Cavalier wheels used a square chessboard cap too.
Is it a coincidence that the green XT is parked behind a late nineties Taurus that went crazy on the ovals? My wife wanted an XT in the late eighties but we started having kids instead and rode out the 1983 GL that she had purchased new. That car had a significant mid-life crisis around 120,000 miles but was otherwise trouble-free well into the 160’s and ten years old. We had to trade it for a ’93 Quest, another well-built car that is still going strong.
I drove the GL for a few years at the end of it’s time with us. I loved that car but it sure had a different feel to it and had a clunky clutch.
I’ve never seen a XT (even when relatively new) that was ever shined up. It was almost as if they came from the factory dull and dirty and stayed that way.
If you had said the photos were from the late 80’s I would believe you. Someone at work had a blue one with those black bumpers back when these were new. Dull as could be.
The story mentioned the SVX. Another co-worker had one. He went through 3 transmissions on the thing.
I was so young in 85 I wanted one of these… but the 2 people i knew who had them were suitably unique. Real oddballs. I guess that is whyI just loved The dash from afar.
Love this car, love the SVX, love every quirky car Subaru ever made. They dared to be different, and for that they get my respect.
You know, it really does look like something out of Blade Runner. Love the steering wheel and the wheels, they fit the car perfectly.
The overall design almost works. Almost. I love it, these are the kind of cars that make this site interesting. I never paid attention to these in the 80’s, evidently nobody did, so it’s fun to see and appreciate the details I missed before.
You love these or hate these, but at least you’ll have an opinion…and that’s a good thing. It’s not a beige Camry!
I almost pulled the trigger on one of these a couple times back in the 90’s when they were popping up in those sleazy used-car auctions in Centerpoint, AL. Going price was between $800-$1,500 in good condition.
To me, this is the “ultimate” Japanese car. I always liked them…quirky, unique.. The styling is very clean & uncluttered — the license plate is nicely placed on the lower part of the rear bumper where it belongs. I like the one way wiper, the shifter, and I remember the whole instrument cluster “tilting” with the adjustable steering column. I like it when a manufacturer goes out of its way to be weird like that.
“…The license plate is nicely placed on the lower part of the rear bumper where it belongs.”
Oh man, a pet peeve of mine. On boring highway trips, I think about how every car that puts the stupid thing up high would be improved by dropping it into the bumper. Extra demerits for hiding the plate light under a chintzy add-on panel that looks like you could snap it off with your hand.
Nice write up.
You can see how the SVX took all the quirks of the XT and cranked them up to “11”.
I’ve always been a fan of the square in the rims motif. The early Nissan Pathfinders also had a similar square rim thing going on.
It seems like half of the XT’s produced developed quirks in their adjustable tight height feature. It worked great when they were new but, come the mid Nineties, you’d see the vast majority of them with the back end hiked in the air and the front end stuffed nose-first into the ground.
The fall into the category I call “Turbo:Son of Brougham”, Just like the fancy opera windows and heraldic badges of the 70’s , by the 80’s cars started so sprout sport and technology themed motifs, like pods on the sides of the wheels, graph paper aplique where there had once been woodgrain, digital dashes, etc,etc.
Aww, geez! Now I want to find an XT and put a WRX EJ20/25 Turbo powertrain in it!
Always liked these – because they were just so striking. We got them as the Vortex in Australia.
“Vortex”!! That’s what these should have been called in U.S. It’s a name that perfectly conjures up the high-tech / scientific image it’s styling suggests.
Do I imagine it or did Elizabeth Perkins drive one of these cars in the movie “BIG” with Tom Hamks ? I’ts as close as I’ve ever got to seeing one.
You are indeed right, Uncle Mellow. She had a 1987-1988 Turbo GL
The eighties were a clash of polar opposite designs. Cars and archetecture were either more classical, or they were high tech and straight edged. The Alcyone was the latter, and I’ve always thought they were neat looking cars, but the one thing that phases me about wanting to own one would be the shortage of parts and the fact that where I live Subarus usually rust to the point where the rocker panels are completely gone.
I have a 1987 Subaru Vortex if anyone is interested. I have not registered it for 2 years, and it needs work inside and out…if anyone is interested let me know. I am in Hobart, Tasmania…I ADORED this car when I was well enough to get in and out of it. It had enormous and quick pick up in dangerous situations, it hugged the road like no other car I have ever driven, and I felt so safe in it. It also received many admiring glances in its day, and still did right up until I stopped driving it 2 years ago. It is certainly a conversation stater. 🙂
I would like some more information about the Tasmania car if it’s still available…
Do you still have the XT in Hobart? I’m after one for parts
This seems like a car that simply did not belong in the Subaru lineup. Especially in those years. It sort of had a Fiero, MR2, Honda Prelude look and feel to it. It had some interesting features such as the digital dash but as the article pointed out, its actual performance and capabilities were extremely pedestrian compared to its looks. Subaru really didn’t get into real pocket rocket performance until the WRX and STi models but by then they had a real turbo engine to go with it. So it is not surprising that it basically bombed. People that had the money to spend on a car like that had better options.
I remember first seeing the Subaru XT when it was first offered to the US market. At the time, I didn’t find it very attractive, at least not next to the sedan and the wagon. Today, I find it more attractive than what Subaru is offering today.
The steering wheel design of this Subaru looks to have influenced the Tartan Prancer steering wheel from “Vacation 2015”.
Here we have a tie for the ugliest steering wheel ever.
Strange. These always looked totally out of proportion to me. I never actually drove one but was a passenger in one once. Futuristic, kinda cool yet odd came to mind when I was in it.
I actually witnessed a horrific accident on Route 195 in Providence where a girl was driving one of these and got hit from behind – HARD. It was probably around 1990 or so, and I can still remember the blood dripping from her face. Granted a Ford Taurus hit her from behind – both cars were demolished. I haven’t thought of that accident in years – strange how the mind works and an old memory can instantly come right back. Seeing this car written up did it for me.
Have to say I have never liked these and there were quite a few in Australia back in the day. Similar in a way to the Toyota Celica of the day but I think the Celica was a much better looking car.
The steering-wheel height air con controls were very similar to those fitted to Mazda 929’s and, in Australia, Ford Fairmont Ghia’s, Fairlanes and LTD’s. Ford saw the system on the Mazda’s and ordered them from the same supplier in Japan.
There was one of these for sale locally as a project no rego or Wof but still in the system I went for a look out of curiosity and since it was driveable took it for a drive the suspension was locked in place the adjustment system had failed so the coolest feature wasnt there the turbo 1.8 ran smoothly for a Subaru but was really gutless, the kid who owned had big dreams for it, I just walked away it did disappear eventually so someone took it home, I hope I see it again all done up but its not likely to be any time soon.
One of the best cars in terms of style and performance for the late 80’s. Mazda (FC) RX-7 Turbo II.
I was always a big fan of the XT also–I still think its super-wedge styling is quite striking. The girl who would come by to watch me when my parents had a rare night out drove a white XT, which immediately raised her cool factor in my eyes. I don’t remember her having much to say about it though; not sure if she just wasn’t really into cars, or if she didn’t feel like having a discussion about them with a six year old!
My husband and I have owned 3 xt’s. The third is in the rebuild stage as it sat for years in a gentleman’s yard. Fresh gas, new battery and she flew home on rotten tires. The first xt gave us 325’000 miles and someone hit and ran her. Three months later we found a turbo and retired her with 415,000 miles. They carried my 6’3″ husband safely as his daily driver through the ice and snow of the Columbia River Gorge. I could never ask for more. Add the fact that he was never gentle with them but did oil changes every 3,000 miles. Personally I can’t wait for the shocks or air shocks if we get lucky and the new paint! (Paint is in the garage). Happy motoring!!! Karen
There needs to be a PNW meet and greet next summer, there are so many members here.
It’s funny how, years down the road, a repost can trigger an entirely new reaction from me.
This time around, all I’m seeing is an “eighties-fied” Triumph TR7.
I recall not being especially impressed by the styling of these when they were introduced. Their straight-edged design said ‘1981’ to me, especially that broad mid-body crease, as the industry was already well along moving toward softer edges in their sheetmetal.
Better than the Subaru GL, this would have been the perfect car (all in black with turbine sounds effects), to represent tacky early 80s Japanese technology.
I followed an XT over Hwy 431 between Reno, NV and Truckee, CA one winter, in the late ‘80’s. I was impressed with its pace, on a curvy mountain road with a few inches of snow on the pavement and a lot coming down. Definitely more planted than my 4wd Ford Ranger.
Back then many products were made to look futuristic as a selling point and not just cars. Those digital displays on boom boxes come to mind. What would the people in 1985 think of a modern crossover if you could send it back in time? They wouldn’t think it’s a spaceship like the people thought the DeLorean was in Back to the Future. I think they would be disappointed if you told them this is a car from 2022.
I always loved the look of these, but never needed/wanted a coupe. Of course I didn’t let that stop me….. 🙂
I have weighed my 1985 fwd XT Turbo; it comes in at 2350 lbs. With 115hp and skinny tires, it is a delight to drive..swooping along (the fwd xt had the lowest ground clearance of any Subaru), that nose sweeping across the ground.. A consistent part of the fun: feeling you should slow down, and then seeing that you are traveling at 10mph under the limit. 115,000mi; $700 worth of fun!
-It weighs exactly 1000lbs less than my 1995 fwd SVX!