I might have been a bit surprised to read that R&T had a lot of fun with the Subaru 360, but then I did too. In both cases, the big qualifier is that the fun was good for short stretches of urban roads, where the 360 could be driven flat out (needed to be, actually), which is fun. Kind of like taking an enclosed go-cart out on the streets. Well, the other qualifier is that hopefully the traffic wasn’t dense, as swimming with big cars makes the 360 feel more than a bit vulnerable. And the cars (and trucks) have all gotten a lot bigger since 1969.
R&T starts out by saying that a lot of problems could be solved if all cars were the size of the 360, as in limiting the environmental impact (smog), space demands, and even safety, as its low top speed (56 mph) means “it has got to be safer”. Really? Given that the 360’s two stroke engine had zero emission controls—it fell under the EPA’s 50 cubic inch minimum–and it didn’t have to meet many of the federal safety regulations because it weighed under 1000 lbs (980 lbs), those assumptions look a bit iffy, unless they were made in jest—quite likely.
Performance? What’s that? it couldn’t make it to 60, so the 0-60 time is…infinity. The 1/4 mile came in 27.4 seconds @46 mph, which has to be some sort of record for cars sold on the US market in the 1960s. Maybe even the ’50s. And fuel economy was a very disappointing 28 mpg, the result of needing to drive it flat out all the time. So much for the ads that promised up to 66 mpg! Malcom Bricklin strikes again. Actually, this was only his first automotive “strike”, having run his father’s building supply business into the ground amid a string of lawsuits previously. But in America, business failure is good! It makes you look bold and daring.
Yes, there are very few cars that can be driven flat out all the time these days, back in 1969 and today. Maybe that’s a good thing, although I am a lover of relatively underpowered cars. I love caning my xB every time I turn into a highway or such. But even then, I have to back off before too long. But back in the day, I did drive my old 40 hp VWs flat out for hours on end.
The room for two in the front was deemed adequate (I didn’t quite think so, but then I’m taller than average). But in order to seat two in the back, the front seats have to be pushed forward. There’s no luggage space in the “frunk”. But the amusement value was high, as long as the drivers at R&T kept it close to home. Maybe just in the parking lot?
R&T recommended giving serious pause to actually buying one, as the fun wears off rather quickly (5 miles? 6?).
My drive in one was a bit under that, so I never hit the wall, metaphorically speaking. Just as well; I’d like to remember the fun I had in it.
CC Driving Review (With Video): Subaru 360 – Can I Even Fit In It?
Damning with faint praise, the saying goes…
Quite right.
Jack Yamaguchi’s “it seems curious to me that you would find it really necessary in the U.S….” was a particular gem.
Seems like it was pricey for what it was. I would curious to know the reasons anyone purchased one new rather than pretty much any used car?
Was it not $600 below an Austin America when $600 was still a lot
of money or the price of a/ option in a Caprice.
Whoa, $1,300? I had no idea, but that does seem high.
Quick comparison: $1,467 base price for a new U.S. Fiat 850 sedan (C&D, Jan.’69).
Don’t know if the Honda N600 was here yet, but think it was in that ballpark too.
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The definition of driving a slow car fast? I would still love to have one, just for the fun of it.
Saw my first Kei van as it struggled to cross the Mississippi river bridge (GNO) in New Orleans a month ago. The engine was screaming in order to reach the apex. Just the draft of a tractor trailer was pushing it from side to side.
Based on the above, can you imagine what it was like for the Subaru 360 on the Ventura Freeway in the 60’s with Lincoln Continentals ready to eat it for lunch. Several motor cycles at the time had more horsepower.
Does anyone have further information/source material for the <50 cubic inch exemption?
I recall that SAAB built a downsized 2-stroke triple, strictly for the US market, to take advantage of this exemption as well.
But I wouldn't think that either SAAB or Subaru/Bricklin would have the financial means to "lobby" (i.e. bribe) either Congress or the EPA to create such an exemption. So how did it come about?
Does anyone have further information/source material for the <50 cubic inch exemption?.
I know that exemption was a thing around 1970. Fiat reduced the engine displacement in the 850 one year, to get under that line. Then they decided the power loss wasn’t worth it, and, a year or two later, the 850 was sporting a 903cc engine.
Undoubtedly for the same reason motorcycles and all sorts of small gas engines (lawn mowers, industrial, etc.) were exempt: smog-forming emissions were seen to be proportional to the size of the engine (fuel consumed). So the target was the mass-produced automobiles, with this exemption, which was later eliminated.
I saw a 360, that someone was actually using for transportation, in Columbus, Ohio, in 71.
There was a piece in Motor Trend, around the same time, about someone who came upon a storage lot of new 360s, bought them for a song, and offered them for one model racing. The MT piece covered the inaugural race, where some NASCAR personalities were invited to participate. I remember Buddy Baker being one of the participants.
A 360 showed up at the Motor Muster at Greenfield Village one year. I didn’t unlimber my camera as it was raining, and the 360 was a no-show the next day.
A guy, who goes by 2stroketurbo on youtube, lives in Portland, and has a taste for micro cars, owns a 360,
The Olds dealer I worked at in L.A. picked up these PO$s; I still feel a little guilty about actually selling one to a retail customer.
I did try to drive one from the dealership out to Whittier one Saturday: it turned into a drive of TERROR whether on a freeway or surface street! I finally gave up and turned back. Riding my motorcycles all over the L.A. basin was no problem, but trying to drive one of these…SCARY!!!!!!!!!! DFO
Fearsomely, these had an 80MPH speedometer.
The dog is there to bite anyone who tries to even move this contraption.
I think there’s an engineering reason for speedometers that show a much higher mph indicator than (most) vehicles can ever hope to achieve.
I forget what it’s called, but the idea is that the speedometer will show the most accurate reading in the ‘middle’. Hence, in the case of the Subaru 360, an 80 mph speedometer is entirely correct, since it means that it will show the most accurate reading at 40 mph, which is probably much closer to the top speed of one of those cars.
It’s also the reason the federally mandated 85 mph speedometer from 1979-82 was just as inane as the idiotic 55 mph National Maximum Speed Limit (NMSL). In effect, those 85 mph speedometers were most accurate at 42 mph.
If those who had got that requirement passed had used their noggins a little bit, they might have went with a 110 mph speedomemter. But, then, that wouldn’t exactly have been all that different from the typical 120 mph gauge that the vast majority of cars used.
US-market adverts – note pronunciation of “Subaru”:
So ’60s with the long hair and cheesy organ. Really surprised they don’t end each ad with a Subaru logo, some spoken or displayed identifier that it’s a Subaru 360, where to buy one, a phone number, *something* besides its price and fuel economy like in every other car commercial that drives home what you just watched so you’ll remember it.
Those are great! I wonder if the model got paid with a SuBARu? She seems to have been in all of the commercials. And I’ll say that that 3rd spot had me wondering at first if the carburetor, fender and brake drum were being sold separately.
“Cheap and Ugly”. I guess someone at SuBARu’s ad agency was trying to steal a page from the VW advertising playbook. That seemed to work out a bit better for VW.
Same band in all of the commercials too (recorder, organ, drums).
Check out this Canadian ad for the ’85 HOONday Pony; I think they went with the even more anglicized pronunciation in Canada the next year.
And three decades later, people are still struggling with how to pronounce Hyundai. I recently came across this UK Hyundai ad, which is pretty amusing:
I’m confused now – is Hyundai really trying to get Brits to pronounce “Hyundai” differently? They didn’t pronounce it that was in their own UK-market commercials from not long ago. Seems we now have at least four official Hyundai pronunciations in predominantly English-speaking countries.
I guess so – though I can’t fathom why. Why would a company suggest a different pronunciation of its name once their product is already firmly established? It would be like if Subaru returned to pronouncing it Su-BA-ru
Until pretty recently in the US, some Hyundai ads said something like “Hyundai, rhymes with Sunday,”
Perhaps they were inspired by the “KN car” move that their fellow Korean company made.
28 mpg! Good heavens, an American compact could match that with a bit of caution.
And the Toyota minivan that Jason Shafer wrote about the other day bests that by 7mpg. You might could put one of these 360s in the back of a Sienna, and drive it around all day still getting 35mpg on the highway.
Ain’t modern technology great? 😉
I’d be up for the fun of driving one of these for a brief span of time and distance. It does seem to be a blast.
I’ve also had a long term fascination with the pickup version of these, the first generation Sambar. These come up for sale now and then. Totally impractical, but super-cute.
We had a Subaru dealership in Erie back in ’69, it was in a house that the ground floor had been a restaurant. The cars were small enough that you could fit a half dozen in the dining room.
With my love of the weird, of course I would have loved to have one to get around town. It would have been an improvement over my bicycle (1958 Schwinn Mark IV Jaguar with Sturmey Archer AW hub). At the time, I was unemployed and doing badly enough in college that Uncle Sam was breathing down my neck, so the thought of taking a part time job was out of the question.
I don’t think the dealership ever sold one. Two years later the first Honda 600’s appeared, and they actually did rather well.
We have two that sporadically show up at Richmond Cars and Coffee. They’re rather popular with the participants, and a nice break from the Mustang/Camaro/Firebirds/ad nauseam.
Unless my eyes are deceiving me, the car to the left of the Subaru in the first parking lot photo appears to be a Fiat 2300 Coupe — a gorgeous Ghia design, and a car I had no clue was sold in the United States. In fact, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t officially, so I suppose this one was a grey-market import? Very interesting that it ended up in that picture somehow.
It’s in the R&T offices parking lot, which always had lots of foreign cars in it.
When I was in college (late 70’s), there was a fellow who had one. There was an area of campus where the paths were meant for foot and bicycle traffic only, and two metal bollards were placed to keep vehicles from turning off the street to the pathway. The bollards were no obstacle for “the little Su-BAR-u” at all, which slipped right between them.
In 1969 Consumer Reports tested the 360. The front bumpers were “virtually useless against anything more formidable than a watermelon,” the magazine said. Handling was dangerously bad. During abrupt maneuvers, the back wheels tended to curl up under the car like a turtle’s leg. In short, the Subaru 360 was “Not Acceptable,” the magazine wrote, in large letters.
From; money.cnn.com/2018/07/06/news/companies/subaru-360/index.html
R&T was kinder to the Subaru than Consumer Reports who IIRC rated it Not Acceptable. Then again the period road tests of a Citroen DS21 and Toyota Land Cruiser weren;t too complimentary either.
Subaru showed up in my “wstrn PA, small town” about 1972,as I recall. First one on the street was a neighbors “1973” , or “74”.
Was canary yellow, quite a looker.
“Kerven Subaru” held sway there for years and years. I think it’s now been sold to a chain. Know the current dealership is about 3-4 miles form the original one.
fwiw… The YouTube channel “2stroketurbo” features microcars including a Subaru 360. He’s a mechanic/rebuilder & his 360 has been souped up given this POV driving video:
Thanks for posting that. The guy behind that channel seems like a lot of fun. He has a great video of him driving his Sambar 360 van.
http://www.mphspecialties.com/
Oregon, fwiw. 🙂
I don’t think I have ever seen one but I do have experience driving low powered vehicles. I have owned a “big” engined 2CV for a long time and during the summer it is my daily driver for local runs. It really is fun to be able to drive flat out most of the time. Mine is a 602cc 29 hp version but a friend has an 18hp 435cc one and it is significantly slower. I have been a passenger but never a driver and I don’t think you would want to take it out of the city.
I worked in Nassau Bahamas for a short time and we were given use of a Subaru Sambar van. It was the early eighties so I think it was the 600 cc version. I was the designated driver as everyone else was afraid of it. I had a blast and you really can’t go very fast there anyway. It did an excellent job of caring the 6 of us around the island.