Subaru, a tiny, conservative Japanese brand, is about to build a big, brash, American-style SUV. It's either an exercise in kaizen — slow, steady improvement — or a complete loss of cool.
To be sure, the market is there. Americans are ditching their sedans for SUVs at a dizzying pace. Subaru, however, has become one of the hottest car companies in the country by soberly keeping production below demand and making a few great cars, none of which is a traditional SUV per se. In other words, a supersized Subaru could be either a profit machine or a exercise fraught with distraction.
The smart money is on the former. In the U.S., sales of SUVs and trucks eclipsed those of cars six years ago and have showed no signs of slowing. At the moment, only one out of every three vehicles rolling out of dealerships is car-shaped. Large, luxurious SUVs in particular have been in demand.