From Humble Beginnings to Automotive Powerhouses: The Evolution of Subaru, Nissan, VW, and Chery in Australia

Cars like the Subaru Forester, Nissan X-Trail, and Volkswagen Golf are certainly big parts of why their respective brands are successful, but there’s more to their respective manufacturers than these popular models.

As we did a few weeks ago, we’re comparing the first cars to be sold in Australia by several popular manufacturers with their newest nameplates.

We’ve included only the newest nameplates to be offered in Australia by each of these companies, though existing nameplates may have subsequently received new powertrains and variants.

This is the second instalment in a feature series. You can read Part 1 here.

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Subaru: 360, Solterra

Subaru got its start in Australia through private imports, as many other brands did. A used-car dealer in Ballarat, Victoria, reportedly imported around 73 examples of the Subaru 360 in 1961, making it the first Subaru sold locally.

Weighing just 450kg and powered by a 356cc two-cylinder engine, the 360 was mechanically compliant with Japan’s Kei car regulations, and its bubbly styling earned it the “ladybug” nickname. This helped make it immensely popular in its home market as brands sought to motorise Japanese citizens post-war.

But in Australia and other overseas markets, the 360 was poorly received. This was particularly notable in the United States, where businessman Malcolm Bricklin imported 10,000 examples, only for the car to be criticised for safety concerns and a lack of power, leading to its rejection by the public.

Meanwhile, overheating issues plagued the earliest Australian examples, possibly due to our warmer climate and higher-speed driving demands. While a later update eventually remedied the problem, the dealership ceased further imports amid unsustainable losses caused by the 360.

Mind you, this and subsequent models like the Leone (1973) contributed to Subaru’s reputation as a fairly unremarkable, uninspiring car brand throughout the 1970s and 80s, though the Japanese automaker did have a unique selling point in its four-wheel drive models.

Subaru tried to shift its rather staid reputation with the introduction of sportier models like the XT (1985) and SVX (1993), though these were largely unsuccessful. It arguably wasn’t until the Impreza WRX launched in 1994 that Subaru truly vaulted into the public eye, with the turbocharged, rally-derived sedan now one of Subaru’s longest-running nameplates.

Several other cars, like the Forester, Outback, and performance Impreza WRX STI, followed, cementing the brand as a household name in the Australian market. Though not always a top-seller, Subaru consistently places on the fringes of the top 10, but Chinese challengers in particular have shaken things up.

Subaru’s newest model is intended to take on many of those new rivals, but it hasn’t been popular so far. That’s the Solterra, the brand’s first fully electric vehicle – and a twin to the Toyota bZ4X – that launched in November 2023.

It’s currently Subaru’s slowest-selling local model, but orders are now open for a significantly updated version that brings revised looks, more power, more range, and improved tech, all at a much lower price than before.

MORE: Explore the Subaru showroom

Chery: J1 and J11, Tiggo 9

This list’s youngest brand is Chery, though in 15 years it’s found the time to take two bites of the Australian cherry. Its first stab was in 2011, when it launched with the J1 light hatch and J11 SUV.

Distributed independently by Ateco, which is now responsible for brands like Renault and Ram, Chery’s first two cars (and the J3 small hatch that shortly followed) quickly fell afoul of government regulations mandating electronic stability control.

While this initially barred the brand from Victoria, the federal implementation of these regulations forced the brand to discontinue the J1. That wasn’t before its price was slashed to an astonishing $9990 drive-away, making it one of the only sub-$10,000 drive-away cars sold post-2000.

The other issue these cars faced was safety.