360 · 1958–1970/71

The car that made Subaru a car company — and the one Consumer Reports called 'Not Acceptable.'

Launched in 1958, the 360 was the vehicle that introduced the Subaru name to the market, built to Japan's kei-car regulatory class with an air-cooled two-stroke inline-2 (356cc). Power rose from 16 PS at introduction to 25 PS by August 1968, with the sportier dual-carburetor 'Young SS' making 36 PS. Malcolm Bricklin's newly formed Subaru of America imported roughly 10,000 units starting 1968 at $1,297 — the sub-1,000-lb curb weight exempted it from contemporary US federal safety standards, a fact Bricklin's marketing reportedly leaned into rather than hid. In April 1969, Consumer Reports rated the US-spec 360 'Not Acceptable,' citing (per secondary retellings, not yet verified against the primary text) roughly 37-second 0–50 mph acceleration and safety concerns from a crash test against a full-size American car; the widely repeated 'most dangerous car in America' characterization has not been confirmed as a direct quote from the original review.