SVX · 1991–1996

A Giugiaro-styled flagship, automatic-only, and Subaru's best-known sales flop.

Debuting as a concept at the 1989 Tokyo Auto Show and reaching production in 1991, the SVX was styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro/ItalDesign and is best known for its 'window-in-window' canopy door design — an operable section covering roughly two-thirds of each side window. It ran a single engine throughout its life, the 3.3L flat-six EG33 (still fundamentally a boxer layout, just six cylinders instead of Subaru's usual four), sold automatic-transmission-only — reportedly because Subaru had no manual gearbox rated for the EG33's torque at the time, an unverified claim. Subaru projected roughly 10,000 US sales/year; actual first-year (1992) US sales were roughly 5,000 and declined from there, with the car widely regarded as Subaru's best-known commercial flop of the era.