Browse over 9,000 car reviews

Subaru 360 nearly steals XV's scenes

The scenes of the various Subaru models driving into the back of a moving carwash were genuine shots.

Actors are always warned not to appear on stage or screen with children, because they steal the limelight. But Subaru should have taken the opposite approach and warned the newest addition to its family – the incoming XV compact SUV – not to work with the most senior member in shooting the latest TV ad.

The little Subaru 360 that launched the range in 1958 nearly steals the scene, and stole the hearts of the film crew behind the ad. “Everyone on location fell in love with the 360,” Subaru national marketing manager Toby O’Bree says of the tiny rear-wheel drive, with its two-stroke 360cc two-cylinder engine. 

“This is an original version of the Subaru model first released in 1958. It has only a few miles on the speedo, and despite its age, performed strongly throughout the three days on location at Lake Bathurst. It didn't miss a beat. But I have to say as cute as it is, the XV was the star - ably supported by the rest of the Subaru cast.”

And the full family was there, with the entire bloodline of Subaru acting out a storyline that sees them all disappear into a bizarrely mobile retro 50s carwash – from which emerges the XV.

“I believe it’s the first time we’ve used them all together,” O’Bree says. “We have used Rally cars in other TV commercials for models such as Outback and Impreza but we have never had a TVC with the whole family of Subaru models depicted.”

And those who have a special affection for the Brumby – our chief reporter Paul Gover among them – will be applauding its strong supporting role.

The ute wakes up from under a pile of hay and dirt and scampers through the landscape to catch the rest of the crew already in the carwash.  And not all the grunge came from the props department, O’Bree says.

“The special effects crew on location applied dirt to the Brumby and several rally cars but it quickly become apparent that the natural environment would take care of that,” he says.

The commercial was created by the Disciple agency and produced by Revolver Production, with filming in a number of locations during last October.

Disciple creative partner Peter Buckley says "The new XV is the culmination of so many great Subaru ideas that we thought that a good way to communicate this was to show all that technology and heritage being distilled before our eyes -- and a carwash seemed like a great way to do this.

We wanted the spot to feel like an event, as this is a big moment for Subaru, but be fun too, so we thought that having the carwash moving was a great idea.

"We set the action on a dry lakebed and filmed from tracking vehicles and from a helicopter which gives a sense of epic scale. The cars themselves are the thing that adds charm to the spot and we tried to capture's each's unique character by the way each arrives at the carwash.

"The carwash itself has a retro look and if you look closely you'll see we've incorporated the Subaru stars into the sign. We also thought the spot would feel better if we don't see any drivers. So we paintboxed them all out - sorry if you were one of our stuntdrivers."

The interior carwash scenes were shot at a new carwash in Narellan (south-west of Sydney), where several glass panels were removed to accommodate camera and lighting, O’Bree says.

“The rural location for the driving sequences was Lake Bathurst near Goulburn in NSW - chosen for its flat expanses – while the rural town scene was shot in Tarago near Lake Bathurst. The retro carwash was actually a model just 2m long, which was shot at a studio in Homebush and digitally added later.

“However the scenes of the various Subaru models driving into the back of a moving carwash were genuine shots. It was accomplished by dressing a car transporter to appear like a car wash then driving the Subarus up the loading ramps as the transporter drove along. Obviously it was all done in a controlled environment with professional drivers.”

O’Bree says the key aim of the ad was to communicate “that Subaru has a heritage of making All-Wheel drive SUV's dating back to the 1970s. And that when combined with our experience in developing sports performance passenger cars, the new XV offers both genuine SUV ability and genuine car-like ride and handling. The line ‘All the best from Subaru’ sums up the proposition,” he says.

But it might also have another intended effect. We’ve seen a run of car ads that boost the popularity of featured songs, including Mitsubishi with New Radicals’ Get What You Give, Ford with New Order’s Slow Jam and Holden with Accadacca’s Thunderstruck – the last of those only until the Pedestrian Council of Australia had it pulled off the air.

So the Subaru ad could do the same with the Russell Morris classis – The Real Thing – which became a massive hit overseas in 1969, despite lacking the kind of promotional juggernaut available to today’s musos.

“The song has struck a chord with a wide variety of age groups,” O’Bree says. “For music buffs it might be of interest to know that the version appearing in the new XV TV commercial was recorded in Sydney using the same drum kit as the original 1969 version.”

View cars for sale