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  Senior recognises the importance of the car and says it's a crucial car for the company's future growth

The new XV is the most important Subaru since the first Forester.

It has a giant job, firstly in drawing newbies to the brand and secondly as one of the three legs of Subaru's new global small-car attack.

The Subaru XV comes to Australia first, but will soon be followed by an all- new Impreza and then by a WRX that moves much further away from its humble small-car roots.

It must also win buyers to a baby SUV category that's in its infancy in Australia, just as the Forester did.

"We are creating a category killer with the XV," says Nick Senior, managing director of Subaru Australia. It blends all the key elements of what a small car can do with some of the great charcter of an SUV. It's got increased ground clearance and improved visibility, but it's a great drive."

Senior recognises the importance of the car and says it's a crucial car for the company's future growth and customer base. "I think it's very important. It's not only important but a big opportunity," he says.

"It's ground breaking and in the SUV segment it will be like the OUtback and Forester." Senior describes the XV as a morph job on a variety of existing classes.

"It's a hatch or sedan for small-car buyers, but with the ingredients of SUVs. It's got the versatility to deliver lifestyle choices. It's got the lowest centre of gravity of any of its competitors but also the highest ground clearance." But he distances Australia from Subaru's three-pronged small-car push. 

"I see it more as a three-SUV strategy. We've got the XV to appeal to singles and younger couples, the Forester is more for families and people with a few kids, then we've got the Outback. I think it's more about covering the bases in the SUV category."

Apart from the XV, the biggest Subaru arrival for 2012 is the new Impreza. "We are now literally trickling cars into dealers in the next few weeks but major stocks don't arrive until March," Senior says.

"The new Impreza and SV are important to get us back to our rightful place in Australia, which is not 34,000 cars a year but 40,000. That's ambitious but what we'd like to achieve this year."