Subaru all-wheel boxer move was brave

The 100 per cent commitment to all-wheel drive started in a tent at Daring Harbour in 1997.

A then nervous marketing manager, Nick Senior, had sweaty palms as he waited to tell the assembled Australian Subaru dealers the "bad news" that they were about to become an all-boxer-engine and all-wheel-drive company.

At that time, 50 per cent of sales and two of the top three models were front-wheel-drive vehicles. "We were ready to duck for cover," Senior says.

"Just as I got up to tell them the news a big southerly wind came through the tent and I thought the noise was someone shooting me."

Senior had the idea to go all-AWD after the US made the decision 12 months earlier, but it was still going to be a radical hard-sell proposition for Australia.

"The dealers had always struggled with sales people who tread the path of least resistance; that is, selling the cheaper front-wheel drive," he says. "Now we were taking that away from them."

Senior didn't expect what happened next. "The dealers all applauded us," he says. "It was a unique selling proposition for them. No one at the time was selling all-wheel drive cars.

"But we expected most of the market to be AWD by 2002 and we would just be a 'me too' brand. When Magna AWD came out we thought that was the start of the avalanche, but they still had front-wheel-drive models, so that's what they sold."

Senior now looks back and feels vindicated by the decision. In 1996, Subaru sold 8500 vehicles. In 1997, that increased to 14,000 and 20,000 the following year.

"We halved the number of top-selling models, but we more than doubled the sales in a couple of years," he says.

Understandably Senior sticks by his decision and emphatically rejects any suggestion they will add front-wheel drives to their fleet.

"Now there are more and more luxury and performance brands with AWD," he says. "All-wheel drive is not just about safety, it's also about fun."