It is confirmed, the two giant car manufacturers are tying up to build a very affordable small sports coupe. According to Toyota's confirmation late last week, the car they will be building will go on sale on the US market by 2011 while the release for the rest of the globe is still not defined.
The car will be built on Subaru's parent company, Fuji Heavy Industries, in Japan and will be featuring the company's flat-four petrol engine. A top-end variant - thought to be in the vein of the Celica GT4 - is expected to feature Subaru's all-wheel-drive system.
The talks between the two company divided the task each of them will be participating in. Subaru will be designing the platform of the car while Toyota will be the one designing the exteriors, with each model clearly differentiated and separately marketed.
The confirmation was done on Toyota's announcement that they will increase their stake on the Fuji Heavy Industries to 16.5% wherein it has paid an estimated $300million to up its holding from the 8.7 per cent it bought in 2005.
This teaming up brought another collaboration between the two company. Toyota is to build a compact for Subaru, more likely a successor of the Justy model. Daihatsu, who is majoraty-owned by Toyota, is also set to make a series of small cars for Subaru, including a version of its Coo, commonly known as Materia, and tiny city cars with engines under 660cc.
This joining of force will surely be a hit especially now that Toyota holds the world title for being the largest car maker in the world, over taking GM's reigning for 76 years.
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