Eventually we aim to have an A-Z directory where you can find all the information you could ever want on a car manufacturer all in one place! Here we take a look at the history of Subaru. The star cluster Pleiades, part of the Taurus constellation, is the company logo for Subaru, a Japanese word meaning Unite. The logo represents five companies coming together to form one after World War II. What began as The Aircraft Research Laboratory in 1917 became 12 smaller corporations after the war. Between 1953 and 1955, four of these corporations came back together along with a newly formed company to form Fuji Heavy Industries. Kenji Kita, CEO of Fuji at the time, wanted to produce cars and chose the name Subaru for its first car. Subaru is credited with some of the most advanced all-wheel drive technologies in the world. They were the first manufacturer to offer front wheel drive in passenger cars in Japan and first to offer four-wheel drive in passenger cars in the world. They’ve also been able to use their aircraft technology for their automotive division with the introduction of the “boxer” engine and the electronic continuously variable transmission. Subaru’s, or Scoobie’s as many enthusiasts refer to them also have an excellent customer satisfaction record and offer outstanding performance and handling at affordable prices.