Dodging a bad review, Subaru fell into awd country

You've heard a lot about Subaru of America as it celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, but there are tales still untold. This one underscores how small decisions made from necessity can become vastly important later on.

In 1969, Consumer Reports gave the Subaru 360 a rare designation: "not acceptable." Oh, and the magazine also called it "the most unsafe car on the market."

After the 360's initial rush of sales to people craving cheap wheels, demand ground to a halt; distributors and dealers stopped ordering, drying up cash flow.

What to do?

In 1971, co-founder Harvey Lamm decided to take Subaru into small towns where the reputation of the local dealer was more important than awareness of the brand he was selling. Also, Consumer Reports was not widely read in the small towns and backwoods of places such as Vermont, Minnesota, Washington state, New Hampshire and western Pennsylvania.

This bit of strategic serendipity would become everything to Subaru once the Japanese brand, with its front-wheel-drive vehicles, began offering four-wheel-drive cars — the feature it later called all-wheel drive, which became its calling card. In rural counties and small towns, where spring mud and winter snow were harsh realities, families made do largely with 4wd pickups, Jeeps and Ford Broncos. But there was demand for cars if they were priced right and didn't get stuck in muddy ruts and snow embankments.

Lamm might have pursued these selling territories as a way of making up for a lack of brand credibility, but they became a crucial element of Subaru's success.