Subaru has announced that after 31 years sales of the medium size Liberty sedan will soon come to an end, but sales of the Impreza and WRX sedan models will continue in Australian dealerships.
More than 153,700 Liberty sedans have been sold over five-generations in Australia since the model line was introduced here in 1989.
Contraction of the medium sector has seen Subaru’s sports utility vehicle (SUV) range surpass the Liberty’s previous success – not least with the Outback, which has always shared the same platform.
For the past two years, Liberty has sold a combined total of 2441, compared to Outback’s sales of 13,844 – a clear indication of market preferences says the brand.
Subaru Australia managing director Christian Dinsdale says while customer preferences have moved on to other vehicles in the Subaru range, the Liberty sedan has played a hugely influential role in the brand’s growth and reputation.
“It was our first model with global appeal and it moved the brand away from its utilitarian roots to becoming a respected automotive company, it also pioneered our early rally motorsport success story,” Dinsdale says.
“The first turbocharged Liberty paved the way for the successes that followed with both Subaru Rally Team Australia and the Subaru World Rally Team,” he says.
The late Possum Bourne drove a factory-backed Liberty RS turbo in the Australian Rally Championship in the early 1990s. The production RS turbo has since established a reputation as a “cult classic” among motoring enthusiasts.
Liberty’s long list of awards include two Wheels Car of the Year titles, in 1995 and 1999.
Highly rated from its earliest days for crashworthiness, Liberty helped firmly establish Subaru’s safety credentials in Australia, with every variant getting then rare dual front airbags in 1994.
“For those customers still seeking a Subaru sedan, we remind them that current generation Impreza closely mimics the physical size of third generation Liberty sedan and offers the same symmetrical all-wheel drive attributes,” says Dinsdale.
“Equally, WRX is a performance sedan option that is probably the closest relative to the various turbocharged Liberty variants, such as the RS, GT and tuned by STI, which captured the hearts of so many enthusiastic drivers in their heyday,” he says.
