It was worth a shot. After all, hadn’t Honda pulled it off recently with the Prelude? Why should Subaru not try their hand at a racy coupé? And try they did. It was a great try, too – a veritable fireworks of Fuji Heavy Industries’ technological and design prowess. They gave it the name of a star to top it off. But unfortunately, the market decreed it was no A-lister.
Before trying to figure out what went wrong, let’s tick off what Subaru did right. The first thing in this column would probably be the styling. This was not one of the marque’s traditional strengths, but a range-topping coupé, almost by definition, has to be an attractive proposition. While these things are naturally subjective, it’s arguable that the Alcyone was both very distinctive and very refined, not just a two-door Leone with extra mascara.
The second thing they did right was to only call this car Alcyone for the JDM. For the astronomically challenged, that’s the name of the brightest star in the Pleiades constellation – i.e. the one stylized in Subaru’s logo. I guess that could fly in Japan, where this sort of stuff elicits relatively positive “I learned something today” feelings. But don’t try to educate people with car names elsewhere, lest you will make potential clients feel they’re ignorant. Plus one would have to explain that Subaru is Japanese for Pleiades, blah blah blah. So in foreign markets, this was the XT or the Vortex.
Coupés come in either sporty or cruiser flavours, if one can be overly simplistic about it. It’s the BMW vs Mercedes kind of duality. The Alcyone was aimed at the cruiser category, so it required a sophisticated suspension. And it got that, at least in the higher VR and VX grades, in the form of air suspension. Apparently, it worked well and period tests were quite impressed. Base model VS cars made do with the same coil setup at the Leone, whose bones were used for this car.
I guess we can add that to the list, too. The Leone’s 1.8 litre boxer 4cyl., thanks to a turbocharger, provided a decent amount of power (135hp), driving the front wheels or all four, as per Subaru tradition. It’s a double-edged sword, really, as the Leone was anything but a sports saloon, the Alcyone was very aerodynamic but not particularly light and the automatic transmission, then already a must-have on the JDM, was a pretty pedestrian 3-speed unit.
But I’m in danger of prematurely slipping into the negative here. One last big point to the Alcyone’s credit: the interior. Nissan rightly got a lot of flack for their F31 Leopard’s blocky dash. Subaru, for their part, knocked it out of the park with this one. Asymmetric steering wheel, pods instead of column stalks, futuristic LCD display on some models, joystick-like gear selector – they really worked on this.
When the car was launched in 1985, the (rather symbolic) rear seats were upholstered in black vinyl. This was no longer the case by mid-1986. The more chequers, the merrier.
Turning to the minus points column, the wedgy design, though very well executed and aerodynamically efficient, had two major drawbacks. One was that it made the Alcyone look like a car from a different maker in Subaru dealerships. There was really nothing in common with the rest of the range. That certainly made it exclusive, but perhaps it was a little too out there for the type of folks who frequented Fuji Heavy industries’ fine establishments. Which brings us to the issue of integrating the Alcyone to the rets of the range.
Subaru JDM range, 1988
Don’t forget that Subaru’s range in their home market was a little different from what it was elsewhere. About a third of people who were considering the star-studded cast above were looking at kei cars and vans. They might have been tempted by a Justy, but the Alcyone was not on their radar.
Things deteriorated further when Subaru added a couple of cylinders to the highest grade of Alcyones in 1987. This was the company’s first venture over the 2-litre size limit, and thus into the territory, size- and price-wise, of the Toyota Soarer and the Nissan Leopard – well beyond the Alcyone’s initial aim. The 2.7 litre flat-6 was exclusive to the Alcyone, bringing only an extra 15hp to the table and a lot of concerns (fuel consumption, tax, potential gremlins) otherwise. Most went Stateside – precious few stayed in Japan. Our feature car has a flat-4, of course.
But I wasn’t quite done with the styling yet. The Alcyone was unveiled at the Detroit Motor Show in January 1985 and only reached the Japanese market in June of that year. The wedge look, which was really hot in the mid-‘70s, was actually quite stale even before Subaru put these into production. After the first year or so, when enthusiasts and potential buyers had a chance to see these in the metal, the Alcyone looked positively ancient compared to the Honda Legend, which also debuted in 1985.
Subaru had no choice but to carry on regardless. In the US market, sales were initially pretty good, but this did not last very long. On the JDM, things just never took off for the Subie coupé. From the summer of 1989 onwards, the car was strictly made-to-order – the end was already near.
And when the SVX Alcyone was released in September 1991, the old generation was shown the door (see above). I was unable to find any production numbers for the Alcyone, but all Japanese sources I’ve read agree that the car did not do well in Japan. It figures that this was only the second one I’ve ever seen here, and that very few are for sale on the usual websites.
Pity the poor Subaru, a carmaker that could not decide whether their top-of-the-line coupé should be a cheap and cheerful Celica fighter or a luxury-laden Soarer rival. Lost in this Alcyone daze, the plucky wedge failed to make much of an impression in its home market, though it apparently did a bit better in North America. Sometimes, it doesn’t pay to wish upon a star.
Related posts:
Curbside Classic: Subaru XT – Forward To The Future In 1985, by Saabaru
Car Show Classic: 1985-90 Subaru XT/Vortex – The Brightest Star In The Constellation, by William Stopford
Curbside Classic: Subaru XT6 – Outcast in the Speciality Coupe Group, by Perry Shoar
CC Outtake: Subaru XT – Subarus Then and Now, by PN
On The Go Outtake: Subaru XT6, by PN
COAL: Not One, But Two 1986 Subaru XT Turbos, by Johnli
I thought these were really cool cars, but not what a Subaru was when they showed up. This car did demonstrate to me that Subaru could do more than build tough little mountain cars, yet, even today, Subaru is known for building tough cars, not sporty cars.
This period of time was a great deal of fun for those of us who had not yet settled down to build a family and just needed a fun car. It seems that every maker had a fun coupe. I empathize with Subaru for wanting to get into this market. However – that market never expanded and we lost so many great little sporty coupes as a result. By the end of the 1980s, most import buyers were choosing minivans for families. This was more than 20 years before I became a father, so there wasn’t enough of us to keep this great market profitable.
What this car did was show us that Subaru knew how to make a cool car. That wasn’t forgotten. So when Subaru started tarting up their tough little cars with sporty aspirations, their offers were better received.
even today, Subaru is known for building tough cars, not sporty cars.
A whole lot of rally-inspired WRXs and STI’s (and wanna’ be’s) would disagree. Around here, there’s probably more hot Subarus with fart cans than Hondas.
TV advertising in the states featured an overlay shadow of the Space Shuttle. A very bad look after Jan 86
Ford used the shuttle in early Aerostar adverts too.
I wish the Japanese carmakers would leave those rear wipers on the export cars. They almost never do except on hatchbacks or wagons.
The biggest styling problem is that the wheels are too small for the wheel cutouts in the body, especially up front.
You are correct. Those small wheels make the XT look like it has been lifted on stilts.
I wonder whether that was exacerbated by the air suspension, perhaps raised for parking? They don’t all seem to sit that high. I agree the wheels look small, but they didn’t seem noticeably so at the time.
Yes, this example appears to have the air suspension activated for greater ground clearance, which also opens up some unsightly wheel gap in the arches. Without that gap, the wheel and tire sizes seem about typical for the era and suitable for the body proportions.
But, I waited & bought a then 9 year old ’92 SVX in 2001. Another Suby “wrong car-wrong time” production. But I loved that misunderstood cruiser for another 22 years ’til I tearfully sold her last September. Maybe quirky cars just appeal to quirky people.
I owned one of these cars. What are the great things as it was a great highway car like when passing trucks or during a wind storm because of its aerodynamics you felt no shake or you weren’t at the mercy of the elements on the middle of the road. That was awesome. No one really talks about that
I always loved these as a piece of design. The wedgy squareness of the body was in sharp contrast to the curvy glasshouse with concealed B and C pillars, almost like it had one foot in the 1980s and one in the 90s – yet somehow it worked. For me, anyway.
Alas for Subaru, my affection for the design did not translate into a sale. Well it kind of did – a sale for Tamiya though.
Object proof that aerodynamics don’t have to mean jellybean styling; these had a Cd of 0.29, still impressive even today.
I’ve read their engineers wanted a fastback for ideal aerodynamics, whereas stylists wanted a 3-box coupe shape with a proper trunk and a more formal upright roofline, so they tested scale models with various backlight angles in a wind tunnel, ultimately arriving at this as the most upright angle that sacrificed nothing measurable in drag vs. a full fastback. Note also how the greenhouse starts tapering in along the rear quarter windows, then tapers in further a bit more radically around the corners of the wraparound rear glass.
I seem to remember ours had a weird feature, in that the AWD was only engaged when one switched on the windscreen wipers.
It was a slightly baffling (if brave) car and I’m not sure if I’ve ever actually seen one.
I still find the SVX a stunning design.
I had an XT in the late 90s, yes it was different, slight drawback was the air suspension, however I swapped them for regular struts from a Legacy if I remember rightly, that to one side it certainly didn’t phase me, and continued to run it for approximately two years, still undeterred my hunger stretched for more Subarus, there wasn’t enough on the roads for my liking, still to this day driving another Scooby, think it’s now my fifteenth and finally achieved the high ranking of a Forester…I can’t and won’t change, just wasn’t meant to be a Ford or Vauxhall kind of guy ✨✨