'Toybaru' looks at sports car project

Toyota and Subaru are looking at a joint small sports car project. Toyota's MRS was the last such car sold here.

Toyota and Subaru have announced that they are investigating a jointly-designed small sports car.

The car would be made by Toyota, but powered by a Subaru flat-four engine.

That means that it will probably not be based on any existing Toyota - Subaru's unique engine will not easily fit in any chassis designed for a conventional transverse engine.

The idea is to sell the car at a low price of under $20,000 although prices in Japan are lower than Europe, so we should not get too excited at the idea of a very cheap sports car coming here.

Toyota now owns 8.7% of Subaru and is keen to look at ways of taking advantage of its position.

- REUTERS