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Subaru SVX

Subaru SVX

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Subaru SVXSubaru SVXSubaru SVXSubaru SVXSubaru SVX
Subaru SVXSubaru SVXSubaru SVXSubaru SVXSubaru SVX
Subaru SVXSubaru SVXSubaru SVXSubaru SVX
Lot number 5
Hammer value £2,900
Description Subaru SVX
Registration M5 SVX
Year 1994
Colour Pearlescent White
Engine size 3,317 cc
Chassis No. JF1CXWBR0EH002720
Engine No. 018090

Subaru have always been slightly left-field, that is their charm and raison d’etre. True to form, in the late 1980s, management decided that they needed to extend their range into hitherto uncharted territory.

Their enigmatically named SVX (Subaru Vehicle X) concept was first seen at the 1989 Tokyo show, styled by Giugiaro who had incorporated an ‘aircraft inspired glass to glass canopy’ design to the side windows. Subaru’s press release made much of the idiosyncratic windows-within-windows, a feature which carried over to the production car which entered the market in 1991. Conceived to provide a true luxury four-wheel drive sports GT with four seats, it was perhaps unique in the market, but despite it being a very good car indeed, sales were hard work. This probably came as a relief to Subaru in the end as they are reputed to have lost over $3,000 on each one.

Their loss is your gain, as they had all of the engineering integrity that you would expect from Subaru. The weird side windows worked very well, the torquey 3.3-litre boxer-six providing surprisingly good fuel consumption and a 154mph top speed with 0-60 in 7.3 seconds. It was available only as an automatic, Subaru not having a manual gearbox capable of taming the 231bhp and 228 lb/ft of torque at the time.

Transmission was by a sophisticated four-speed auto box which fed the drive through to all four wheels – 36% to the front and 64% to the rear, giving excellent traction in all weather and road conditions. Too quirky and expensive to become a popular sales success, just 25,000 examples were sold worldwide, with only 7,000 of them in right-hand drive. Bold, rare and beautifully made, they have all of the ingredients needed for true classic status.
 

This very smart Pearlescent White example has had three former keepers. Supplied new in 1994 through Keith Price Garages of Abergavenny, it had received no fewer than 12 main dealer services and one from a Japanese car specialist by 2002, at which point it had covered 57,000 miles. MOTd until April 2015, the large number of invoices and 10 old MOTs on file show that the c.76,000 miles now indicated is correct.

Sure footed, fast and practical, this very nicely presented example will be driven some 120 miles to the sale and comes with a really nice single digit SVX number plate. With just 72 SVX models currently road registered in the UK according to DVLA figures, you are unlikely to see another one coming the other way making this a rare beast indeed. 

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