Subaru (????)Japanese pronunciation: [su?ba??u?]; English pronunciation: /'su?b?ru?/ soo-b?-roo is the automobile manufacturing division of Japanese transportation conglomerate Fuji Heavy Industries (FHI).
Subaru is internationally known for their use of the boxer engine layout popularized in cars by the Volkswagen Beetle and Porsche 911, in most of their vehicles above 1500cc as well as their use of the all wheel drive drivetrain layout, first introduced in 1972, that became standard equipment for mid-size and smaller cars in most international markets as of 1996, and is now standard in all Subaru vehicles. They also offer many turbocharged versions of their passenger cars, such as the sporty Impreza WRX.
Fuji Heavy Industries, the parent company of Subaru, is currently in a partial partnership with Toyota Motor Corporation, which owns 16.5% of FHI.
Subaru is the Japanese name for the Pleiades star cluster, which in turn inspires the Subaru logo and alludes to the six companies that merged to create FHI.