Porsche and Subaru share a special corner of the automotive market, being the only brands that really stake their reputations on flat engines. They're not the only automakers to ever put a boxer to work, as we've seen these engines in a number of Citroëns, Alfa Romeos, and Volkswagens. But no other major automaker has really bet on the flat configuration in the way that Subaru and Porsche have. So, when you think about it, it's kind of weird that these two brands don't collaborate more often.In fact, as far as we know, they've only really hooked up twice, both in the early 2000s, to produce the 276-hp Subaru Legacy B4 Blitzen performance sedan in 2000, and the Subaru Impreza Type Euro wagon in 2002. Both of these vehicles were JDM-exclusive, but the Impreza is the rarer gem of the two, having been given a very limited production run. Here's what you need to know about this hard-to-find collaboration piece.The following covers the exceedingly rare Impreza Wagon which spawned as a result of a Subaru and Porsche collaboration in the early noughties. Any opinions offered herein are those of the author unless otherwise attributed. The Best Of Both Worlds? 2002 Subaru Impreza Type Euro (1)At a glance, the Type Euro looks exactly like what it is: a collaboration between Porsche and Subaru. You've got the classic silhouette of the Impreza, plus the rounded design features and bug-eye headlights of a Porsche (even though these were standard design for Subarus of the era). The bumpers and spoiler give some serious Porsche vibes, too. If a Porsche 911 Dakar isn't on the cards, a Porsche-designed Subaru rally car may be the next best thing. If you're wondering, the answer is yes, they do sell Porsches in Japan. In fact, Japan bought 7,193 Porsches in 2022, making up 2.3% of the brand's 309,884 global sales that year.It's not that they don't like European or American cars over there, they just can't afford the taxes on the big ones. In Japan, cars are taxed based on engine displacement, and something like the 2.0-liter turbo-four found in the Porsche Macan would be taxed at the same rate as the 2.0-liter VTEC found in the Honda Civic Type R, or, for that matter, the 2.0-liter Subaru EJ20 engine found in the Impreza Type Euro wagon. It's Basically A Subaru That Looks Like A Porsche The Type Euro was also available in a 250-hp all-wheel drive rally-ready version, packing a 2.5-liter EJ25, or a 1.5-liter EJ15, which would have produced somewhere around 100 hp. If this all looks familiar, well, it's basically just your standard 2002 Impreza with many of the same engine options and performance specs, it just looks fascinating, and they didn't make very many of them.Porsche's contributions to the car are mostly down to the visual presentation. The car looks just like a 996 Porsche 911's long-lost Japanese relative, like that King of the Hill episode where Hank Hill goes to Tokyo and meets his brother. Why Don't These Two Collaborate More Often? 2000 Subaru Legacy B4 Blitzen ExteriorWe can concede that the Impreza Type Euro is an "acquired taste." It's not one of those cars everyone is going to love, like a typical Porsche 911. We dig the way Porsche's rounded headlights compliment the Impreza's hatchback body style, but it's been called "ugly" and "stupid-looking" and, hey, to each their own. But we wouldn't mind if they produced a few more cars like this one, and the Legacy B4 Blitzen.In both collaborations, Porsche was basically contributing stylistic changes to an existing Subaru. With the Type Euro, that was the Impreza. In the case of the B4 Blitzen, it was a Subaru Legacy. "Blitzen" is the German word for lightning, hinting at the 276-hp turbocharged flat-four under the hood, hitting 0-60 in just over five seconds, and fitted with a rigid, street-oriented suspension system. The B4 Blitzen Is Pretty Rare, But The Type Euro Is Unobtainium Where the Impreza Type Euro was a one-off with a very limited production run, the Legacy B4 Blitzen ran for a few model years, from 2000 to 2003, so it's not the hardest car in the world to find on the used market, but, being a premium trim and a JDM-exclusive that's only just crossed the 25-year statute on imports to the US, it's not the easiest car to source, either. You Can Forget Buying Your Own Subaru Impreza Type Euro 2004 Subaru Impreza(1)Firstly, Subaru only made 100 of these cars. Secondly, production officially began in 2002, meaning that, as of July, 2025, these cars are only 23 years old, so they can't legally be imported for a couple more years. Consider The 2002 Subaru Impreza Outback Sport As An Alternative The Impreza Outback Sport was an entry-level trim for the second-generation Impreza, rebranding the car as a little brother to the Subaru Outback SUV for US buyers, and it offered a driving experience that wasn't so far off from what you could expect in a Type Euro.The 2002 Impreza was also available in the US as a WRX Sport Wagon with a 227-hp turbocharged EJ25 engine under the hood. When it comes to what it feels like to actually get behind the wheel of an Impreza and take it on, or off, the road, you're not really missing out on much with the Type Euro. It's just the Porsche styling that we don't get to enjoy here in the US.If you really want to drive a Type Euro, you'd be better off buying an American Impreza and fitting it with a custom front-end like some kind of crazy rat-rod, because the real thing is simply unavailable in the US for the time being, and there's no telling what they'll be selling for when they're US-legal, if there are any for sale at that point in the first place.According to Kelley Blue Book, here's what you can expect to spend on a 2002 US-market Subaru Impreza, assuming around 15,000 miles per year on the odometer...Looking at models for sale, we're going to be spending a little more than the fair market price if we want something with low mileage. For instance, a 2004 model is currently listing for $6,695 in California, and that's with 166,146 miles on the odometer. The best deal we found in our search is a 2005 Outback Sport Wagon with 87,937 miles selling for $8,995, while the cheapest is a 2002 selling for $2,990 with 228,279 miles on the odometer.It's a buyer's market, seeing as these cars aren't exactly hard to come by, but you'll need to shop around if you want to find something with under 100,000 miles at a fair price. Porsche's Built And Designed Many Cars That Weren't Porsches AudiThe fact that Porsche has collaborated with Subaru twice in the past seems like a pretty crazy concept, but Porsche's not always been in the best financial position, and has on numerous occasions collaborated with other automakers when times were tough. Some of the most notable of these collabs include: First-gen Seat Ibiza Lada Samera Volkswagen Vanagon Bencedes-Benz 500E Audi RS2 Avant Renault Clio V6 RS (Phase 2) The automaker is now successful enough that it doesn't need to build cars for other people, although its engineering trickles down into other cars that share platforms, like the forthcoming Audi Concept C, which shares a platform with the electric 718 Cayman replacement, whose future is in doubt.
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