The Subaru Brumby will return if customers really want it, Subaru Australia’s managing director has hinted, reigniting the possibility of a 21st century version of the little ute.
The news comes as several other carmakers have made a head start and brought their own baby car-based utes to showrooms overseas.
Hyundai’s Santa Cruz and Ford’s Maverick are already out in the United States and selling way beyond expectation. Toyota appears close to revealing its “mini HiLux” to the world, Nissan has confirmed a ute smaller than Navara is under consideration and even Volkswagen admits a Polo-base tiny ute could be on the books.
While Toyota’s mini HiLux looks tough, we think a reborn Brumby could have similar styling to Hyundai’s Santa Cruz with its more car-like proportions.
Subaru’s little Brumby was sold in Australia from 1978 to 1994 and despite its small dimensions and relatively light 400kg payload, the ute became renowned for its four-wheel drive and seemingly indestructible design.
As high-riding, off-road utes such as the Toyota HiLux, Ford Ranger and Mitsubishi Triton became hugely popular, the little utes disappeared.
But tastes are evolving so it seems and the time appears right to bring back the Brumby.
“It would be great,” Subaru Australia’s managing director Blair Read said speaking to CarsGuide at the launch of the new Subaru Outback.
Read said Subaru had a history of listening to what its customers wanted and giving it to them. He pointed out that most recently Subaru had brought the new turbocharged Outback SUV to Australia after being bombarded by requests from customers, owners and dealers to add it to the local line-up.
“We heard the feedback on Outback. We heard the demand from the public and the Subaru buyers saying they wanted a turbo Outback. Tick! It’s here,” he said.
“So we’re listening, we’re watching, we read the comments, we go to the forums, we see what customers are looking for and … it would be great.”
The Santa Cruz is based on the Tucson, while the Maverick shares the same underpinnings as the Focus and Escape. A future Brumby could use the Subaru Global Platform that everything from the Forester and Outback to the Impreza share.
Subaru’s symmetrical all-wheel drive and 213mm of ground clearance would make the reborn Brumby very adept off the beaten track, while bringing over the 2.0-litre from the Crosstrek would provide 115kW of power and 196Nm of torque for a potential braked towing capacity of 1.5-tonnes.
Of course at this stage we’re just fantasising. If you really want the Brumby ute back, then Subaru wants to hear it and it could very really happen.
“We are always listening,” read says.
“We always listen to the customer. It’s not: what do we think? It’s: what is the customer saying – what are they looking for?
We hear we the [Brumby] question all the time and it has been a while – we get asked all the time. We go around Australia and we get asked – and we’re listening.”
Keyword: Hands up if you want the Brumby to come back! Subaru is listening! Small ute could be Australia's Ford Maverick, Hyundai Santa Cruz rival