Brumby in the backwater of history

All this talk of diesels in Subarus gets people thinking.

At the local launch of the latest hot-shoe Subaru, the STi, Managing Director for Subaru Australia, Nick Senior, happened to mention that he has been in receipt of some very favourable feedback from those anxious to buy a diesel Subaru.

"I've just been reading the bulletins from the Brisbane Motor Show and one of the most asked questions from current Subaru owners is: 'I've read about a diesel, when are we likely to get it?' -- and, from what we know about our customers, I think there would be an interest in diesel engines", he said.

"Also, we continue to be strong in the rural markets and the propensity for diesel sales is [there] in these areas. I don't see a downside; I only see upside."

But then, because mention "rural communities" in the Subaru context and one cannot help recalling the Brumby ute, we asked Senior for the prospects of a new Brumby for the modern era.

His emphatic response?

"Never. The Brumby days have passed us and I think -- as a brand -- we're past the Brumby".

"We've already appealed to a new set of customers, because from the early 1990s, when we were doing 8500 cars per year, we're now at 38,500 last year, so we've attracted 30,000 people… who recognise our virtue and our DNA.

"So while we still feel a fondness for the Brumby and we should never forget the legacy of the Brumby, because for many years, it nurtured a dealer network that was starved of other vehicles and the Brumby put a lot of kids through school. So there is a fondness for it, but there are other opportunities for us in other models in the future."

The market that formerly purchased the Brumby (farmers, in the main), held the small Leone-based pick-up in great respect and probably with good reason. Stories of vehicles covering up to a quarter of a million kilometres without major overhaul were, in fact, circulated by Subaru's own Australian PR team during the late eighties.

Nowadays, the Brumby demographic has largely migrated to Proton and its Jumbuck light commercial -- but that's a vehicle lacking the Subaru's 4WD facility.