Subaru Justy, 1984

Subaru Justy, 1984

The Subaru Justy is a Subaru compact hatchback automobile in production since 1984.

The Justy family consists of four versions.

The first one, introduced in 1984, was updated in 1989, but the changes were small. In 1994 a rebadged Suzuki Swift was sold as Justy in most European countries; in 2004 it was replaced by a rebadged Suzuki Ignis (the Subaru G3X Justy).

Initially, the Justy was equipped with a 1.0 or 1.2 litre three-cylinder engine and either a manual transmission or a continuously variable transmission with either front wheel drive or on-demand four wheel drive. The CVT technology (a pushbelt system) was employed because with a conventional automatic transmission, performance would have been unacceptable, due to the small 3-cylinder engine.

The manual transmission version of the Justy was known for excellent mechanical reliability and fuel economy. It was reported to give 50miles per gallon as a new car. However, it was small and noisy as one would expect of a compact hatchback. The five-speed manual transmission worked reliably, but was far from smooth to operate because its synchronizers were not very good.

The CVT version was able to get reasonable acceleration out of the small engine. In the United States, because of the long distances, the CVT was considered not reliable, but this has not been the case in other countries.

In the United States, the car was not sold after 1994, in Europe, Suzuki Motors built the Justy for Subaru at its Hungarian plant. However, it was merely a rebadged Suzuki Swift. In 2004, the Justy name continued in European markets on a rebadged Suzuki Ignis.

In some countries the Subaru Justy was sold under the name Subaru Trendy.