By Nick Syn

MITSUBISHI’S SERIOUSLY THINKING about it, DaimlerChrysler actually conducted a comprehensive trial run, and now Subaru is definitely going ahead with bringing in a tiny city car. The R1 and R2 are set to be launched in March this year and CarBuyer brings you a sneak peek.

In Japan, you’d buy a kei-car to take advantage of a special Japanese tax bracket meant for tiny cars, and as these vehicles make plenty of sense in the more heavily congested of Japanese cities, there’s a double benefit. However, these benefits don’t translate entirely unmolested to a Singaporean context, while you do save a bundle of money on road tax as the engine capacity of kei-cars are capped at 660cc, the congestion here is hardly serious enough to warrant a switch to a car that takes up only half a parking space.

The fact that these cars aren’t cheap to bring in is also very significant, and they can actually cost about the same as their considerably larger brethren. A spokesperson for Champion Motors, the local distributor for noted kei-car manufacturer, Suzuki, told CarBuyer that, “unless these cars offer something really different, they won’t have any appeal to anyone beyond customers shopping specifically in this niche segment.”

“I can see them appealing to yuppies or well-to-do young couples who want to drive something totally different from what’s on offer in the market, but the problem is whether there are enough of them around to make importing these cars viable in a business sense,” he continued.

Local Subaru distributor, Motor Image, is banking on the hope that there really are enough well-heeled, lifestyle-oriented buyers around to ensure that the R1 and R2 are a success. The company has been very aggressive in promoting the lifestyle aspects of the Subaru brand and the R1 and R2, therefore, are just the sort of cars to appeal to the young, trendy customers that Motor Image is targeting.

According to CEO, Glenn Tan, “it is important to constantly look at how to meet the changing demands of customers. The R1 and R2 are both good entry-level vehicles which we could introduce to the market. They portray a different image from our current line-up of vehicles and I believe they will successfully target a market that we have not reached out to previously. Car buyers should not be fooled by the R1 and R2’s cute appearance,” he continues, “The R1 and R2 models have their own unique appeal with their aesthetics and compact size. I feel the two models will prove to be popular choices among car buyers as they are the ideal lifestyle vehicles to use, be it for
commuting to work or shopping trips.”

The R1 is the three-door version and the R2 comes with five-doors. Both cars are based on the same chassis, and are powered by a 658cc three-cylinder engine amted to a Continuously Variable Transmission.

The variants that will most likely make it here are 54bhp two-wheel drive versions of the R1 and R2. Prices are expected to
be in the $40,000 to $50,000 range.