Subaru SVX

Subaru built the SVX as a genuine flagship halo car to prove the brand could compete beyond its rally-bred reputation, commissioning famed Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro to pen its unmistakable glass-in-glass door design, though its high price and automatic-only transmission limited sales.

Its unique partial-glass door design and smooth, refined flat-six engine made it one of the most distinctive-looking Japanese GT cars of the early 90s, even though its automatic-only gearbox kept it from enthusiast-darling status.

• Genuinely distinctive Giugiaro-designed styling with unique glass-in-glass doors
• Smooth, refined flat-six engine offers a genuinely different character from Subaru's usual turbo boxers
• Standard AWD gives confident all-weather grip for a grand tourer
• Increasingly appreciated as an underrated 90s design icon

• Automatic-only transmission disappoints enthusiasts seeking a manual grand tourer
• Heavier and less agile than sportier Subaru siblings like the WRX
• Complex glass door mechanisms can be costly to repair if damaged
• Sold in relatively low numbers, making parts sourcing harder today

• Aging automatic transmission wear on high-mileage examples
• Glass door seal and mechanism wear leading to leaks or rattles
• Cooling system issues typical of the EG33 flat-six
• Electrical gremlins from decades-old wiring and power accessories

Limited — with no manual transmission option and a smaller enthusiast community than Subaru's turbo models, most SVXs are preserved or lightly refreshed rather than heavily modified.

Verify transmission condition carefully given its automatic-only nature, inspect glass door seals and mechanisms for wear, and expect a smaller parts-sourcing network than for more common Subaru models.

A cult design icon among Subaru enthusiasts and 90s Japanese car aficionados, appreciated more for its striking looks and engineering ambition than outright performance.

• Its distinctive door design features a smaller window within the larger door glass, a feature Giugiaro also explored on other concept designs
• It was Subaru's most expensive and technologically ambitious model at the time of its launch
• The EG33 flat-six was the largest-displacement engine Subaru had built up to that point