I forgot to mention another novel feature that I believe all manual transmission Subarus once had: “Hill Holder”
It kept the car from rolling backwards when you were facing uphill and moving from a stopped position.
My Mazda has that. I have to admit that although I know how to use the handbrake when starting on a hill, the hill holder is a nice feature. But yeah, I’m pretty sure it was Subaru who pioneered it 40something years ago.
Hhehe, what’s funny is my BRZ has hill holding, but it seems that the default is off in my model year. My previous Subarus all had it on by default. I don’t really need it (the clutch has a pretty broad engagement), but it was odd to realize this car would let you roll back on a hill.
On like VW bug it actually used the pressure from the spare tire. A connecting hose screwed onto the spare tire valve.I guess if you used the washer enough your spare would be flat
I used to have a 1994 Suzuki Sidekick 4-door. This was the equivalent of the Chevrolet Tracker.
The front seats could slide all the way forward to the dashboard, and the back could fold down flat if you removed the headrests. This allowed you to sit on the back seat with your legs stretched ahead, in a sort of lounge chair. This was not by accident : they described this feature in the manual, but didn’t say exactly what it was for. I guess this was designed for catching some rays in the convertible 2-door models, but they just used the same seats for the 4-door hardtop.
Meh. Studebakers had those! Introduced in 1936.
You were supposed to overfill the spare a good bit (43 psi), and the hose had a valve in it that would stop draining the tire when the pressure got down to the regular pressure (26 psi). I had two bugs and the things never seemed to work worth a hoot.
Having more clarity on the antecedent for that sentence would do nothing to enhance its near perfect accuracy.
Some VW Vanagons with the Westfalia camper package had swivel seats for the front driver and passenger.