After 31-years and more than 150,000 sales, Subaru Australia has announced that the Liberty sedan brand will be retired.

Introduced to the Australian market in 1989, the current 2020 model will be the final edition to be released in Australia, ending a five-generation run for the Liberty.

The Liberty has witnessed much success since arriving in Australia, taking out the Wheels Car of the Year crown twice, in 1994 and again through the Liberty Wagon in 1998.

The decision to discontinue the model comes as a result of the rise of SUVs overtaking Sedans as consumers vehicle type of choice in recent years.

While the Liberty has recorded 153,700 sales over its run, just 2,441 of those have come in the past two years, compared to Subaru’s popular SUV, the Outback, which has nearly 14,000 sales over the same two year span.

Looking back on the history of success the model achieved during its time, Subaru Australia managing director Christian Dinsdale paid tribute to the Liberty for putting Subaru on the map in Australia.

“While customer preferences have moved on to other vehicles in our range, Liberty has played a hugely influential role in the brand’s growth and reputation for engineering, safety, durability and retained value,” said Dinsdale.

“It was our first model with global appeal, and it moved the brand away from its utilitarian roots to becoming a respected automotive company, it also pioneered our early rally motorsport success story.

“The first turbocharged Liberty paved the way for the successes that followed with both Subaru Rally Team Australia and the Subaru World Rally Team.”

While Subaru will phase out the Liberty sedan, Dinsdale says the segment will still be represented by both the Impreza and WRX models.

“For those customers still seeking a Subaru sedan, we remind them that current generation Impreza closely mimics the physical size of third generation Liberty sedan and offers the same symmetrical all-wheel drive attributes.

“Equally, WRX is a performance sedan option that is probably the closest relative to the various turbocharged Liberty variants, such as the RS, GT and tuned by STI, which captured the hearts of so many enthusiastic drivers in their heyday.”

Source: Autotalk | Subaru Australia dealers farewelling Liberty sedan range

9 September 2020