I totally agree with you. For me, when I read this brief history, it actually made me feel more appreciative of the car and the Impreza. I can't recall where I found this, but here's some more interesting history:
"Unlike some other motor companies, such as Ford (founded by Henry) or Suzuki (founded by Michio), Subaru is not named after its founder. "Subaru" is the Japanese word for "Seven Sisters", a common name for the most prominent stars in Pleiades, an open cluster of about 500 young stars (only about 100 million years old), barely visible in our northern sky. At least six of the 500 or so stars are visible to the naked eye, while under moderate conditions the number increases to 9, and under clear dark skies, jumps to more than a dozen. To see the rest, good quality binoculars or a telescope is required; but the cluster is still difficult to locate as it is spread over only 2 degrees - about four times the diameter of the moon.
The name "Pleiades" itself may have been derived from the Greek word for "to sail" or the word "pleios" meaning "full" or "many".
Another theory is that the cluster is named after the mythological mother, Pleione, which is also the name of one of the brighter stars. According to Greek mythology, the main, visible stars are named for the seven daughters of "father" Atlas and "mother" Pleione: Alcyone, Asterope (a double star), Electra, Maia. .Merope, Taygeta and Celaeno.
Although somewhat similar to the constellation Crusis, comprising Gacrux, Alpha 1 Crusis, Beta Crusis and a few other unnamed stars, which we know (in Australia) to be the Southern Cross, the Subaru badge represents a totally different group of stars.
But why does the Subaru badge only have six stars?
Ken Takeuchi from Japan has provided this insight, including an alternative background for the star emblem:
To say first, SUBARU may stand for "seven sisters" may be true but the Pleiades stars are also called "Mutsura-Boshi", which means "six gathered stars". The star SUBARU even appears in the lyrics written more than 1000 years ago. The word has some romantic feelings to we Japanese.
Fuji Heavy industries, the maker of SUBARU cars, was known as Nakajima Aircraft before WW II, which made many fighters and bombers. Even the famous Mitsubishi Zero fighter had a Nakajima 14 cylinder engine. After the war, the company was forced to spread into 15 companies to cut the strength of the huge weapon industry. But in the early 1950s, five of the companies gathered into one again to restart as a transportation company. That's FUJI and that's why there are five little stars and one big star.
So, the present SUBARU emblem represents the company structure rather than the original star cluster image.
Happy star-gazing."
Here's another intersting tidbit on the origin of the name:
http://www.subaru-global.com/about/origin/
Quote:
Originally posted by QuickSilver
You don't really KNOW your car, unless you KNOW the heritage behind it. My opinion.
I don;t claim to know very much about the WRX or even subaru...but i've come to enjoy learning all I can about the WRX, Sti, Imprezza, and Subaru in general. This is definitely good info for ANY WRX enthusiast.
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