Cars just like the Subaru Forester, Nissan X-Trail, and Volkswagen Golf are actually big parts of why their respective brands are successful, but there’s more to their respective manufacturers than these popular models.
As we did a couple of weeks ago, we’re comparing the primary cars to be sold in Australia by several popular manufacturers with their newest nameplates.
We’ve included only the latest nameplates to be offered in Australia by each of those firms, though existing nameplates could have subsequently received recent powertrains and variants.
That is the second instalment in a feature series. You possibly can read Part 1 here.
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Subaru: 360, Solterra
Subaru got its start in Australia through private imports, as many other brands did. A used-car dealer in Ballarat, Victoria, reportedly imported around 73 examples of the Subaru 360 in 1961, making it the primary Subaru sold locally.
Weighing just 450kg and powered by a 356cc two-cylinder engine, the 360 was mechanically compliant with Japan’s Kei automobile regulations, and its bubbly styling earned it the “ladybug” nickname. This helped make it immensely popular in its home market as brands sought to motorise Japanese residents post-war.
But in Australia and other overseas markets, the 360 was poorly received. This was particularly notable in america, where businessman Malcolm Bricklin imported 10,000 examples, just for the automobile to be criticised for safety concerns and an absence of power, resulting in its rejection by the general public.
Meanwhile, overheating issues plagued the earliest Australian examples, possibly because of our warmer climate and higher-speed driving demands. While a later update eventually remedied the issue, the dealership ceased further imports amid unsustainable losses attributable to the 360.
Mind you, this and subsequent models just like the Leone (1973) contributed to Subaru’s fame as a reasonably unremarkable, uninspiring automobile brand throughout the Nineteen Seventies and 80s, though the Japanese automaker did have a singular selling point in its four-wheel drive models.
Subaru tried to shift its quite staid fame with the introduction of sportier models just like the XT (1985) and SVX (1993), though these were largely unsuccessful. It arguably wasn’t until the Impreza WRX launched in 1994 that Subaru truly vaulted into the general public eye, with the turbocharged, rally-derived sedan now one among Subaru’s longest-running nameplates.
Several other cars, just like the Forester, Outback, and performance Impreza WRX STI, followed, cementing the brand as a household name within the Australian market. Though not at all times a top-seller, Subaru consistently places on the fringes of the highest 10, but Chinese challengers specifically have shaken things up.
Subaru’s newest model is meant to tackle lots of those recent rivals, but it surely hasn’t been popular up to now. That’s the Solterra, the brand’s first fully electric vehicle – and a twin to the Toyota bZ4X – that launched in November 2023.
It’s currently Subaru’s slowest-selling local model, but orders are actually open for a significantly updated version that brings revised looks, more power, more range, and improved tech, all at a much lower cost than before.
Chery: J1 and J11, Tiggo 9
This list’s youngest brand is Chery, though in 15 years it’s found the time to take two bites of the Australian cherry. Its first stab was in 2011, when it launched with the J1 light hatch and J11 SUV.
Distributed independently by Ateco, which is now liable for brands like Renault and Ram, Chery’s first two cars (and the J3 small hatch that shortly followed) quickly fell afoul of presidency regulations mandating electronic stability control.
While this initially barred the brand from Victoria, the federal implementation of those regulations forced the brand to discontinue the J1. That wasn’t before its price was slashed to an astonishing $9990 drive-away, making it one among the one sub-$10,000 drive-away cars sold post-2000.
The opposite issue these cars faced was safety. A 3-star ANCAP rating for the J1 prompted Chery to recall the model and address the structural integrity of its seats, while the J11 could only manage two stars.
Later updates to the J3 and J11 brought recent engines and electronic stability control, but an absence of factory support from Chery soon saw the brand’s Australian operation wither away by 2015.
Chery’s second and current Australian effort kicked off in 2023, this time with full factory backing from its Chinese head office. In March 2023 it re-launched with the Omoda 5 SUV (now C5), which recorded greater than 5000 deliveries in its first 12 months on sale – quickly surpassing the 4670 sales recorded by Chery as a complete in its first attempt.
Since then, Chery has skyrocketed to develop into a top-15 brand in Australia, constantly threatening Western stalwarts like Volkswagen and Nissan. It’s even knocking on the door of the highest 10, following on from compatriots BYD, GWM, and MG.
Chery has most recently decided to shake up its brand positioning. The Omoda Jaecoo brand has launched with standalone Omoda and Jaecoo models – confusing, we all know – while Chery itself has continued to introduce recent nameplates.
Essentially the most recent is the Tiggo 9, a big plug-in hybrid SUV due for an imminent Australian launch.
Nissan: Type 12 Phaeton, Ariya
The primary Nissan imported to Australia wasn’t called a Nissan in any respect. As an alternative, and maybe unsurprisingly, it was a Datsun, and specifically the Type 12 Phaeton in 1934.
Based on Nissan, the Type 12 Phaeton is “the oldest model of Nissan that had been already manufactured in December 1933 when [Nissan Motor Corporation] was established”, making it the oldest model within the brand’s heritage collection.
Entering production earlier in 1933, the Type 12 Phaeton measured in at under three metres long and produced just 9kW of power. Using ‘Phaeton’ refers to its body style, because it was a convertible four-seater with a material roof; it’s to not be confused with Volkswagen’s future ultra-luxury Phaeton flagship which sarcastically wasn’t a phaeton in any respect.
It superseded the Type 11 that launched in 1932, with the one difference being a bigger engine – such was the pace of Nissan that the Type 12 was replaced by the Type 13 in 1934. The Type 13 was supposedly more stylish.
Following that, the primary Nissan-badged model, the 70 sedan, broke cover in 1937.
After shifting focus to construct trucks, airplanes, and engines for the Japanese military ahead of the Second World War, Nissan returned to constructing cars. Among the many first cars born out of restarted development was something arguably ahead of its time: the Tama, a totally electric automobile with just below 100km of range, inbuilt response to grease shortages.
While not delivered to Australia, the Tama loosely foreshadows Nissan’s newest nameplate. But between then and now, Nissan introduced the primary Patrol locally in 1960 (two years after Toyota introduced the rival LandCruiser FJ25), and established Nissan Australia in 1966 with the opening of a producing facility in Sydney.
From 1983, the Datsun name was phased out, and within the 2000s Nissan Australia largely phased out passenger cars in favour of SUVs, with exceptions being the GT-R, 350Z and 370Z sports cars. It also offered the electrical Leaf, which paved the best way for the brand’s newest local nameplate: the Ariya.
The much-delayed electric SUV was a protracted time coming for Australia, given it debuted in 2020. With as much as 504km of driving range and the choice of all-wheel drive, the Ariya launched in September 2025.
Volkswagen: Type 82 “Kübelwagen”, Tayron
The primary Volkswagens in Australia emerged from the Second World War. The story goes that while fighting in North Africa within the early Nineteen Forties, Australian soldiers became the primary from our country to come back into contact with the German Volkswagen.
The German army had elected to make use of the Ferdinand Porsche-designed Kübelwagen as light transport vehicles within the region, with several examples captured by the Australian soldiers and used behind the lines by Australian field officers. All Kübelwagens were left within the African desert when Australian forces were withdrawn in 1943.
Fast forward to 1946, and the Australian Army imported a wartime Kübelwagen sourced from Wolfsburg (Volkswagen HQ) by the British Army, thus making it the primary Volkswagen in Australia. Remembering its competence throughout the war, the Army wanted to judge the Kübelwagen in local conditions for potential Australian use.
That exact Kübelwagen is now a part of the Australian War Memorial’s collection in Canberra. The primary VW passenger vehicles followed in 1947, when Australia purchased eight cars as a part of wartime reparations for £160 each (around A$11,000 today).
Six stayed in Germany, while two (a Type 11 sedan and Type 51 sedan with Kübelwagen running gear) were shipped to Melbourne as prototypes. The primary Volkswagen to be privately imported and owned, nevertheless, was a black, right-hand drive 1946 model, imported in 1951 by a German immigrant.
Volkswagen established an official Australian subsidiary in 1953, with the primary cars arriving on the market in November of that 12 months. Tax incentives prompted a shift to local assembly, with the Beetle the primary to see large-scale Australian production.
1967 even saw the arrival of the primary Australian-developed VW, the Country Buggy (resembling the long-lasting Thing), built from Beetle and Kombi components. Local assembly continued at Clayton, Victoria, until 1976, when Nissan took ownership and control of the previous Volkswagen plant.
After a tumultuous Eighties, the German brand slowly grew to cement its place within the Australian market. Our abridged history can’t go without mentioning the Dieselgate scandal, during which Volkswagen was caught in 2015 cheating in emissions testing of a few of its diesel models.
But despite this, Volkswagen has been a consistent top-15 brand within the Australian market lately. Its latest recent nameplate is the Tayron, a seven-seat SUV based on the Tiguan that serves as a direct substitute for the defunct Tiguan Allspace. It launched in September 2025.
This Article First Appeared At www.carexpert.com.au
