Subaru, a Japanese car company, is a subsidiary of Fuji Heavy Industries. General Motors was a 20% minority shareholder of Fuji Heavy from 1999 until 2005 when they sold 8.7% to Toyota and put the rest on the open market.

Before that, the stake owned by GM was owned by Nissan, who acquired the stake around the mid-1980s in order to utilize FHI's bus manufacturing capability. In turn, many Subaru vehicles, even today, use parts from the Nissan manufacturing keiretsu. In fact, it was Subaru that introduced Renault to Nissan when they asked for assistance in all wheel drive (AWD) technology, when FHI told Renault to discuss their plans with Nissan, the discussions eventually led to the successful Renault-Nissan alliance.

"Subaru" is the Japanese word for the star cluster Pleiades that is depicted in the company logo. The Pleiades (also known as the Seven Sisters) has seven stars. The Subaru logo's six stars represent the five companies that came together after WW2 to form one large company. While an automotive minnow compared to many of its competitors, Subaru has been a highly profitable company for many years. It is noted for the production of conventional-bodied cars with full-time AWD (in fact, in many markets its entire product range has this feature) and its use of the horizontally-opposed engine.

Subaru's best-known vehicles are high performance turbocharged versions of its Legacy (known as Liberty in Australia), and Impreza, which offer outstanding performance and handling at relatively affordable prices. Modified versions of the Impreza WRX and WRX STi have been competing successfully in car rallies and the World Rally Championship for many years. Several endurance records were set in the early and mid-nineties by the Legacy.

As of October 5, 2005, Toyota stated that it will purchase 8.7% of the shares of FHI from General Motors. In addition, GM announced that it will eventually sever all ties with FHI, the parent company of Subaru.

Recently GM had developed the Saab 9-2X model (nicknamed Saabaru), based on the Subaru Impreza WRX, and was working on the development of the Saab 9-6X model, based on the Subaru B9 Tribeca. The development of the Saab 9-6X has since been cancelled due to GM's divestment of FHI.

FHI has also stated that there have been 27 million shares (worth 3.4% of its stock) acquired before the start of trading by an unknown party on October 6. It is speculated that a bank or perhaps another automaker was behind it.

Subaru, along with Volvo are known to offer some of the safest cars on the market.