Though Subaru’s Wilderness derivatives are currently exclusive to North America, the brand’s local division is campaigning to offer these off-road variants in South Africa…
While Subaru offers special Wilderness versions of its Crosstrek, Forester and Outback in North America, these extra-rugged derivatives are currently exclusive to that market. However, the Japanese firm’s local division says it’s working on changing this, with a view to eventually bringing such models to South Africa, too.
“The Wilderness models are exclusively for the North American market. We are trying to convince Subaru [headquarters in Japan] to change this due to the number of requests we have received for these models,” Subaru Southern Africa told Cars.co.za.
Judging by local trademark filings over the past few years, the Tokyo-based firm’s bosses certainly seem amenable to the idea. Indeed, Subaru applied to trademark the Wilderness logo (pictured above) in South Africa as long ago as February 2021, with an official registration taking place in June 2024.
In June 2024, Subaru’s global headquarters also made applications to trademark the “Wilderness”, “Subaru Wilderness” and “Outback Wilderness” nameplates here in Mzansi, with the status of each filing currently listed as pending.
While Subaru Southern Africa’s volumes are nowhere near significant enough to convince the company’s headquarters to take such a step, there’s handily some support from other right-hand-drive markets. For instance, according to CarExpert, the Japanese automaker’s division in Australia – where Subaru is a regular top-10 brand – is likewise “working towards” launching these rugged derivatives.
According to Subaru, Wilderness models are “specifically engineered for off-road exploring”, boasting tweaked suspension, added ground clearance, all-terrain tyres, revised gear ratios and model-specific exterior styling (including chunky black cladding and anodised copper accents), along with a smattering of cabin updates.
Such variants also score upgraded roof rails (with a higher load capacity) as well as redesigned bumpers with improved approach and departure angles. Of course, all Wilderness-badged derivatives furthermore feature Subaru’s standard symmetrical all-wheel drive, along with an enhanced dual-function X-Mode multi-terrain system.
Although Wilderness models are currently built only at Subaru’s Indiana factory in the United States, should they eventually be given the green light for right-hand-drive markets such as South Africa and Australia, we’d think they’d come from the firm’s Gunma plant in Japan instead.
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