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"         The recent woes of the domestic manufacturers are no secret, and it&amp;#039;s also no secret that Japanese carmakers are suffering as well. The sales volumes of Toyota and are down 30-something percent compared to last year, while Nissan&amp;#039;s has slid more than 40. Run your fingers down the list of Japanese automakers, and there&amp;#039;s red ink everywhere...except next to the name .   Subaru is actually posting profits in these dark economic times. Although its sales numbers are up only a couple of percentage points both worldwide and in North America, the company has consistently been in the black the past several months. What&amp;#039;s its secret?   Actually, the magic formula is quite basic; the company introduced the right product at the right time. Also, its vehicles were injected with a hearty dose of emotion, in both styling and mechanical hardware. The rally started with the 2008 debut of the , a compact hatchback with good performance, distinctive looks and an affordable price. Then came the new Forester, which is single-handedly keeping the company above water today. Its success can be attributed to a few key things: a more conventional appearance than the previous model, excellent fuel economy, a friendlier price tag and good performance. It&amp;#039;s capturing loyal Subaru buyers as well as those new to the brand.   Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Tim Mahoney explains: &amp;quot;We are indeed conquesting new buyers because we feel we have really improved the general appeal of our products. But the new buyers we&amp;#039;re bringing in are much like our traditional customers, meaning they enjoy the driving experience. So far, in the past year, we&amp;#039;ve accomplished what we set out to do with the Impreza, the , and now we hope that this continues with the new Legacy.&amp;quot;   Unveiled at the New York auto show, the all-new Legacy has changed dramatically. It&amp;#039;s bigger, and it boasts an aggressive face that&amp;#039;s sure to capture the attention of younger buyers. It fits right in line with what Subaru has been doing recently \u2014 going after new blood \u2014 and if the Legacy is as exciting to drive as it looks, then watch for the company&amp;#039;s good fortunes to keep rolling along.   Speaking of &amp;quot;fun to drive,&amp;quot; that&amp;#039;s not a description that typically applies to most new Toyotas, which is especially disappointing given the company&amp;#039;s big-time racing association with Formula 1 and NASCAR. When you&amp;#039;re the biggest automaker in the world, and the sportiest vehicle in your eight-car lineup is the Matrix, something is wrong. And after talking with various colleagues in the know about what&amp;#039;s happening in Japan, it&amp;#039;s clear to me that something is amiss at the Nagoya-based company. While most of us assume Toyota has billions of dollars stashed away in some giant coffee can, the company recently asked the Japanese government for a $2 billion loan. Toyota has officially reported that its first loss in 59 years has hit hard and will force the company to slash production by 12 percent in the next fiscal year. is also unloading bonds to raise cash. All the while, people living in Toyota City are desperately looking for jobs (employment rates fell by more than 10 percent when Toyota cut jobs and shifts), and available jobs fell by 50 percent in the once-thriving city compared to the same time last year. Sound eerily similar to a certain city in the U.S.?   &amp;quot;You watch, if Toyota isn&amp;#039;t careful, this company could end up like General Motors in a few years,&amp;quot; a prominent Japanese journalist who requested anonymity said. &amp;quot;The company is losing money at an alarming rate, especially in the U.S., and the strong yen isn&amp;#039;t helping matters.&amp;quot;   He must be overreacting, right? Perhaps, but the fact that there are signs of concern in Nagoya is evident. Would Toyota be better off today if it still offered cars like the Celica or even the Levin (the AE86)? Although I&amp;#039;m well aware that there are more serious issues in play here regarding Toyota&amp;#039;s financial situation, I feel the company would benefit from an enthusiast car because it would not only improve the company&amp;#039;s image but invigorate the rest of the cars in its lineup.   The kicker in all this is that these two companies, on opposite ends of the financial spectrum, are currently working together on a new project, an affordable rear-wheel-drive sports coupe that&amp;#039;s reminiscent of the heralded AE86. Let&amp;#039;s hope Subaru&amp;#039;s magic rubs off on the world&amp;#039;s largest automaker and helps put Toyota back on the path of making fun-to-drive cars that enthusiasts and non-enthusiasts can embrace. Toyota needs to step back and let Subaru lead this dance. Right now, it seems that the little company with the six-star logo is more capable of building this sports car than the giant represented by two intersecting ovals. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a14851/role-reversal/>