For 2018, ho-hum Subaru is set to unveil revolutionary powertrain for one vehicle

Not all of the construction workers in Manhattan are building or renovating. On the way to a lunch sponsored by Subaru of America Inc. on Tuesday, I saw this crew putting up a scaffold on West 41 Street in midtown Manhattan.

As seen from West 51st Street, the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center was still shrouded in scaffolding. 

AUTOMAKER BUYS LUNCH FOR 40+ 

ON A GORGEOUS DAY IN MANHATTAN

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

As I digested a bountiful lunch with wine and watched a long slideshow on Subaru's first 50 years in America, I had plenty of time to wonder why I had never owned one of the sensible Japanese cars.

I couldn't put my finger on it. My first car from Japan was an anemic 1986 Toyota hatchback, the first front-wheel-drive Celica.

But in 1993 or so, I replaced that with a hard-to-find all-wheel-drive Celica, a 1988 All-Trac Turbo, with 190 horsepower from a 4-cylinder engine.

Toyota campaigned heavily modified All-Trac Turbos, and eventually won driver and manufacturer titles in the World Rally Championship in Europe.

Then and now, Subaru mostly sells boring but sturdy all-wheel-drive sedans, station wagons and other utility vehicles with raised suspensions.

By the time the company brought performance cars to the U.S., I had moved on to the first of four Toyota Prius gas-electric hybrids, and the all-electric Tesla Model S I drive now.

Free lunch

But here I was in Manhattan at a meeting of the International Motor Press Association, the country's oldest organization of automotive journalists and public relations professionals.

And Subaru paid for me and about 40 others to enjoy cocktails and a buffet lunch of sea bass, chicken, pasta, steamed vegetables and salads before starting the slideshow on the American subsidiary's 50th anniversary in 2018.

The Japanese company did have news for auto writers like me who wondered why there are no hybrids in its American lineup.

Subaru will market a plug-in gas-electric hybrid at the end of next year, and an all-electric, zero-emissions vehicle in 2021.

Jeff Walters, senior vice president of sales, wouldn't name the plug-in vehicle.

But he said the company will show the Ascent at the Los Angeles Auto Show in December, calling it the biggest Subaru ever with three row of seats and EyeSight driver-assist technology.  

Jeff Walters, senior vice president of sales at Subaru of America in Cherry Hill, N.J., said the company sold a gas-electric hybrid vehicle for a few years. Walters also said the company is building a new headquarters in Camden.

Malcolm Bricklin, 78, who founded Subaru of America in 1968, also attended the IMPA lunch meeting in Manhattan on Tuesday. He built and sold the Bricklin SV-1, a sports car with gull-wing doors, from 1974-76, selling less than 3,000. In 1986, he imported the Yugo hatchback.

IMPA members on the buffet line.

IMPA meetings are held at the Women's National Republican Club on West 51st Street, near Fifth Avenue, in midtown Manhattan.

On the way to lunch, I stopped to look over a pedestrian mall at Broadway and West 41st Street with holiday stores and food concessions, above and below.

I'll wait for the 73% off sale (!) at this jewelry store on Sixth Avenue.

People lined up to buy tickets to the Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall.

On the walk back to the midtown Port Authority Bus Terminal, I saw the Empire State Building reflecting the sun.

At the bus terminal, the large Hudson News concession was moved from the center of the main concourse into the space where bus tickets once were sold.

NJ Transit's round-trip bus fare for seniors from Hackensack, N.J., to midtown Manhattan is one of the best deals in transit.