SUBARU CASABLANCA Introduction

The name CASABLANCA is well known as it is a famous tourist attraction in North Africa. In the car industry, most people must have heard of this retro car that was modified from the first-generation IMPREZA. Moreover, Taiwan has unexpectedly become the only place where this car can be found. A left-hand drive market.
In fact, I still don’t know the exact reason why Taiwan was able to produce this car. However, CASABLANCA was originally only developed for the Japanese market. Even the right-hand drive version was only exported to Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore in small quantities. In Japan, CASABLANCA was first launched under the name of IMPREZA special edition, so the full name is SUBARU IMPREZA CASABLANCA. The concept car was launched at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1997. Due to great praise, it was released in 1998. Initially limited to 5,000 units, it became a regular model for official sales the following year. Interestingly, the limited edition sold well at that time, but when it became an official model, CASABLANCA wouldn't be popular at all. Production was discontinued in 2000, and it was sold in Taiwan until 2002.
CASABLANCA is the only retro mid-size car from SUBARU. It was not very popular in the market at that time, but now the second-hand market is quite amazing, because except for Mitsuoka, there are no such retro cars in the same class. In addition, it was sold in Japan at that time with few numbers. As for Taiwan, CASABLANCA was only launched on the market in 1999, and the car name of IMPREZA was removed and it was directly called SUBARU CASABLANCA. What’s interesting is that Taiwan’s automobile market has never experienced the so-called retro trend from the past to the present. Although there is also VERITA when CASABLANCA is launched, the market gap between two-car is very large. There was no retro trend just because VERITA was launched. The trend, and the sales of CASABLANCA in Taiwan were very limited at that time.
The Japanese CASABLANCA is equipped with a 1.5 4AT, and the Taiwan version is a 1.8 4AT, but those who are familiar with IMPREZA know that this engine is over 1800cc, and has to pay tax per year the same as 2.4 tax in Taiwan. Such retro appearance is not trendy, it is difficult to sell. Therefore, Daqing(Taiwan SUBARU) launched a minor facelift in 2000, CASABLANCA LIMITED. The exterior had imitation BBS aluminum rims, the interior had beige interior, the equipment was also slightly changed, and a champagne gold color was added. However, the help for sales was very limited. In the end In 2002, there was still a price reduction discount, and CASABLANCA was finally sold out.
Although the CASABLANCA is mainly sold at Japan, there is very little information about the CASABLANCA even in Japan, let alone in markets other than Japan. I have not even found any introductory videos about this car. Therefore, before this video, I also tried my best to collect background information for the outline of this car. However, there are still many mysteries to be solved, so it is very welcome to add more information about this car at comment.
#SUBARUCASABLANCA #SUBARUIMPREZA #casablanca
Please refer this video for GC8 IMPREZA
• SUBARU GC8 IMPREZA GT ...

[@Mark-Mansour]

Such a beautiful car, never heard of it before Also, excellent video👌🏻

[@CELSIORS]

Thanks for your compliment. SUBARU CASABLANCA is an interesting car. But there is very few information about it. Please subscribe my youtube channel and recommend this video to your bad friends~

[@uranus8182]

在台灣當時只有限定幾台，現在也沒幾台卡薩布蘭所以這台已經可以說是很稀有