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Subaru Leone Rendering Based on Toyota Vios

With a lineup of powerful, efficient and poised cars, you'd think it would be really hard to find to find a non-cool Subaru on sale anywhere in the world. That's not entirely true though, as the Japanese automaker sells the Trezia mini MPV based on the Toyota Verso.
Subaru Leone Rendering 1 photo
Photo: Theophilus Chin
The two Japanese automakers are pretty much joined at the hip now, having collaborated on a number of cars, the most famous one being the so-called Toyobaru project, which resulted in the creation of the Subaru BRZ, Toyota GT 86 and Scion FR-S, all built by the same Fuji Heavy Industries factory.

Last month, Toyota launched the 3rd generation Vios was unveiled at the 2013 Bangkok Motor Show in Thailand. It's basically a redesigned Yaris aimed to explore emerging markets. Despite being a B-segment car, it's quite large at 4.410 mm in length.

Because its development resources are quite limited, Subaru could benefit from borrowing the Vios and giving it a fresh face. We don't know if the partnership between these companies allows for such a badge-swapping move, but as we've already established, it's not like all Subarus are cool.

These renderings depict a potential Subaru Leone sedan. The Leone was a compact sedan built and sold between 1971 and 1994. It's the perfect sub-Impreza nameplate to use, and we're sure some people will welcome the lion's return.

Rendering via Theophilus Chin
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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