Tim Mahoney, Subaru

In some ways, it looks like Subaru is filling the space of emotional safety positioning once owned by Volvo. One new TV ad appears to show a fortysomething father giving the keys to the Subaru to his 5-year-old daughter to drive. The payoff is that she is really college age and he still sees her as a child. The only car he would entrust her to is a Subaru. Mahoney likes to pair these emotional brand scenes with some of the third-party endorsements that keep coming Subaru’s way: top safety picks by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety for all of its cars, and MotorTrend Truck of the Year for Outback.