upstater Posted May 4, 2017 Share Posted May 4, 2017 Auto industry new car sales are generally down, but Subaru and Hyundai are bucking the trend: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2017/05/02/april-2017-us-auto-sales-gm-ford-fiat-chrysler-toyota/101170692/ On the plus side, if you want to move to another brand expect some very good financing or other incentives. Maybe it would be better for us if Subaru's weren't so desirable...we would get better deals... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Code Posted May 4, 2017 Share Posted May 4, 2017 Subaru stole a ton of market share from Toyota when they released the redesigned Subaru Camry in 2010.... "Striving to better, oft we mar what's well." - Bill Shakespeare - car modder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeuEmMaiMai Posted May 4, 2017 Share Posted May 4, 2017 is Subaru still maxed out production wise? they gotta be near 70 months of growth now... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ammcinnis Posted May 4, 2017 Share Posted May 4, 2017 In April Subaru sold more than 14,000 Outbacks, 4,000 Legacys, and 8,000 Imprezas, and most of those came out of the Indiana plant: http://media.subaru.com/pressrelease/1110/1/strong-impreza-sales-helps-propel-subaru-record-april "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there." ~ The Cheshire Cat (Alice in Wonderland) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capttris Posted May 4, 2017 Share Posted May 4, 2017 yeah, and apparently the Ascent SUV will also be out of Lafayette, IN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgoodhue Posted May 4, 2017 Share Posted May 4, 2017 is Subaru still maxed out production wise? they gotta be near 70 months of growth now... I would guess Subaru is still at near or close to full production. I would guess the dealer lots have more supply. Supposedly the ideal amount of cars on a dealer lot is 60 days supply and Subaru has operating at less than 30 days for many years now. I suspect that has crept up. Many other manufacturer are now in the 90+ day supply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Learjet45 Posted May 5, 2017 Share Posted May 5, 2017 I would guess Subaru is still at near or close to full production. I would guess the dealer lots have more supply. Supposedly the ideal amount of cars on a dealer lot is 60 days supply and Subaru has operating at less than 30 days for many years now. I suspect that has crept up. Many other manufacturer are now in the 90+ day supply. The auto industry is such a convoluted industry... You can have a <30 day supply because you can't keep up with demand. Or you can have a ~60 day supply to balance with demand. Or you can have a 90+ day supply knowing th at you'll be decreasing production at some point in the future. GM has been letting supply build on dealer lots and at plant lots because they will be idling plants to re-tool as the new models that have been announced recently go into full production. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-12/gm-idling-truck-suv-factories-10-weeks-to-retool-for-new-models A smaller company like Subaru may have a problem ever reaching that level of supply at all. I would imagine that the capacity of the IN plant will change as more vehicles are built on the new global platform since complexity between models should (theoretically) decrease. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
upstater Posted May 5, 2017 Author Share Posted May 5, 2017 I think as a Subaru executive I would be happy not to have an oversupply of cars, and also to have increasing sales. Seems like the best of both worlds, for an auto executive. As a consumer, it would be great if their sales volume was struggling and they had too many Limited Legacies on the lot, because they would offer better deals to get rid of the excess inventory... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgoodhue Posted May 5, 2017 Share Posted May 5, 2017 Subaru can lose sales to competitors from not having enough selection from inventory. I am sure the executives like that they have the lowest incentives in the auto industry by far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yoda_One Posted May 5, 2017 Share Posted May 5, 2017 The dealership will find by many means to accommodate their customer so having a large inventory is not always a good thing and bad for resells. Laughing at oneself and with others is good for the Soul! Laughing at Oneself and with Other is good for the Soul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hkshooter Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 I highly doubt Subaru is losing sales because it can't supply cars fast enough. It's not like grabbing a different bottle of ketchup on the shelf because the one you want is gone. People like vehicles for very specific reasons and features and will usually persist and find what they want or simply order what they want in lieu of switching brands. Can you see a Chevy guy going to buy a Ford because the local dealer didn't have what he wanted? That's just plain silly. Subaru is doing exactly what it should, supplying a great car that millions of people want, keeping up the best they can and sticking with a tight bottom line. The minute they spend billions to add plants and jobs the economy will take a dump and sales will slow. Leave that kind of action to the big three. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LatentWagen Posted May 7, 2017 Share Posted May 7, 2017 I highly doubt Subaru is losing sales because it can't supply cars fast enough. It's not like grabbing a different bottle of ketchup on the shelf because the one you want is gone. People like vehicles for very specific reasons and features and will usually persist and find what they want or simply order what they want in lieu of switching brands. Can you see a Chevy guy going to buy a Ford because the local dealer didn't have what he wanted? That's just plain silly. Couldn't be farther from the truth. >90% of buyers are cross-shopping brands. A good percentage of people buy based on convenience, availability, and/or pricing/discounts, regardless of brands. Very few of today's car-buyers are "Chevy guys" or "Ford guys" or even "Subaru guys"... the enthusiast/brand-loyalist demographic makes up a tiny sliver of today's market. LW's spec. B / YT / IG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capttris Posted May 8, 2017 Share Posted May 8, 2017 Agreed. My Aunt (who knows nothing about cars) was "in-love" with a RAV4 and wanted me to come to the dealer with her to help get her a good deal. I simply asked that she check out a Crosstrek before deciding on the RAV4. 1 week later, she was the proud owner of a Crosstrek Limited! Another family member had test driver about 8 cars, from a Ford Edge to a Mazda CX9 loaded out, and then checked out an Outback 3.6R Touring... She test drove a few more cars after that, but after about 3-4 months of car shopping, she went back and got the Outback. (I gave fair and honest opinions of all of the cars she was looking at, including the Outback) and she ended up getting it! But neither person here was set on getting a Subaru. And honestly, if I hadn't mentioned and steered either of them towards the brand, they both would have gone elsewhere. PS - they both love their new Subarus! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgoodhue Posted May 8, 2017 Share Posted May 8, 2017 Couldn't be farther from the truth. >90% of buyers are cross-shopping brands. A good percentage of people buy based on convenience, availability, and/or pricing/discounts, regardless of brands. Very few of today's car-buyers are "Chevy guys" or "Ford guys" or even "Subaru guys"... the enthusiast/brand-loyalist demographic makes up a tiny sliver of today's market. Car buyers maybe cross shopping brands but brand loyalty is still a huge factor. Subaru top the list @ 67.7% and has been among the tops for a long time. http://www.autoremarketing.com/trends/subaru-ford-top-brand-loyalty-rankings With Subaru growth the last 8 years and basically tripling their sales, a majority of the growth has to come from poaching other brands sales or at least non brand loyal consumers. I suspect Subaru brand loyalty reign will eventually drop because of this (and may have already started). Some of their new to Subaru sales have probably come from the pool of consumers who have no brand loyalty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
upstater Posted May 8, 2017 Author Share Posted May 8, 2017 Subaru will continue to do well by offering AWD, the best safety systems available, and competitive mpg's (it was the terribly low MPG's rivaling that of a large SUV that kept me from buying an Impreza back in the day, when they released the 2012 with better mpg's, it was my first Subaru). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwsmith30 Posted May 11, 2017 Share Posted May 11, 2017 One week ago I just took delivery of my first Subaru...it's a 2017 Legacy 2.5i. I had been a Saab owner since 1990, but had to find a different car to buy because Saab went under back in 2012. Really like my Legacy so far. I got a 5-year interest-free loan on it. Seems like the car is a really good value for the money. Regarding Subaru in the North America market: while sales has been strong so far this year, they have levelled out on production. And their profitability actually has been decreasing a lot this year. Here's a very recent article about Subaru's sales & profitability in the US: http://www.autonews.com/article/20170509/COPY01/305099979/subaru-profit-falls-27-despite-higher-n-america-sales Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
upstater Posted May 13, 2017 Author Share Posted May 13, 2017 Here's a very recent article about Subaru's sales & profitability in the US: http://www.autonews.com/article/20170509/COPY01/305099979/subaru-profit-falls-27-despite-higher-n-america-sales Pretty sure Subaru has little to no influence on the exchange rate of the Yen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeuEmMaiMai Posted May 15, 2017 Share Posted May 15, 2017 n America sales up, operating costs down 8%, it's not us... in the USA causing issues Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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