Legacy Sales UP Big Time

[MtnSub]

My Subaru contact said October numbers just out for Legacy show sales up, hold on, 53% over same period last year. OB sales up 39% and overall Suby sales up 12%. These numbers are hard to believe. Few organizations get these numbers in an entire career. I asked if these numbers were SoCal or what and I was told USA. I asked if October was an odd month and not characteristic and my contact said sales are getting stronger each month since the release of new model. Biggest problem is there are so many special order cars and not enough wagons to go around. They just cannot get enough cars. If these numbers are true and continue, even in the 20+% range, we will not see anything new from Suby because the entire engineering and markeitng group will be enjoying party time at there favorite Nippon golf club for the entire next year. Assuming I am not being schmuzzed, and assuming this continues, you would think that conditions are good for a Leg/Sti. My contact said that the bigger Suby SUV with 3 rows of seats is big news for 06 and claims they really need that 3rd row for bigger families and to compete. Contact also said that Suby has been told very bluntly not to deliver a car with an ugly new front end, as shown in concept pictures of Tribeca. The news for 07 is the Impreza re-work. No mention of a Leg/Sti, but the Sti special performance group may be on 06 horizon. Anyone else have a good relationship with Suby sales, please ask some questions to cross check this info. My contact is very good, seasoned and connected, but I always feel better about numbers when they are the same from several sources.

[gtguy]

Those are good numbers, still not as good as say, the Chrysler 300, where they sold more cars in four months than they'd planned to for a 12-month period. But numbers being up more than 50% is good news. Kevin

[MtnSub]

First, I do not know why anyone would buy a Chrysler 300 and I don't know if they expected to sell 100 cars per year so I do not know if their sales performance is better than Suby. In absolute numbers, Chrysler may have sold more C300s, but in % of increase over previous month for last year, it may not be close to 53%. Okay, it's your job to act as an exuberance control agent. Second, 53% Legacy and 39% OB increase in sales over last Oct. is fantastic, wonderfull, confirmation of combined power of two great, great new Subaru offerings combined with massive advert campaign. There, I put the exuberance back into the news. It sounds so good I can't help but wonder if there isn't something wrong with the numbers. Oh no, I am starting to sound like gtguy. It's catching or maybe just old age.

[GT Ski]

WooHoo! This bodes well for a H-6 Turbo Legacy STi if the trend continues :D

[John M]

It's quite a nice car, with 340hp and available AWD, the only complaint would be no manual tranny. I almost bought a 300C but found the Legacy was much more fun, $5k cheaper, and just as luxurious. Plus, the Subaru aftermarket is right there waiting for me to make a 400hp sleeper sedan :D Oh, did I mention that they have Nav and HIDs? :p

[rao]

[quote name='MtnSub']My Subaru contact said October numbers just out for Legacy show sales up, hold on, 53% over same period last year. OB sales up 39% and overall Suby sales up 12%. These numbers are hard to believe. Few organizations get these numbers in an entire career. I asked if these numbers were SoCal or what and I was told USA. I asked if October was an odd month and not characteristic and my contact said sales are getting stronger each month since the release of new model. Biggest problem is there are so many special order cars and not enough wagons to go around. They just cannot get enough cars. If these numbers are true and continue, even in the 20+% range, we will not see anything new from Suby because the entire engineering and markeitng group will be enjoying party time at there favorite Nippon golf club for the entire next year. Assuming I am not being schmuzzed, and assuming this continues, you would think that conditions are good for a Leg/Sti. My contact said that the bigger Suby SUV with 3 rows of seats is big news for 06 and claims they really need that 3rd row for bigger families and to compete. Contact also said that Suby has been told very bluntly not to deliver a car with an ugly new front end, as shown in concept pictures of Tribeca. The news for 07 is the Impreza re-work. No mention of a Leg/Sti, but the Sti special performance group may be on 06 horizon. Anyone else have a good relationship with Suby sales, please ask some questions to cross check this info. My contact is very good, seasoned and connected, but I always feel better about numbers when they are the same from several sources.[/QUOTE] Let me guess, this is from a salesperson? Here are the real numbers: [url]http://vocuspr.vocus.com/VocusPR30/DotNet/Newsroom/Query.aspx?SiteName=Subaru&Entity=PRAsset&SF_PRAsset_PRAssetID_EQ=93501&XSL=PressRelease&Title=Releases&Cache=True[/url] October Legacy (includes Outback) sales up 39% (the sedan is up 57%, wagon 34%) Impreza sales up 3% (sedans up 11%, wagons down 8%) Forester sales down 9% Baja sales down 28% YTD Legacy (includes Outback) sales up 9% (the sedan is up 9%, wagon 7%) Impreza sales down 13% (sedans down 9%, wagons down 18%) Forester sales down 4% Baja sales down 34% Total sales up 12% for October and down 3% YTD. If those are great numbers, I'd hate to see what bad numbers look like :eek: If you are one of the 3 people who are interested in a Baja better act quickly!

[TeeLoo]

[quote name='GT Ski']WooHoo! This bodes well for a H-6 Turbo Legacy STi if the trend continues :D[/QUOTE]I'd be satisfied with a LGT H6 6MT. [quote name='MtnSub']My Subaru contact said October numbers just out for Legacy show sales up, hold on, 53% over same period last year. OB sales up 39%[/QUOTE]But where are the cars? So far, I've only seen 5 LGTs, 2 2.5i and 15 OB since June. Also, Montreal is probably considered a great Subaru market in NA. It's nothing like the Mazda3 when it came out in December 2003, now these cars were immediately all over the place.

[gtguy]

[quote name='MtnSub']First, I do not know why anyone would buy a Chrysler 300 and I don't know if they expected to sell 100 cars per year so I do not know if their sales performance is better than Suby. In absolute numbers, Chrysler may have sold more C300s, but in % of increase over previous month for last year, it may not be close to 53%. Okay, it's your job to act as an exuberance control agent.[/QUOTE] In a slow month (September), Chrysler sold 11,100 300 sedans, and they were making excuses, because they were bummed. People like them, btw, because of the styling, and because it's a big, rear-wheel-drive sedan of the type that nobody makes any longer. Subaru sold 16,000 cars in October. Given their status as a wee automaker, they're certainly pleased about that, but don't let brand loyalty delude you. People are opting for 300 sedans in numbers that are real-world impressive. Subaru should be happy. It looks like people are buying the cars. But I have seen only ONE other GT on the road, and it was a wagon. I can't keep count of the numbers of Chrysler 300s I've seen. :lol: Kevin

[MtnSub]

Where are the cars, meaning new Leg/OBs? I agree and said that to my Subaru contact. I specificly asked if the the 53% included OB and that is when I was told, no, OB had a 39% increase. My last comment above was these numbers sound too good to be true. I will scrub numbers with my contact again in a few days, but rao may have more exact numbers. Even if you take rao's numbers, there are some very bright spots in the numbers. Yes I have seen many more C300s than 05 Suby's. For such a small player, I see so many Subaru's (pre-05 Foresters, OBs) in SoCal . They are always in view. Things will become clear by March 06.

[RobCatron]

Here are the results posted from my source (which I use for my company's sales reports since I work in the Auto industry) These are total Subaru sales for North America [b]Subaru [/b]16,531 (10/04) 14,785 (10/03) 11.8% (% change) 154,262 (YTD 04) 158,456 (YTD 03) –2.6% (% change) As far as production goes, the estimate is now at 10,466 Legacy's and Outbacks for the Month of October, while Baja Production is estimated at a whopping 727 units This puts CY 2004 YTD through October Legacy / Outback Production at 79,721 vs. 75,871 for CY 2003 YTD for the same period

[Colonel Angus]

[quote name='gtguy']In a slow month (September), Chrysler sold 11,100 300 sedans, and they were making excuses, because they were bummed. People like them, btw, because of the styling, and because it's a big, rear-wheel-drive sedan of the type that nobody makes any longer. Subaru sold 16,000 cars in October. Given their status as a wee automaker, they're certainly pleased about that, but don't let brand loyalty delude you. People are opting for 300 sedans in numbers that are real-world impressive. Subaru should be happy. It looks like people are buying the cars. But I have seen only ONE other GT on the road, and it was a wagon. I can't keep count of the numbers of Chrysler 300s I've seen. :lol: Kevin[/QUOTE] you make a good point. i've been on business trips left and right for over a month now, all of which have been trekked in the legacy. every place i've been to, aside from my GT, i havent seen any others. i wouldnt be surprised if i'm the only on in my city that has one.

[Drift Monkey]

[quote name='TeeLoo']I'd be satisfied with a LGT H6 6MT.[/QUOTE] I wouldn't not, not water down Aussie stuff for me please. Give me turbo or give me death!

[IwannaSportSedan]

I wonder how difficult it would be to slap a couple of modest size turbos and a TMIC onto an a 3.0R Spec B. There should be a tuner out there attempting this, if none are already. that would be a heck of an engine. About the sales thing... I don't see any legacys around here either. Several new outbacks, but no legacies on the street. The thing is, that this car has been out for about 6 months. The previous body style was out for how many years? 2 or 3 at least. I don't see those either. I might have seen 3 or 4 legacies total in the last 4 years anywhere. I see Outback wagons every time i turn around, it seems like. there are typically 4-6 of them parked outside my office on any given day. My point is, that Legacy sales have nowhere to go but up. Just the people on this board should show that the new Legacy is selling, even if you don't see any other Legacies driving around your towns. This board membership is a small microcosm, and while we are all focused on Legacy/Outback info, other people are buying the cars, as well. Why do you think there is such a long wait for factory orders, and dealers have relatively few of them? Part of it is Subaru's manufacturing allocation, and being skeptical about the new Legacy's acceptance. If they weren't selling, though, they would have sizeable inventory, and people wouldn't be waiting for manufacturing dates, but only for delivery.

[PGT]

[quote name='MtnSub'] Anyone else have a good relationship with Suby sales, please ask some questions to cross check this info. My contact is very good, seasoned and connected, but I always feel better about numbers when they are the same from several sources.[/QUOTE] I took delivery of my LGT limited wagon last night. Before I did, I made one last check with a 'family friend' who works in marketing at SOA about an STi model, so that I wouldn't be kicking myself. The response I got was that they felt the std. LGT was competitive with what was out there and there were no plans to make drastic changes in the coming years (meaning two model years). With these sales numbers, nothing is going to happen soon. This person went on to say that the 7-seat SUV was their prime focus for the USDM, which makes sense as that is where the $$ is in this country (unfortunately). This seems to jive with what you have said above and with what two dealers have told me.

[Ninjapimp]

The car sales must really be concentrated in certain markets then, because I live in the biggest market in Canada (as well as the 4th largest in North America) and I've only seen 2 other Legacies in town (both of which have been in the past week). Mind you this isn't a statistical test of any means, but I just don't see them and most people I know have never seen one both before and after seeing mine. I think the biggest factor for their increase in sales has been their low financing and leasing rates finally starting to catch the market.

[plunk10]

I bet the "Guaranteed Trade In Price" (GTP) has had quite an effect on the October sales numbers, especially for the Legacy GT sedan. A lot of us on here (including myself) used just that to get a new legacy :D