Subaru Sales up 2% for July

[gfxdave99]

http://www.lafayettejc.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050807/BUSINESS/508070311/1059

 

July sales up 2% for Subaru

 

By Max Showalter

mshowalter@journalandcourier.com

 

Helped along by consumer acceptance of its 2006 B9 Tribeca, Subaru of America Inc. posted a 2 percent sales gain during July.

 

Total sales for the company's vehicle lineup reached 17,959 last month, with the Impreza line marking its best-ever July -- improving 15 percent from the same month last year, to 3,310 units.

 

Among vehicles built at the Subaru of Indiana Automotive Inc. plant in Lafayette, the company sold 1,833 B9 Tribecas, which hit dealer's showrooms in late May and have sold 3,956 units so far this year.

 

"Sales of the all-new Subaru B9 Tribeca continue to climb," said a statement from Bill Cyphers, vice president of sales for Subaru of America. "We are pleased with our positive sales momentum and expect this trend to continue."

 

Sales of the SIA-built Legacy line, which includes Outback models, fell 14 percent in July, to 7,480 units.

 

A slight increase was posted in sales of the Baja sport utility truck, which also is produced in Lafayette.

 

Last month, Subaru dealers sold 648 of the SUTs, a 5 percent increase from the 620 sold in July 2004.

 

Sales of the Japanese-made Forester declined 14 percent from a year ago, to 4,688 units last month.

 

During the first seven months of this year, Subaru sales have reached 111,262. That's a 5 percent increase over sales in the January-June period of last year.

 

Shortly before it began shipping the B9 Tribeca to dealers in May, Subaru executives said they would need to sell at least 17,000 of the new five- and seven-passenger models to reach its goal of selling 204,500 total vehicles in 2005.

 

Other models, and the company's sales forecast, include:

 

Legacy -- 93,500, vs. 89,453 in 2004

Forester -- 58,500, vs. 58,424 in 2004

Impreza -- 30,000, vs. 32,209 in 2004

<li>Baja -- 5,500, vs. 7,316 in 2004When he visited the SIA plant July 22, Petter Solberg, Subaru's top driver in the World Rally Championship series, had an opportunity to watch production of the B9 Tribeca, after earlier driving a pre-production model in Japan.

 

"It's a very nice car. It's completely a new type of car for Subaru," said Solberg. "The driveability is going in the right direction. It will be a good seller."

[bruin]

Wow that isn't too good. With all the american automakers and their employee pricing, I heard that was helping bring people into all carmakers. And when you factor in the newly released Tribeca, that's not that great of an increase at all IMHO.

[gfxdave99]

im just impressed that they have sold 4000 tirebecas!

[rao]

The Legacy is not sustaining sales, the Tribeca is not selling very well (at this rate they will sell about 25,000 a year). About the only thing keeping them from losing sales is deep discounts, not a good sign.

[Jedi Pimp]

The Pigbecas are starting to pile up on the lots around here. I smell quick front end redesign ala bugeye Impreza.

[PhilT]

im just impressed that they have sold 4000 tirebecas!

 

I'm impressed that they sold one !

[fzanetti]

The only reason why they haven't sold more Impreza's is because SAAB sold just 5800 92x's this past month with their Employee Discount + 6K cashback on the rebadeged 92X....

 

Flavio Zanetti

Boston, MA