Hyundai and Subaru are beginning to be familiar faces near the top of the monthly “who’s losing least” numbers. Sure, everyone expected Hyundai to cash in on the clunker sales boomlet, but who’d have thought Subaru would log its best sales month ever? Tribeca was down for Subie, but everything else was up by 33 (Outback) to 41 (Impreza) percent. Forester is still the top dog though, at 7,574 units. That’s almost as much volume as Hyundai‘s Accent (+13 percent), which was part of the expected Hyundai clunker boom along with Elantra (+30 percent) and Sonata (+17 percent). Santa Fe barely moved at 6,793 units, but the Genesis is anemic at 2,015. Volkswagen sales fell just over one percent, buffered by TDI sales that made up 30 percent of total deliveries. 80 percent of Jetta Sportwagons and 40 percent of Jetta sedans are being chosen with oil-burner engines. Otherwise, VW sales look dreary. Nissan‘s sales (-25 percent) are distinctly “meh,” with only the Rogue (+4 percent), Versa (-2 percent) and Cube (3,293) looking remotely assertive.
I wonder what kind of mods my Eagle Talon would need to jump like that and not rip the front off. I’d need better f/r weight distribution. A cage would be good to strengthen the chassis. I am also considering adding the chassis foam you add by cutting open the lower rocker panels and fill them with it. Been wanting to jump cars ever since watching the Dukes of Hazzard as a kid.
People who really need/want all wheel drive but are tired of feeding the body on frame SUV beast are natural candidates for Subarus. A modern Subaru has about as much interior space as an older Cherokee or Explorer did. All in all, a smart move for many buyers I suspect.
People who really need/want all wheel drive but are tired of feeding the body on frame SUV beast are natural candidates for Subarus.
IOW, New England liberals. They certainly have a captive market.
Subaru are creeping up on everyone all around the world. They have been doing so for the last decade.
The new model Legacy/Outback looks like a risk however…..
(Where are the diesels in Australia please Subaru?)
Perhaps many of these Subaru Outback/Legacy buyers were longtime Subie people who were buying ’09s while they still could, given that the 2010 models are in many ways not even recognizable as Subarus.
You describe the Genesis sales as anemic, but reading your prior post I see they were identical to the Avalon, and outsold the LS and GS combined. For a 1 year old model I’d call that impressive, and also smart on the part of the buyers. “Affordable luxury” or “luxury without pretension” seem to be hitting a sweet spot. In fact, this site’s original 5 star review of the 4.6 seems pretty prescient.
Holy cow – the Forester (7,574 units) is outselling the Honda Pilot (6,430), the Chevy Traverse (6,690), the Ford Flex (3,361), the Dodge Journey (4,165), the Hyundai Santa Fe (6,793), and the Chevy Camaro (7,113).
Subaru seems to have come a long way in the sales department. (BTW, I’m also fairly surprised that the Santa Fe is outselling the Pilot.)
The Santa Fe is a newer car underneath. It should.
While I hate that Subaru changed directions with the Forester, it seems that they did so at an opportune time. The fact that the new Forester isn’t terribly cramped, anymore, and brings better AWD credentials to the party than the other default choice for downsizing SUV’ers, the CR-V, means that Subaru has a better chance of attracting the 4×4 crowd than Honda.
In fact, this site’s original 5 star review of the 4.6 seems pretty prescient.
I added one to the “anemic” Genesis count in July. They happened to have only one car on the lot that I would even consider (silver 4.6 tech), but the remaining 2009s at the dealers are what is left of limited 2009 production. Black/midnight blue cars and black interiors don’t go over well in a record Texas heat wave.
Based on the first 1000 miles, the five stars are well earned.
30% VW diesels is hugely instructive. Id bet,at present, it couldnt go much higher.
Edward,
Your picture should have maybe been Ken Block doing a jump. This guy is bonkers:
http://www.didntyouhear.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/jump_composite_800.jpg
The new Impreza never even had a chance to win a WRC event. They should bring it back even on a limited basis. What they are left with is the ugliest Impreza ever and it has no real racing pedigree. They market the current WRX and STI like it has rally heritage, when really thats only half true. They think that they built enough of a name for themselves in Rally that they can just give up (Really due to the lack of recent success) and people will always remember them as champions. I don’t think this worked for Mitsubishi, even though Tommi Makkinen took the EVO to 4 straight World Titles. I’m sure most youth these days look the EVO more as a midnight Japanese racer rather than something that came from Rally.
So I say don’t honor or acknowledge the involvement of the current car in Rally period. And yes, I am a cranky, bitter, ugly, hate filled man ;)
The problem is… thanks to the homologation rules in force in the past few years (which are… basically… a joke…) manufacturers producing lightweight front-wheel-drive hatchbacks have had a better chance of winning than manufacturers who actually make all-wheel-drive compact cars… the chips have been woefully stacked against Mitsubishi and Subaru… and the STi hatch is a late attempt to make Subaru competitive again…
Doesn’t forgive the fact that it’s soft, chubby, and not too exciting to drive.
Subie dealer I’ve been dealing with has been very, very busy lately, they are just about sold out of Foresters (only had a couple Basics and one Limited left, when normal is a dozen or more at any one time). The manager we are working with told us to take the one (a maroon red Premium, momma insisted on red or black!) home that he got in for us from another dealer so one of the guys wouldn’t sell it to someone else. A white Premium I drove on Sunday afternoon was gone yesterday afternoon.
We wanted a small SUV, 4 cyl for milage and 4WD (live in a rural area) and after comparing the specs, features and price between Forester, RAV4 and CRV the Subie was a clear winner to us. It surprised us too, we’d never even considered a Subaru, so making them more “mainstream” was a good plan, IMHO.
81% of Jetta wagon sales being TDI is amazing. (I refuse to call it a “sportwagen”). You can barely find a Jetta wagon on dealer lots, so VW definitely has a hit with the TDI wagon combination. Now if only VWoA would clue in and also offer that engine in the Passat wagon. I won’t hold my breath for that though.
VW of Canada had some impressive gains too, much better than VWoA. Once again due to TDI sales. At the moment in Southern Ontario diesel is selling for about 82 cents per litre while gas is close to $1.00/litre.
http://www.pr-inside.com/volkswagen-canada-sales-are-up-again-achieves-r1419619.htm
The Forester also qualifies as a Category 1 “truck” in the CARS program, with lower mileage requirements, netting the buyer 4500 in a trade that for any other Subaru, as passenger cars, would only be 3500 due to the combined mpg of 22 for the 2.5 engine