anthscooby01

I see that Subaru (Fuji Heavy Industries) are reporting huge looses as opposed to massive profits that they seem to be used to! Surprise surprise! They totally destroyed their image on announcement of new Impreza months ago and are nowpaying the price. Their designers should all be sacked together with their marketing execs. They have destroyed a legendary model with their hopeless wish to enter the Astra/Seat/Focus type market when they had their own niche in the market. Idiots!!!!!!!! The Impreza is its own hero. Why try to clone it with lesser marques? Lets hope they realise what a HUGE mistake they have made with this new model. Bugeye was not nice. This is goddamn awful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shark Man

The losses are due to the lack of sale of the bog standard old shape Imprezas over the past years as well as other vehicles in the current line-up.

The WRXs and STis are a very small niche market cars, certainly not anywhere near as profitable to support the company, that has always been the case. Which is why the Impreza started life with a 1.6 engine and 2 wheel drive - no joke! (its still available in Japan, just its a 1.5 now ).

Blaming it on the MY08 is daft...it's not 2008 yet and it will be only until then will they realise if the MY08 was a huge mistake or not. Not enough have been sold to dictate how much of a flop it will be.

So, if anything blame the squinty-eye and blob eyes

What we do know now, is that losses are associated with the poor sales of MY07 and MY06 vehicles, beit B9s Tribecas, Foresters, Legacys as well as IMprezas, be it GL sports or a Turbo. Especially in the USA, now think how good the US economy is of recent years...that may fill in a few gaps as to the knock on effect it has



And also blame official EU importers as well for not bringing in the twin scroll Legacy, then pricing the H6 out of its intended market and fitting it with the bodykit off base model 2.0, giving it absolutely no cred and making it the most underated car on their forecourt. If priced right, fitted with a Blitzen bodykit and a Twinscroll turbo option, it may have swayed people from the usual executive marques.

Petrol-Head

Also with Car tax on CC cars going up for their so called CO2 emmisions people look at these things when buying as it adds to the cost. Why pay over £200 a year on a petrol car when you can get a diesel for £35 ! Then there's athe petrol running costs....they borught out a LPG line-up in Germany but will they sell that here ?...i doubt it....i've got LPG so i'd buy one ! even though there not turbo'd. I think Subaru need to rethink their line up and maybe ditch AWD on some models....loosing out to Audi/BMW etc, cheaper to tax and there CO2 isn't a grade F or worse !

Not that i really care about this CO2 business just another way to tax the masses...but thats another argument !

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Agree with sharkman, its not about the latest model, its about the previous ones, hence why Subaru is pushing out into a wider market with a car that will sell but then also look at ford, the focus is one of the best sellers along with the mondeo, but they also make huge losses, its not really an industry you want to be in at the moment.

Tony

what would scooby do

Think about how many Nissan Micras have to be sold to shore up a product like the Skyline. As stated above, Subaru has never had the volume of bog standard products to backup a halo model like the Impreza STI's.

T5NYW

iTrader: (4)

Tony

Also agree with sharkman although the USA sales were less hit than the UK and EU markets.

I found some 2006 fiqures somewhere showing that the Total Subaru vechiles sold in the EU inc UK was less than Imprezas sold in the USA, hence the bargining power they have. Although a high 2004/5 sales figures, generally the UK is a rapidly shrinking market. Unlike the USA, Antipidies, EU and the rest of the world taht have hiccups IMHO

Tony

terzo204

The original post relates to Fuji Heavy Industries - Is Subaru not a subsidary company of this?

If this is the case then Subaru might be/or might not be making money but the other parts of the business might be underperforming.

Blaming the MY08 is just plain stupid - even if it does look crap