The problem is actually a very old one: most of the people who bang on and on about Subarus are buying them second-hand, and Subaru get no money from those sales. Meaning Subaru haven't made much money for years. As an example: how many people here who have one, bought it new? I certainly didn't. There's always been a big market for second-hand, but a tiny market for new. I've been driving one for twelve years, and in that time I'm lucky to see one a month. I see more Porsches than scoobs. The margin isn't high enough to succeed as a niche car, and the volume isn't high enough to succeed as an everyday car. I'm surprised they've lasted this long - I expected them to fold a decade ago.
Who here owns a Subaru?
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yea the WRX STI is extremely rare around here, as are hot hatchbacks too, but new Porsches are quite common as are BMSs and Audis, because it's the young drivers market that's dead..... because fast cars are only driven around here by the over 40s +........... younger drivers have old Ricer Novas or old Hondas etc, my guess is this is also due to their sky high insurance quotes.
Honda can sustain this loss, (because they've hardly sold any Type Rs around here), because it's a much larger more successful business as is Hyundai, in this area.....good grief everyone around here either drives a Jazz or on i30.
they only have one 2017 Type R at Balmar lawn and they couldn't care less if it sells or not, because it's a tiny part of their sales and it's just sitting out the back covered in Seagull poop...........in contrast, they're selling the Jazz like crazy.
there's only 3 pages of 2nd hand WRX STIs 2014-2017 for sale and most of them have been there for over 4 months............. yet pages and pages for the Mustang !
Honda can sustain this loss, (because they've hardly sold any Type Rs around here), because it's a much larger more successful business as is Hyundai, in this area.....good grief everyone around here either drives a Jazz or on i30.
they only have one 2017 Type R at Balmar lawn and they couldn't care less if it sells or not, because it's a tiny part of their sales and it's just sitting out the back covered in Seagull poop...........in contrast, they're selling the Jazz like crazy.
there's only 3 pages of 2nd hand WRX STIs 2014-2017 for sale and most of them have been there for over 4 months............. yet pages and pages for the Mustang !
they could be put off by the massive car tax...... because that's what my mate said at work, he was quite interested until he saw the sodding car tax....lol
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Nail on the head. Their run of the mill models offer nothing over the competition.
Just to pick two easy examples. A Mondeo Estate with comparable engine/gearbox is £7000 cheaper than a Levorg (Ignoring actual spec) and the Impreza is £500 cheaper than a Focus.
Unfortunately they aren't cheaper than the competition or any better.
And unfortunately, outside of the die hard followers the same applies for the performance models too
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But that's what I mean about honest. If VW were honest about their emissions most of their cars would be in the top bracket
But that's what I mean about honest. If VW were honest about their emissions most of their cars would be in the top bracket
People in harsher environments like Subarus for the AWD system and the durability, it's needed there. But in Europe those things are kinda lost on most people.
The other issue is everyone wants the old 2.0 WRXs, not the new ones.
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Meh, the 150 limited edition is just the 2018 face lift that the rest of the world is getting.
I want the brakes and the seats, but happy that the other changes are minor.
I'm relatively happy with mine, fully aware that many cars are quicker (albeit with a DSG box or similar) and that my EJ25 of doom is likely to be an issue at some point. But I enjoy driving it. It sounds good, it's involving, and I can use its performance
I want the brakes and the seats, but happy that the other changes are minor.
I'm relatively happy with mine, fully aware that many cars are quicker (albeit with a DSG box or similar) and that my EJ25 of doom is likely to be an issue at some point. But I enjoy driving it. It sounds good, it's involving, and I can use its performance
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I was one of them people that bought one new back in the day. '99
In those days they were different, and there really wasn't any competition other than mitsi and toyota.
Audi had their quattro and that was a direct competitor but they were not quite mainstream in the UK then, just about to have their massive surge.
The market place has moved on a long way since then and tbh its hard for subaru to differentiate.
I mean its so easy for example to pick up an Xdrive BMW now thats not really any diff to a subaru, but its allegedly a premium brand. With Audi now so popular the niche quattro years ago is also now completely mainstream.
Subaru cant even really look to compete on price point, its not unique to them, car production more than ever is about price and volume.
I still have fond memories of a british GP practice day some years ago, around 2000-2002 iirc where a load of petrol heads went together. Scoobs, BMWs, fast fords etc
It rained like hell and most people were stuck in the carparks. There was a landrover charging people a couple of quid to tow them out, the scoobs all helped the others we went with out, those M3s etc were not getting out without. Nowadays there would be loads of xdrives and quattros and Focus RS just as able to get out and help others get out. But at the time it was a source of great mockery that some of the cars were fast until they saw some mud
In those days they were different, and there really wasn't any competition other than mitsi and toyota.
Audi had their quattro and that was a direct competitor but they were not quite mainstream in the UK then, just about to have their massive surge.
The market place has moved on a long way since then and tbh its hard for subaru to differentiate.
I mean its so easy for example to pick up an Xdrive BMW now thats not really any diff to a subaru, but its allegedly a premium brand. With Audi now so popular the niche quattro years ago is also now completely mainstream.
Subaru cant even really look to compete on price point, its not unique to them, car production more than ever is about price and volume.
I still have fond memories of a british GP practice day some years ago, around 2000-2002 iirc where a load of petrol heads went together. Scoobs, BMWs, fast fords etc
It rained like hell and most people were stuck in the carparks. There was a landrover charging people a couple of quid to tow them out, the scoobs all helped the others we went with out, those M3s etc were not getting out without. Nowadays there would be loads of xdrives and quattros and Focus RS just as able to get out and help others get out. But at the time it was a source of great mockery that some of the cars were fast until they saw some mud
i agree. most of the hot hatches like golf r and s3 and focus rs arent even awd anyway. they are fwd. my dads s3 is currently fwd only for the third time this year. dont think i've ever seen a subaru with broken awd system.
I agree on this. there older cars were better and relatively better at the time when they came out. in 2000-2005 a 300hp car for a 2.0l turbo was massively faster than any hot hatch. they would mostly be fwd with 180-250hp. in 2016/2017 we have seen hot hatches reach 300-350hp, so really to be on the same level of relative performance subaru needed to be making 400-450hp cars. We all know this can be done because the H6 fits in an STI with 2x turbo's
it would be great. look how well the nissan gtr sold when that came out with 478hp. the sti should have been between the hot hatches and the lower end super cars like the r8 and gtr and Porsches. Its just not got any faster I have to say though, nothing with 4cyl can beat the sound of a subaru. The only thing that comes close to as special is the 5cly in an rs3, but they are pretty expensive in comparison .
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Probably, I guess its down to the heritage. I was very impressed how on normal road tyres the impreza handled very slippery surfaces.
Quattro though for sure is very impressive as well, ive never been in an xdrive off road so no idea how they cope.
I wonder if part of the issue is how a lot of these systems are trying to be efficient, ie not really in operation most of the time and only helping in low traction scenarios
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Subaru have left me a voicemail offering me the opportunity to discuss buying the "limited edition 150" 
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£12k ?! Err how?
They saying yours is worth only £21k already?
They saying yours is worth only £21k already?
Meh, the 150 limited edition is just the 2018 face lift that the rest of the world is getting.
I want the brakes and the seats, but happy that the other changes are minor.
I'm relatively happy with mine, fully aware that many cars are quicker (albeit with a DSG box or similar) and that my EJ25 of doom is likely to be an issue at some point. But I enjoy driving it. It sounds good, it's involving, and I can use its performance
they've contacted me too, sending me a brochure etc.............. but it's about 33k and a second hand one with only about 1k miles is roughly 28k
the ``final edition`` has better brakes, bigger wheels, and maybe a better front end.........not that the front end matters at all, because it's still quite good looking............in comparison to say for instance, the 2017 Type R..........HA HA
Yes, as a trade in. I said you'd put mine up for £28k tomorrow so you're having a laugh. He said the non final Edition's would be dropped to £26,999 to get shot of them which will affect residuals. I suspect that's rubbish. They do have a pre reg for £29,999 though.
The sales guy I dealt with has left who I knew before and he is fairly sound. The new guy I also know and he's more the typical greasy salesman. I'll pull him up on that price drop if it doesn't happen.
I think I'll just wait see if they all go quickly. I'd be surprised they sell out at that price (no movement on that price either I was told) you might find they hang about a bit. I remember the last few P1s took a while to sell. Albeit there was more of them.
it's not uncommon to see a few WRX STIs at low cost, that are either brand new or less than 1000 miles............esp in Scotland
but i cant see the ``final edition`` making sod all difference to existing sales, simply because these cars aren't selling that fast anyway....the ones that dont sell are the newish black and grey ones, they're also the cheapest............ but the white and esp the silver go quickly, in about 2 months !
Funny I'd not want either colour. Mines grey which is probably why it's apparently near worthless after 6 months
it's a beautiful color. The metal flake in it is really nice in the sun. Think I'd rather score some 6 pots off Yahoo Japan and a pair of recaros off eBay and have them recovered to match the existing seats. Should save myself 10K
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Funny I'd not want either colour. Mines grey which is probably why it's apparently near worthless after 6 months
Think I'd rather score some 6 pots off Yahoo Japan and a pair of recaros off eBay and have them recovered to match the existing seats. Should save myself 10K
Tbf I think the Pearl white really suits the current Gen, one around the corner from my parents that looks fantastic
yes the pearl white Looks great