Outback posts great results

Subaru’s all-new 2015 Outback has outperformed 2014’s total sales in the past six months it has been on sale in the Kiwi market. Between January and June 2015, it notched up 539 registrations compared 512 in the whole of last year. Wallis Dumper, managing director of Subaru of NZ, is thrilled with the figures. He says: “Our ambition coming into 2015 was to capture previous Legacy Wagon owners given the wagon has ceased production and is now only available in a sedan body style. It looks like the value equation of the all-new Outback is resonating with previous Legacy wagon drivers and we are going to achieve this sooner than anticipated. “Some of the credit can be attributed to the Outback’s value-for-money price, which was a huge consideration when launching the new Outback, knowing it’s always been a premium over the Legacy wagon.” The 2015 Outback starts at $44,990 for the Sport 2.5i, which is the same price as the previous-generation Legacy. Widely regarded as the original crossover wagon when launched in 1996, the Outback was at the forefront of Subaru’s SUV success story and is now in its fifth generation with a much-expanded range. Dumper says it virtually pioneered the crossover trend that has subsequently been copied by many. “We have continually refined and improved the Outback range over 19 years, including making it our first mainstream model to have the six-cylinder version of our horizontally opposed Boxer engine, which was introduced in 2000,” he says. “This six-cylinder engine has evolved into a 3.6-litre powerplant with fantastic economy that also features in the all-new Legacy sedan.” This year’s sales of the 2015 version have been helped by the addition of Lineartronic diesel automatic variants that have brought more appeal in rural areas for long-range dirt-road driving. Despite the Outback’s popularity in New Zealand, Subaru is now in a position where customer demands are being met and those on back order will be fulfilled this year. “We are fighting for allocation in New Zealand as Subaru of America and Australia are also enjoying successes with our wagon, which has all the benefits of an SUV,” says Dumper. “Both these countries have never enjoyed quite the same success as New Zealand for sales per capita, so when we started seeing sales records appearing for these nations we knew our records would eventually arise.”