Subaru's 'super' sales

Subaru of New Zealand has had what it describes as a “super successful September” by selling 259 vehicles for the company’s biggest month of the year. Last month’s total not only contributed to 15 per cent of the marque’s annual sales, but also equalled the biggest September sales month in its history in 2007. However, 84 per cent of the September result eight years ago was made up of Impreza sales because it was the month the model was launched. The 2015 September figures saw the Outback making up 53 per cent of sales – despite it being launched in December 2014. Managing director Wallis Dumper says: “When we made the supposedly brave move back in 1996 to go 100 per cent all-wheel-drive, some of our critics thought it was the beginning of the end. To basically walk away from 50 per cent of our sales may have been considered madness and at the same time we rationalised our dealer team to ensure we had a sales network with a customer experience focus. “But we also knew back then that we had the revolutionary Forester coming soon after the completely new Outback, which was being launched at the time. “The Outback was basically the vehicle that created the SUV market style we are all so familiar with today. Subaru brought this new trend to the global market and it’s pleasing to be here today, nearly 20 years later, to celebrate this success, which was significantly built on the fantastic engineering excellence of Subaru and the Outback in particular.” The new-generation Legacy sedan had its biggest sales month for 2015 – 22 units in September, which is strong growth and momentum for this model considering that, in 2014, 87 per cent of Subaru of NZ’s Legacy sales were wagons. With heightened sales across the range, the marque is now 32 per cent ahead of its 2014 year-to-date total – with 1,772 versus 1,344 cars sold.