mordecai

They should stay Subaru and continue improving their core products, which indeed fills niche markets. But to be fair, this niche market is becoming more and more "mainstream," and as such Subaru has witnessed tremendous growth the past couple of years. What I think Subaru will do is improve their designs, their recent WRX and STi concepts have been gorgeous. If they implement this throughout their line, they will become more "mainstream" in a design sense, but will probably keep that Subaru quality they are known for.

mmarshall

Respectfully, I disagree. I still wouldn't call that a niche-market. The car-based AWD market (which, of course, includes other manufactures besides Subaru) is a huge....and still-growing one. And Subie sales are by no means just concentrated 200 miles fron the Canadian border. Here in the D.C. area, they are enormously popular even though we generally don't get severe winters and the roads are usually cleared off quickly (a lot of unskilled drivers here can't handle what snow/ice we DO get here without AWD). Colorado (a lot more than 200 miles from Canada), is another place they are extremely popular.

LexFather

Suburu is a niche brand end of story.

92 SC400

I think what they do and how they do it (currently) is, in their words, "what makes Subaru a Subaru."

mmarshall

No. Too many people buy Outbacks and Foresters for that to be the case.

At one time, I agree that Subaru WAS a niche-brand. But that ended in the mid-late 1990s.

Megafast13

I don't see them ever being able to compete mainstream with Toyota/Honda. Should stick with what works in this situation.

Allen K

iTrader: (4)

Depends on the definition of niche. Per the July sales thread, Subaru sold 35,994 cars vs. 186,796 by Ford, 234,071 by GM, 140,102 by Chrysler, 141,349 by Honda, 109,041 by Nissan, and 193,394 by Toyota. Outback and Forrester make up about 56% of their sales

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Well it's hard to go mainstream if you can't convince people other than those in D.C, Oregon, and Colorado to buy your product vs full line mainstream automakers

LexFather

Everyone in the universe considers suburu a niche brand. You can call it a top 3 automaker if you want but in reality and to enthusiasts and experts its a niche brand.

Hence the article.

nthach

Subies are all over the Bay Area - except in Walnut Creek/Danville/Pleasanton, Marin and the Marina District of San Francisco - where Lexus/Mercedes/BMW/Audi/Range Rover and minivans still reign supreme.

mmarshall

No, it's not a top-tier by any means. But Foresters and Outbacks simply sell in numbers too high to be truly considered a niche. And their sales-numbers went up significantly when they went all-AWD back in the mid-1990's, dropping their U.S.-market FWD models.

Over time, I actually had to stand corrected on that one. Back in the mid-90s, when Subie officials made that decision to drop the FWD models here, I thought it was a mistake (kind of like dropping the nice purplish Amythist color that I liked). But there is no denying that making Subaru only AWD here in the states made it a big success....even more when the WRX was added. I myself bought a Subie later on, of course.

However, I've always respected your automotive opinions even when I disagree with them.

Outrage

Subaru sells around the same number of cars as Volkswagen in the United States. Subaru sold 165,362 vehicles through May of this year versus 169,835 Volkswagens. In comparison, Mazda has sold 122,447 units in the same timeframe. I guess these are all niche brands...

I8ABMR

the title of the thread impiles that Subaru has a choice. They are a niche brand because they are not on the same level as the other companies. They can say its on purpose but trust me when I say they would rather be much much bigger

SLegacy99

I'll weigh in since I've been a Subaru driver since I began driving 11 years ago...

I am certainly one of the Subaru loyalists and have searched and traveled to find 2 Legacy GTs now. In fact, I just sold my '99 GT to a kid that flew in to Philadelphia from Texas. The Subaru enthusiast def. knows what he/she wants.

I like that Subaru is selling more cars. They offer an incredibly safe, efficient, and capable product. I don't like the RWD from a company that has poo pooed RWD for the last 40 years. It seems like they are steering away from their core values, though the BRZ is a fascinating ride. However, my '05 Legacy GT is a beautiful car, but it has been nowhere near as reliable as my '99 or the '96 I had before it. I recently had to replace the transmission and overall it just isn't put together as well as my older Subarus. The fog lights short out, both rear door handles have broken on the inside of the door, the leather trim on my parking brake is coming unglued and the dash rattles from multiple points. I'm told that my intercooler is next on the list of things to fail. Sure my '99 was not perfect, but it did make it 15 years without a door handle breaking! It just seems to me like my experience with a "newer" Subaru has been that the things that are found in every car (door handles, dashboards) were not designed well....that being said, it hits 60 MPH in 5.2 seconds and is the ultimate sleeper. I can't think of anything else that I would rather drive.

Am I optimistic for the new WRX? You bet ya!

mmarshall

They didn't have much choice with the BRZ. The car was designed in conjunction with Toyota, Subaru's part-owner, and the Toyota marketers decided that the basic car was going to be marketed in three versions, depending on what country one was in....Subaru BR-Z, Toyota FT/GT-86, and Scion FR-S.