Comments on: Subaru’s marketing dilemma

By: nick

nick — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:01:12 +0000

James – you hit the nail on the head … and have spoken the Toyota marketing mans darkest fear – yep, Toyota is indeed ‘a cardigan brand.’

So sensible and nice and well… yeeeshh ‘nice’…. and Mazda ..welll……Mazda is just about bringing up the rear, being the younger lad/ladettes ‘car of choice’ [bloody 'zoom zoom' here and 'zoom zoom' there] – in usually that shocking, god awful electric metallic blue …Oh I cant go on it’s to aesthetically challenging … Please somebody pass me that Fiat Ritmo brochure?

By: Cameron

Cameron — Sun, 04 May 2008 06:08:44 +0000

I think its a great idea for a car. Zippy, good looking and frugal. The best solution is for Subaru (Fuji heavy industries rather) to produce the car and sell it only through Toyota channels.
What ever happened to the SAAB 9-2 “saabaru”?? It was a lovely collaboration. I’d love for them to produce another model together – just fix up the “swedish” interior (v-ugly!!!).
Now Subaru – more efficient boxers please? I would have switched to Subaru a long time ago if only they could manage a decent cut on consumption. It seems to be their achillies’ heel in an otherwise outstanding line-up of vehicles.

By: jamison

jamison — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:30:09 +0000

Have you seen the price of engine rebuild for RX-7 FDs?
or Supra RZs?

Body wise, the cars assuming no crashes or accidents (big hits).. will last you 1 million kms or more… welding and materials have safety factors of more than double for “cheap” everyday cars… sports cars have even bigger safety factors on mechanical performance…

And define classics?…. I think some will have different perspectives on what car they are “passionate” with.
I’d still love a “clean” Nissan GTR R32 one day… its trash to a lot these days especially the amount of modified ones on the market getting trashed by 18 year olds…. but a clean un-modified one… well.. to me would be worth garaging and just taking for a spin weekends.

By: No Name

No Name — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:35:43 +0000

Aaah but Jamison old chum – what’s the point in having a nice “beast” and caging it up in the garage all week. You might as well drive it. Now if it was something really special – old clasic maybe or a Gallardo Syder then I would agree with you.

By: jamison

jamison — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:04:00 +0000

Yeah Toyota is definitely in need of “sportier” cars.
No doubt about that, heck even Toyota agrees.

Its just that everyday drive cars, cars that you dont care if you clock 100,000 Kms a year… cars that you dont mind not getting special high octane fuel, cars that you dont want to pay extra insurance for, cars that you dont want delays in getting parts when you need them ASAP…. basically A to B cars that are reliable… so I agree with James too.

My point, just so that even the young drivers understand is.

When you are on a market for a new car that you want to drive everyday…. Toyota has a good range, some are over priced than other manufacturers, but reliability over 4-5 years you definitely get your moneys worth on a Toyota.

I dont see how someone can justify driving turbo charged cars everyday to work, pay the extra dollars for premium fuel, pay the extra dollars for the 5000km service, pay the HUGE $$$ to maintain engine/body/mechanical parts after about 2 years.. assuming you drive it everyday… because darn it you will NEED to do that if you drive it everyday. If you’re a executive getting six figures a year, fair enough… but for the 97% of daily drivers… I dont see whats wrong with Toyota’s target audience.

I’d drive a corolla or a camry everyday no problems, then take out the beast come weekend.

Thats actually ONE huge reason Subaru opted to “soften” up the WRX. They turned a high maintenance weekend car, to a darn good daily driver in the 08 WRX… lots of whingers dont look at it from value perspective.
Thats why, the hot hatches these days are great alternatives if you just want 1 car that goes hard and is a great everyday driver.

By: Naughtyius Maximus

Naughtyius Maximus — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:31:12 +0000

Gee hope Toyota dont wreck Subaru as they build sportier cars then boring Toyota’s. Yawn……..zzz zzz zzz

By: OSU811

OSU811 — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 03:02:26 +0000

If i was to replace my liberty with a new car now, it would be the new xt manual forster for sure! I have had the pleasure of driving one and they are very refined/quiet, quick and responsive, very practical too,
and I think the new model looks really good just needs nice set of 18″ wheels and decent exhaust..

By: OSU811

OSU811 — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:38:51 +0000

mark i own a 2007 liberty wagon, and mate the only way to go with these cars is in the manual anyway much more fun and more resposive, and with the advantage of being cheaper and better on fuel, also rarer come time to sell..

By: Golfschwein

Golfschwein — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:18:26 +0000

I hear James.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:24:44 +0000

Tom, you said:
“Out of the current subaru line-up, I won’t be replacing my MY04 liberty with any subaru, despite how much I love them. The new liberty’s have not evolved at all, and the rest of the range is currently bland. At least STi is trying their best with what they are given.”

I own an MY04 Liberty (non-turbo) as well and I hate to say it but I do agree to an extent. I drive an automatic and compared to other autos of this class it is well behind. I am hoping that the MY10 next year (genV) will make up for it and adopt a DSG style gearbox for us auto drivers.