Subaru Revises Sales Forecast, Predicts New Record
It’s been a good year at Subaru. In fact, it’s been a good six or so years for the small Japanese brand that stands alone in being able to claim sales growth in each of the past six years.
“The market is telling us that we are delivering products that consumers want at the right prices,” COO Thomas Doll said.
Sales are so good, in fact, that top brass at Subaru’s Cherry Hill, New Jersey, U.S. headquarters are revising their 2014 sales projection to 500,000, or 8.7 percent higher than the 460,000 Doll expected the company to sell earlier in 2014. Subaru marked its best-ever sales year in 2013 at 424,683 – itself a 26 percent gain over 2012 – and if the company stays on track to meet its new goal, sales this year will have increased 17 percent over 2013.
“Our strong market performance has caused us to increase our year-end sales forecast beyond the notable 500,000 sales mark,” Doll said.
From January through August, Subaru sold an average of 42,000 vehicles per month and will need to maintain that pace to meet its new target. Through August, the company’s sales reached 333,968 units and marked a 19 percent increase compared to five percent for U.S. light vehicle sales overall.
Through August, the XV Crosstrek and Forester both increased significantly with 41 percent and 43 percent boosts respectively. The Forester is new for the 2014 model year and the XV Crosstrek launched for the 2013 model year. Otherwise, sales of Subaru’s other models are generally in single-digit territory.
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Luke is an energetic automotive journalist who spends his time covering industry news and crawling the internet for the latest breaking story. When he isn't in the office, Luke can be found obsessively browsing used car listings, drinking scotch at his favorite bar and dreaming of what to drive next, though the list grows a lot faster than his bank account. He's always on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> looking for a good car conversation. Find Luke on <A title="@lukevandezande on Twitter" href="http://twitter.com/lukevandezande">Twitter</A> and <A title="Luke on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/112531385961538774338?rel=author">Google+</A>.
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