Ken Gratton•1 Feb 2013
NEWS
Ground rules for Subaru's Forester
No manual for XT and no FWD variant, but Subaru Australia chief hints at diesel auto combo in futureSubaru's BRZ has been a sell-out success for the importer, but it hasn't changed Nick Senior's views about the importance to the brand of all-wheel drive.
"No, it's strengthened them," the Subaru Australia MD flippantly told journalists at the launch of the Forester XT last week. Earlier Mr Senior had said of the Forester: "No, we won't have a two-wheel drive model," hinting that it would cheapen the model's image – and the brand's image along with it.
Symmetrical all-wheel drive will remain the mainstay of the importer's brand management in Australia, Mr Senior told motoring.com.au subsequently.
"The Subaru way has always been about zigging while everyone else has zagged; because with our scale we can't mix it with those who play down at the volume end of the market. So we've gotta position ourselves as being different for all the right reasons and we've gotta explain the emotional and rational benefits of having all-wheel drive.
"We found 40,000 customers last year that believed in all-wheel drive. If we can grow that customer base year-in, year-out, by a couple of thousand, that is pretty much where the brand should be."
Brand management can't be blamed for the end of a manual transmission option for Forester XT though. That's more about reducing model range complexity and boosting profit accordingly. Sales of the Forester XT with manual transmission in the superseded model were on a gradual slide and the business case for a drivetrain variant selling in quite small numbers was getting harder to sustain.
And what were those numbers?
"16 per cent – and shrinking on a monthly basis..." Mr Senior said, also observing that the steady decline in demand for manual XT variants was "hardly a compelling case."
A diesel Forester with the continuously variable (Lineartronic) transmission is also off the agenda for the moment, but that's simply because the vehicle doesn't exist – and might be some time reaching the market.
"The energy has gone into developing the Outback," Mr Senior said. "Around the opportunity with Outback in the large SUV [segment], where 70 per cent of the market is diesel – and 90 per cent of that is diesel automatic – we haven't played in that space. And likewise around the rest of the world.
"The biggest upside is with the Outback diesel CVT. There is a Forester manual [diesel] obviously; we have a request into the factory. We would love a diesel Forester; [but] it is not on the model line-up at the moment. I think if we could demonstrate success with the Outback diesel CVT, Nojiri-san [Ryuji Nojiri, Senior Project Manager for Forester] would go back and push the button on the Forester."
But the same diesel/CVT pairing in the Outback would be used for the Forester, which has already been engineered in the current generation for both diesel and CVT – just not together. Diesel and CVT seem like an ideal solution for Outback buyers and only the brave would predict the new drivetrain variants won't sell. The same could be said of a diesel/CVT Forester.
So what's the bet that Nojiri-san's finger is poised to press that button any time now?
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Written byKen Gratton
Our team of independent expert car reviewers and journalists
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