Subaru BRZ online sales double

Subaru's decision to offer its BRZ sports car exclusively for online sale has been a huge success for the manufacturer.

Facebook and Twitter went into overdrive when news emerged on the weekend that Subaru would sell its car via the web, and just three hours after going on sale, all 2012 stock was sold out - 201 cars. Now Subaru claims it has sold around 400 units of the sports coupe via its website.

The BRZ sales website experienced a 5000 per cent spike in traffic that caused it to malfunction on Monday, and Subaru's National Corporate Affairs Manager, David Rowley, revealed that the company has doubled its yearly annual sales of the BRZ in just one week, with online orders for around 400 cars now.

"It's a moveable figure as some of the orders are pending finance, but it's fair to say it's around 400 cars now."

Mr Rowley added that the website "is now working very smoothly" which is helped by the fact that traffic is "not as high as Monday."

And while the result has gifted Subaru more publicity than a regular new car launch, not everyone is happy.

Asked if there was pressure from dealers to return to the showroom sales model for the BRZ, Mr Rowley explained that Subaru Australia's managing director Nick Senior had conducted a roadshow with dealers and experienced mixed responses.

"The reaction [from dealers] was mixed, from acceptance to mild concern in some cases, but we will review it [the online sales process] and as to what the future holds that depends on a wide variety of factors at year's end, really,” Mr Rowley stated.

When we queried Mr Rowley over the fact that some 200 extra sales over and above the cars available in 2012 would mean that the online sales method, by default, would continue in 2013, he parried the question.

"Nick [Senior] said we will review it at the end of the year. And we're not drawing any conclusions until then.

"Obviously there'll be a number of factors to consider not least the likelihood of any supply change from the factory. So once we've taken all that on board we'll make a decision accordingly," he said.

Ultimately Subaru will be hoping to increase its allocation of BRZ coupes in 2013.

"We have a very good relationship with FHI in Japan," said Mr Rowley. "There will be a lot of discussion about the [online sales] process."

The success of the online strategy suggests it would be logical for Subaru to employ it for other low volume vehicles such as the WRX STI. But the company claims it won't happen.

"Nick [Senior] has been very clear. This a one-off, due to the unique circumstance with the BRZ," Mr Rowley began.

"We really looked at a variety of options and this seemed the fairest all round -- fairest to the customers most importantly and fairest to the [dealer] network," he said.

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