That's exactly the point - we just released the '17 Forester info. Can we at least get the cars out before you guys start speculating about what's going on the NEXT model?
Read and parse the way the press releases are written. The Global Platform will be under all NEW Subaru models. The 2018 Forester won't be a new model, presuming that Subaru keeps with their 5 year body style history. And since Subaru has a philosophy of if it's not broke, don't fix it.
So, we'll see the Impreza this fall with the 2017's on the global platform - which makes sense, since the 2017 Imprezas for U.S. consumption are supposed to be made in the U.S. That's the whole POINT of the global platform - if they run into an issue in Japan, they can make and ship some from Indiana overseas, or vice-versa. Since there's no plans to bring Forester production over here, why rush it?
By the same token, Outbacks are made in both countries - and they've already said it's also going to be on a global platform, just a bigger one than the Impreza. Again, though, as conservative as Subaru is, I don't foresee them doing that until the new Outback model in 2020.
That's one thing I don't think you guys grasp, just how conservative Subaru as a company really is. It was a HUGE gamble for them to join forces with Isuzu to start the plant here. And when we had more than a 300 day supply of Legacy sedans sitting all over Indiana, they were apologizing to us left and right, and we honestly feared for our jobs. And they've shot themselves in the foot more than once over the years. SVX and Tribeca, anyone?
Actually, I tell my customers that really, we've been doing 3 things for the past 40 years. Building as safe a car as possible, as reliable a car as possible, and up until just a few years ago, as ugly a car as possible. And that last thing is what we've changed - we don't build ugly cars anymore. And that's why we can't keep them on the lot.
An average dealer should have about 60 days of inventory on their lot. We typically have less than 3 weeks of inventory. For certain models, we have ZERO inventory on hand - they're ALL made to order, or anything we have in the pipeline is sold before it gets to the dealership.
Now, Subaru could throw a huge chunk of money at the problem and go overboard trying to fix it. They've thrown a huge chunk of money at it - but they're scaling things up, not betting the whole thing on one car. (Think about what happened to Toyota a few years back. And we're a SMALL car company compared to them.) So if I fire up my crystal ball, I see us continuing to grow, and continuing to have increased sales with some growing pains, for many more years to come.