Subaru pins growth hopes on Forester

Subaru Australia says it plans to rebound from its drifting SUV sales on the back of strong customer interest in its high-tech but modestly styled fifth-generation Forester.

The Forester has traditionally been Subaru’s strongest model, selling 12,474 units in 2017, but this year as the previous generation was run out, sales have fallen 29.5 per cent to the end of August compared with the same period last year.

That pushes the Forester down to ninth position on the mid-size SUV ladder this year with 6134 sales, meaning it is now being beaten by the Volkswagen Tiguan (6691) and it is a fraction of the market-leading Mazda CX-5’s 18,679 units.

Subaru Australia managing director Colin Christie believes the new high-riding wagon has the potential to push it to a sales record this year.

He said the latest Forester has the goods to get it back in the top-five list despite intense competition.

Among its rivals in the sub-$60,000 medium SUV segment, this year has seen a new entry in the Skoda Karoq, a revised Jeep Cherokee, Kia Sportage and Hyundai Tucson and a new Volkswagen Tiguan seven-seat variant. Not to mention heavy promotion for an updated Ford Escape and Honda’s refining of the CR-V, including the introduction of an entry-level version.

Subaru Australia managing director Colin Christie believes the new high-riding wagon has the potential to push it to a sales record this year.

Mr Christie said the only stumbling block for a sales revival by Forester was the unpredictable state of the Australian car market.

He said the market, especially in the past few months, had been “extremely challenging” but that the plan ahead was to focus on the brand and concentrate on boosting sales.

“Ultimately, if the market’s not there, we’ll be focused on doing what we need to do for ourselves, so we don’t necessarily spend a lot of time looking at the market and that sort of stuff. We know what the car is capable of and we manage to that,” he said.

He said he remained convinced the SUV sector was the place to be. Subaru sells more than twice the number of SUVs compared with its passenger cars (23,036 units compared with 10,480) and Mr Christie doesn’t see any changes to that formula in the near future.

Mr Christie confirmed young families is Subaru’s prime target for the Forester, but added the existing Forester buyer was loyal and he could see most transitioning to the latest model.

He said the Forester “ticks all the boxes and even more” and believed the larger cabin and boot size of the new car would appeal to families, while the improved driving dynamics and safety would spread interest to other buyer demographics.

The slide in Forester sales this year has put its small SUV sibling, the XV, into the brand’s top sales spot. The XV has this year to date sold 9279 units, making it the segment’s fourth-best seller, with sales up 65.7 per cent to August compared with the same period in 2017.

In other segments, sales of the Outback SUV have lifted almost 30 per cent in August, but the for year to date, is down 4.3 per cent and sits in third spot in the large-SUV class.

Overall, Subaru is down 3.7 per cent for the year in a market that has slide 0.3 per cent compared with 2017. 

Will the new-generation Forester only appeal to Subaru traditionalists or can it attract new buyers? Tell us what you think in the comments below.