Subaru BRZ Japanese Market Deliveries Pushed to Next Year

[yajin]

According to some discussion forums by Japanese pre-orderers, they are told by a dealer that the bottleneck of the delay is the shortage of parts; especially 17" aluminum-alloy wheels, Michelin Primacy HP tires and fog lights......

[novee]

Originally Posted by Longhorn248

Why should dealers "enjoy a little of the success" if they had absolutely zero to do with the development of the car? They have nothing invested in the whole process and are simply a means to and end in order to get the cars to customers. The dealers should just be happy that the manufacturers don't sell cars directly.

This is gonna sound like a shill answer but good dealers are worth the premium, IMO.

Unfortunately, it takes a lot of time and money to find a dealership with good people in it for the long haul. If you're not a "regular", then you've got no intel to go on...

[Allch Chcar]

So much for a Niche car. Maybe they found the sweet spot for price?

Originally Posted by denkigrve

This article is funny because it got it's article from here:
http://www.autoblog.com/2012/03/19/s...-86-and-scion/

...

The irony is this is Autoblog's source: FT86club.

The original source is here: Yahoo.

[aethelwulf]

Originally Posted by brufleth

They can charge what they want but will have to contend with other dealers who don't want to mark-up for whatever reason. Many people would rather wait a bit than pay much of a mark-up. Some dealers just don't want to sour deals with potential customers by tacking on a mark-up. I'm sure there will be mark-ups on people looking to buy late. I'm probably still well over a year from buying a BRZ (I won't order something I haven't driven or even seen in person yet) and I won't pay a mark-up. I can wait.

I agree, dealers can charge whatever they want. While I'm not going to pay over MSRP, it is their right to charge more. It's on the customer to make the decision not to buy from a dealer that charges over MSRP. What I cannot abide is any sort of bait and switch tactics.

Originally Posted by Longhorn248

Why should dealers "enjoy a little of the success" if they had absolutely zero to do with the development of the car? They have nothing invested in the whole process and are simply a means to and end in order to get the cars to customers. The dealers should just be happy that the manufacturers don't sell cars directly.

To play devil's advocate...
They did buy a franchise from whatever manufacturer they are selling. As a result they bought a certain product line that they thought would be profitable to sell. If people are willing to pay over MSRP for what they have why shouldn't they sell it for as much as possible? It's a business not a charity. Now doing so may hurt their reputation and drive customers away as well, so it's a double edged sword.

[switchlanez]

They've only been building for a month (production started mid-March). It's about a 2 month turn-around-time from the start of building one car to its landing on a US lot. With that, only month #1 out of the 7 month US launch orders will likely be delivered on time. More US units could be delivered on time if the Gunma plant feverishly built US cars EXCLUSIVELY this past month (I doubt it).

Also, if they found some sort of issue in the first batch, it would push back all orders, including US. Highly unlikely but possible.

[Longhorn248]

Originally Posted by aethelwulf

I agree, dealers can charge whatever they want. While I'm not going to pay over MSRP, it is their right to charge more. It's on the customer to make the decision not to buy from a dealer that charges over MSRP. What I cannot abide is any sort of bait and switch tactics.



To play devil's advocate...
They did buy a franchise from whatever manufacturer they are selling. As a result they bought a certain product line that they thought would be profitable to sell. If people are willing to pay over MSRP for what they have why shouldn't they sell it for as much as possible? It's a business not a charity. Now doing so may hurt their reputation and drive customers away as well, so it's a double edged sword.

I never said they shouldn't sell it for as much as possible, basic economics should keep most dealerships in check since the consumer has the freedom to choose where they shop. I agree that it's a business to make money, but in the age of the internet I think price markups will be more detrimental in the long run versus the quick cash they can pump out of a customer right now.

[Spaceywilly]

this isn't really news... they already said that Subaru will only build a limited number of BRZs this year, and the rest will be Toyotas or Scions. All they are saying is that those have all sold out in Japan. It won't have any effect on this year's US allocation, although if the US demand is weak it means we probably will get less next year and they will build more for Japan.

[Merlin]

Maybe they should reduce the MSRP as they can still make enough profit thru more volume.

Cliff
369 "sts civic"

[Leepox]

This car is more practical than an MX-5/S2000/370z. Thats the main reason why I did not buy any of those cars. I can put kids/midget people like me (only 5'7") at the back seats. Or make taller people suffer a cramped situation, but hey if its a 15 minute drive down the road, then its already useful as it is. Plus I can put tyres in there if I need to go on a track day.

This is the car I've been waiting for to replace my celica. Honda/nissan/mazda should take a hint and stick to a 2+2. (Yes the Rx8 exists, but that thing uses petrol as mouthwash) A daily driver that can pull off some moves.

Although I'm not gonna have enough funds till 2014 to buy one I'm super thrifty at the moment.

[swift996]

This is good news, when I first saw this project, I thought it might be exactly what the auto industry needs. A resurgence in affordable sports cars. Hopefully this starts a revolution. It's been a long time since one has been able to buy a car worth caring about at a reasonable price point.

[MrBRZ]

Jack Hollis told us one of the benefits of working with Subaru was that Toyota had no space left to produce another new model in their plants. They are at max capacity.

Now Subaru doesn't have the capacity to produce enough. Bummer. Hopefully this leads to more models being produced and in sitting in lots over the long run, in turn keeping prices/parts costs down.

[AVOturboworld]

Originally Posted by denkigrve

Japan is vastly different from the US though. They just spend spend spend. The US is actually a bit more frugal in terms of spending. We save money for retirement. The Japanese just work until they die.

Nooo... Japanese are nowhere near the consumer culture that America is. Most have only one car (if that), and buy nowhere near the same amount of toys that Americans do. You won't walk down any street in Japan and see 3-4 cars, a boat, and an RV all parked in front of the same house. Japanese are so obsessive about saving their money that you get precisely 0% interest on savings accounts there.

The BRZ/FRS is selling well due to the fact it's a 2+2 that looks good, is a Toyota/Subaru, and isn't a Mazda. The rear seats will be too small for Americans, but not for skinny Japanese.

Regards,

Paul Hansen
www.avoturboworld.com
www.facebook.com/BRZSportsCarClub

[ZmZMWagon]

It's all HYPE. The BRZ is not sold out in the U.S. as some of you might think. The sales guy at a local dealership said they only accepted 3 pre-orders and the rest will be for the showroom. They expect to get 15-20 of them. Price gouging will now commence. In Japan there is no "Market Adjustment" that's why these are selling so well.

[dsgerbc]

Originally Posted by Longhorn248

The dealers should just be happy that the manufacturers don't sell cars directly.

Dealer lobby works pretty hard to preserve their exclusive right to new car sales. I don't think, however, that if it was Subaru that was selling cars directly to consumers they wouldn't try to milk first buyers a bit more themselves. And there wouldn't be another dealer to try in that case, just Subaru price for your registration zip-code.