f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Nope I am comparing it to the competition and comparing the model range as a whole. Take away the STI and the range is no great shakes as the competition has caught up and surpassed the Impreza with the plus points if the new diluted Impreza for all men being outwieghed by the plus points of the compeition even in WRX guise.

Sure the STI is faster etc. but even given that it is seen by many as not having the feeling of the older models in the way it delivers that power or feels on the road. Its pedigree if you like. And finally surely anyone would have to admit the looks are an acquired taste.

stuart2008sti

iTrader: (1)

I would not have an 05 the same as you, but the 08 hatch is just fine.

bluenosewrx

iTrader: (2)

Guys,

You are missing the op's point, IM has taken a huge hit and its hit harder than most car companies.

The hatch was a huge gamble to try and temp ppl away from the mainstream hatch makers, ie ford and VW.
IMO it has backfired, i quite like the hatch apart from the front, no matter hopefully ALL car makers will get their sales back.

Mac

Boyakasha

iTrader: (2)

Faster on track, says who?

Bigger inside, yeah but what about the boot!

Not so cheap looking, it looks like a daewoo so monumental fail there

scooby jay

[quote=scooby L;8684649]Taken from the AA website

Or are they wrong because they do not agree with you either?

""We are seeing people switching to cheaper models to mitigate the impact of higher vehicle excise duty, record petrol prices and the credit crisis."

The big losers are the cars in the middle range, especially mid-sized saloons with large petrol engines such as the Ford Mondeo, Vauxhall Vectra and Renault Laguna. According to the SMMT, new-car registrations in the lower and upper-medium sector are down 11,009 year-on-year. "

"However, this year's new-car registrations for April number 859,017, slightly up on the same period last year. The market has been buoyed by the public and fleets buying smaller cars, often diesels with smaller engines, in response to new emission-related taxes"

Now... read it and try to understand[/quote

Well i work for a big ford main dealer at there pdi centre and i can say in our compound at the moment its full of fiestas and ka,s we have one or two mondeos 3 focus thats about it i havent pdi ed a mondeo for ages all thats selling at the moment is fiesta s out of about 100 cars sold 70 to 80 will be fiesta s and if you want a zetec s theres a waiting list

Mikkel

There can be no denying that the current model Impreza has been a flop in the UK, but that is not the sole or indeed main cause for IMs problems. As pointed out it is of course the global recession that his hit them hard. That added to the type of cars the make.

I don't think the hatch is the future for Subaru and I hope they come up with something better sooner rather than later. Rather that than they go under or withdraw from the European market all together.

zedder17

subarus biggest mistake was to pull out of the wrc, if they could have made the impreza hatchback a bit more succesful a lot more people would have accepted the new shape, afterall subaru had already made a niche market for themselves with the wrx / sti models ,why do you think their is so many world rally blue scoobies knocking about? when with every other manufactures cars best sellin colour has been silver!! they need to concentrate on farmers and speed freaks and forget about all the other run of the mill models because trying to compete with the fords and other euro manufacturers will get them in deep crap!!

John Hughes

Yet again the anti-hatch brigade sits high on their mountain top looking down on the scum who blight their beautiful world, those awful Scooby hatch drivers! They have no taste, no opinion and worst of all no boot!

If nobody's buying the hatch, and you never see any on the road, how can they cause so much hurt? Easily explained by some, it’s because it’s ugly, but only from the front, back, side and underneath. It looks like a Daewoo or a Mazda, but only the horrible cheap ones. It apparently eats dealers for breakfast but not farmers. It might be fast – but "says who?"?? And now we can add to the list, the hatch has gone and caused the world’s current financial problems.

So much time and effort is spent passionately debating the hatch by the very people who propose not to like, don't want and don't care for the car. I’ve gave up wondering why it causes such a stir, so I’m away out for a drive in the best looking and performing car I’ve ever owned (only in my humble scum like opinion – of course).

abc

I've yet to meet (in the flesh as opposed to encountering them on here) a single person who says they dislike the looks of the new STI. People go into a consenting-adults-in-private, confessional mode: "Well, I know what people say, but actually, I think it looks good". They usually begin or end by saying "...but I don't like the new WRX", and nor do I. (Not that I own a hatch -- though I would replace our 05 WRX PPP with a new STI when they've got the bugs out of it.)

Interesting to speculate what would have happened to sales in the UK if we'd had Meeke in the WRC in a new shape Impreza...

The rookie

iTrader: (1)

Where do you get that from, from someone who is actually 'in the industry' its just not true, the new CO2 limits will reduce the number of true performance vehicles to a number that can be managed to get the right CO2 result, and you will see more of the 'warm hatch' variety (still many hot hatches are driven by those who only needed a warm one in the first place!), but performance cars will remain.

Back in about 2003, 85% of IMG's sales of impreza's were turbo's, in the rest of the world it was about 15%! You can't expect Subaru to tailor its models just for the UK market of course, but its clear that between them and IMG the have created a demand (for the performance impreza's we want to buy, rather than the ones they are making available) they can't supply, and a supply of cars with no demand (in the UK).....I agree the Impreza 4-door from the US should come here!

Simon

mrtheedge2u2

Sorry if this has been said previously but if IMG want to increase their ranges to more people then the first thing that should be a priority is looks.

The first thing people, especially people who do not know much about grip, lateral g-forces etc, look as is the asthetics of the car.

scooby L

Subaru also have a huge issue with their global CO2 emission level.

Most of their models are high up the co2 chart, the more cars they export in that bracket, the higher their company co2 emmision rating.

They will be pushing the Diesel & lower power models now to reduce that figure I'm sure. My local importer isn't even buying Subaru's in, the Yen's too strong to make it worth while.

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

As I suspected.

SPG

Ok I admit a bit of a sweeping statement, I'm in the industry too, selling performance cars as it happens, i'm starting to get very down hearted from things like fuel rises, road tax at £400 plus and soon a £1000 showroom tax, less and less people are paying attention to these types of car, hence talk of performance cars being "taxed" off the roads.

Chris.B

iTrader: (4)

Ya know what I mean

I think it will grow on most people given time - which it already has for some (me included).

BMWhere?

Which is exactly why they produced the hatch in the first place!

Face reality people, the scooby is an UGLY car and always has been!!! The majority of the people look at scoobies and laugh at its ugliness and make jokes about the pen1s size of their owner with their big spoilers and gold wheels!

At the end of the day, we might think the scooby looks great, but to the majority of the world it's just chav! I've happily driven 3 fugly scoobies over the last 11 years, really not giving a damn what other people think because its a great car and makes me smile every time I drive it.

Now I own a hatch, I finally have a car that my friends aren't embarrased to be seen in, and yet to drive its still the same great scooby - dare I say even better.

Just take a look during you're next drive - count how many cars you see with huge spoilers on the boot and tacky plastic scoops on the bonnet and compare that to how many bland looking hatchbacks you see!

Face reality - the hatch impreza may not be set to win any beauty awards, but to the majority of people out there its a massive improvement to the previous versions!

Don't get me wrong, I love the look of the old scoobies, I wouldn't have bought 2 classics and a new age if I didn't, but I accept that's my taste and not the taste of the vast majority of people!

As for IM, If they go bust its their own fault! They are an independent importer at the end of the day and have been overpricing for years! Clearly the cars could (and should) be cheaper otherwise all the other gray importers wouldn't have a business! If they do go under, Subaru will just appoint another official importer and business will be as usual, only maybe the new importer will do a better job and not rip off the customers.

The people who should really be worrying are the gray importers. IM have made their life easy, a new official importer could be a huge threat!

pacenote

Spot on.. don't forget IM import brands other than Subaru.

LOL at how quick this thread degenerated into Impreza hatch bashing.....

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Hardly bashing, like it or not it hasn't exactly been a success in the UK at least. As someone pointed out it wasn't selling well compared to previous generations of the Impreza even before the recession took hold. Factor in the recession and its not hard to see why Subaru's sales are so low.

NormantheDog

When it was first introduced sales of the Bug-eye were pretty bad hence the quick make over that happened but can't remember how long that was. Haven't been any make overs for the Hatch yet but that could be lack of funds or maybe they are concentrating on the new Legacy / Forester?

scoobyboy

i.m is an importer they have no say in how the car looks

Simon C

IM isn't bringing any more in either for the same reason.

Besides, it means I won't meet many boxer diesels

+Doc+

Subaru will go bust, stock up on parts cause they will go though the roof!

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

MAF sensors, come and get your MAF sensors...

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

The April figures are out:

Year to date Subaru market share has slipped from 0.26 % of the UK market to 0.16% - a nasty drop.

Sales are down 55% on last year.

Only major manufacturer worse than that is Mitsubishi and Renault are on a par.

SMMT UK: Motor Industry Sustainability, Competitiveness, Legislation, Technology, Globalisation, Retail Distribution, Education

urban

iTrader: (1)

I don't know if its faster or not - do you?

You think the boot is now smaller?
We'll it probably is, but the beauty is you'll be able to fit more in now because I'd assume you can fold the rear seats down.
You can't exactly fit that much in the boot of the newage or classic cars anyway.

Re: the cheap daewoo comments.

What a lot of shyte you speak boy

I don't own one myself.
Mainly because I'm happy with my MY05 STI and because its wise to hold onto a few quid during these difficult times.

I might be tempted to buy one next year though, assuming things all settle down again.

Shaun

+Doc+

I find my boot quite large actually?

urban

iTrader: (1)

I'm only speaking from personal experience of taking rubbish from my garage to the dump.

I've had to make several runs in my car, having to spend additional time cutting boxes up to make them fit whereas in my wifes car - fold down the back seats fire it all in and away you go.

Simon C

The boot on my classic was never big enough for the stuff I carry. Least with my 09 I can fold the 40% seat down.

PantsUK

iTrader: (1)

All of the above reasons for the slump must be right in one way or another. Personally I think changing to the hatch was a mistake but the shape has grown on me a little.

I've test driven one and it certainly didn't pull or handle as well as my 06 STI hawk with PPP (premods), now obviously the hatch I drove didn't have PPP but that shouldn't affect the handling although they may improve performance.

My main issue and the reason why I'm bothering to post is people saying it's got more interior space. Well from the drivers seat it just doesn't. As a 6ft 6 bloke I can tell you there's more available driver space in an hawk than a hatch simple as that. If you're referring to rear space I wouldn't know I don't sit there and as I'm the owner/driver I think that my space is more important.

The hatch boot is also smaller (to my untrained eye) and yes with a hatch you can flop the seats down but if I'd have wanted a 2 seater with a boot I'd have bought something all together different. The boot on a newage is massive, no not estate big but I can fit everything my 6 month old needs in the boot + shopping + pram + fuel can + have plenty of room spare so to me that's fairly big!

On a +point the seats are really good! ........ big deal

Simon C

The rear leg room on the hatch is larger than a hawk, compairing the boot length of a friends hawk to my hatch, the hatch is about 3 - 4 inch shorter.

1 thing I have noticed between my 96 classic and my htach is the tunnel is higher and wider in the hatch making the driver feel like there is less room, also with the dash being deeper and higher the driving position is closer to the B pillar.