New Impreza Sales Exceed Target by 2.8 Times

Subaru stated April 3rd that sales of the new Subaru Impreza have exceeded projections by 2.8 times since it was announced November 30th, 2011. Despite a sales target of 2,200 units a month, the new Impreza has managed to shift 8,800 units per month over the last four months.

Now regular readers will recall that I have my suspicions about the regularity with which new model sales exceed makers’ expectations — conveniently generating positive headlines like this one. So who knows… maybe the new Impreza is a genuine success, or perhaps this is all just a marketing con.

Anyway the breakdown of the popularity of different models and options is interesting:

• 74.7% of customers choose the Sport (5-door hatchback), with only 25.3% choosing the G4 (4-door sedan)
• The most popular model is the 1.6-L (29.6%), followed by the 2.0i EyeSight (at 21.5%) and 2.0i-S EyeSight (at 20.1%)
• Being Subarus, most buyers (62.2%) opt for 4W.

“EyeSight” is Subaru’s proprietary pre-crash safety system that is also offered on the Legacy in Japan. This EyeSight feature is one of the main attractions driving sales for this new Impreza. Other draws for customers according to Subaru are the way the car drives, and the interior and exterior styling.

Sources: MyNavi.jp (Japanese-language)