The Subaru SVX World Network   SVX Network Forums
Live Chat!
SVX or Subaru Links
Old Lockers
Photo Post
How-To Documents
Message Archive
SVX Shop Search
IRC users:

Go Back   The Subaru SVX World Network > SVX Main Forums > General SVX Babble

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 04-16-2001, 01:00 PM
alanscouse
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
The attached item from Automotive News is interesting , it might give us a better format for feeding back comments on the SVX tranny ( note no profanity is allowed !) .
Alan.



< Edmunds opens another Web door for carmakers


Ralph Kisiel
March 19, 2001

Edmunds.com is offering automakers a customized entrance page to its Town Hall Community, an area on the Edmunds site where consumers share their opinions on vehicles and other automotive topics

So far, one automaker, Subaru, has struck an agreement with Edmunds to create a page on its Web site at www.subaru.com. It is expected to go live in early April.

On the page, Subaru owners and prospective buyers will be able to read and post remarks about Subaru vehicles, find detailed information on Subaru vehicles and participate in chats.

It also will feature a monthly Subaru consumer poll and an area for Subaru press releases and brand information.

``Our owners are already going to Edmunds.com, so why not try and leverage that interest,'' said Tim Colbeck, director of e-business at Subaru of America Inc.

``Our research has shown that our customers are very, very tuned in to independent information sites like Edmunds.''

The page will contain the Subaru corporate logo and will be branded ``Subaru Community powered by Edmunds.com.''

Subaru held a successful Web chat on its 2002 Impreza WRX sedan and sport wagon on Edmunds.com during the Detroit auto show in January, Colbeck said. It has proved to be a good medium for Subaru, he said.

The customized page is part of a package of products and services Subaru is buying from Edmunds. Edmunds will charge a one-time setup fee and a monthly hosting and maintenance fee for automakers that only want the customized page.

Edmunds is talking to other automakers about the customized entrance pages, said Jeremy Anwyl, president of Edmunds.com.

Edmunds does monitor the Town Hall Community for profanity, but otherwise does not edit the comments made by consumers. >
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 04-16-2001, 01:06 PM
alanscouse
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
New GM/Subaru vehicle

Another item from Automotive News .

GM, Subaru zero in on new vehicle


Yuzo Yamaguchi
March 19, 2001

TOKYO - General Motors and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. are nailing down plans for a jointly developed vehicle that could enter production at Subaru's Indiana plant by 2004 or 2005

The vehicle, a sport wagon to be badged for both companies, would be the first concrete result of the alliance the two formed in December 1999, when GM bought a 20 percent stake in Fuji, the maker of Subaru cars. They have been promising close cooperation ever since but have provided few details.

``This year is the year when we should act with our partners,'' Takeshi Tanaka, Fuji's president, told reporters in January when he announced Subaru's 2001 sales plan.

At the Los Angeles auto show in January, GM showed an all-wheel-drive rally car concept that uses the Subaru Legacy platform and a 2.0-liter Subaru engine. It's not clear how much influence that concept, the Chevrolet Borrego, will have on the joint sport wagon.

A GM international spokesman in Detroit last week referred all questions on the joint venture to GM Asia headquarters in Singapore, which did not respond by Friday, March 16. But according to a Subaru source, the two companies are close to agreement after several days of intensive discussions in Detroit.

The broad outline of the joint project was clear before the Detroit meetings began. It calls for a sport wagon in the traditional Subaru mode: lower to the ground than a sport-utility, with all-wheel drive and powered by a Subaru 6-cylinder horizontally opposed engine.

The vehicle will not be a behemoth. The engine is expected to be about 3 liters displacement, in line with a projected downsizing trend in the U.S. market.

Fuji initially aims to sell between 24,000 and 36,000 of the vehicles a year under its own brand in the U.S. market, said Hideo Wada, Fuji's senior vice president in charge of overseas sales. He added that he hoped the sales target could be doubled.

The vehicle would debut in three or four years.

What badge and where?

Two key questions remain and were among the main points of last week's talks: what GM badges the vehicle will wear and where it will be built.

Wada says that labeling the car as a Saab or a Pontiac rather than a Chevrolet makes the most sense. Saab and Pontiac would be more consistent with the premium nature of the Subaru brand, he said.

``Chevrolet is a mass brand,'' Wada said. ``The purpose of our alliance is to get the most out of Subaru's features.''

Giving the car a premium brand also would allow higher pricing. ``Subaru's powertrain is expensive, and they need a prestige badge to pay that off,'' said Takaki Nakanishi, an analyst at Merrill Lynch Japan Inc.

``Subaru has a strong brand image in the United States,'' said Koji Endo, an analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston. ``Their cars appeal to conservative people with a high income.''

Endo thinks the jointly developed wagon could be on par with the Honda CR-V and Toyota RAV4.

An ambitious plan

The Subaru side favors building the new model at Subaru-Isuzu Automotive Inc., a Lafayette, Ind., joint venture between Fuji and Isuzu Motors Ltd.

The plant makes the Subaru Legacy and Isuzu Rodeo.

Furthermore, ``SIA already is experienced in making the engine,'' Wada said.

Subaru has an ambitious plan to boost sales in the United States by 40 percent to 240,000 units in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2005.

That sales target does not include the GM-Subaru vehicles, so it could jump if the project goes ahead earlier than planned.

To achieve the target, Fuji will boost annual output at its Lafayette plant by roughly 70 percent to 162,000 by March 2005 at a cost of some $150 million at current exchange rates.

The factory expansion covers higher output of existing vehicles, not the new sport wagon. Subaru will have to expand Subaru-Isuzu Automotive capacity further if it adds the new vehicle to the mix.

That should not be a problem, because the Subaru-Isuzu Automotive plant occupies less than 10 percent of the site.

A good choice

Analysts agreed that the plant is a good choice to build the GM-Subaru vehicle, because the investment will be less than if a GM plant were tooled to build it.

``I'm 100 percent sure they will make it at SIA,'' said Tsuyoshi Mochimaru, an analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson in Tokyo.

Looking ahead, some analysts speculate that GM or Fuji could take over the plant entirely by buying Isuzu's 49 percent stake.

Last year, Isuzu made 100,000-plus Rodeos and other models there. But it lost $22 million on its sport-utilities, half of its total losses from North American operations in the six months that ended Sept. 30.

GM, which owns 49 percent of Isuzu, has been suggesting publicly that its struggling Japanese partner should drop its unprofitable businesses.

``Clearly, Isuzu must consider immediately exiting models and businesses that are unprofitable and which do not appear likely to return to profitability in the very near future,'' Rudy Schlais, head of GM's Asia-Pacific operations, told analysts in Detroit last month.

Isuzu has shrugged off the suggestion. It plans to roll out a new sport-utility, the Axiom, at the Lafayette plant in April and aims to produce 2,000 a month.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 04-18-2001, 11:05 AM
Jaylinb
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Unhappy Re: New GM/Subaru vehicle

Quote:
Originally posted by alanscouse
...when GM bought a 20 percent stake in Fuji, the maker of Subaru cars...
NNNOOOOOOOO!

Quote:
...not clear how much influence that concept, the Chevrolet Borrego, will have on the joint sport wagon...
AAARRRGGGGHHHH!

Quote:
...GM, which owns 49 percent of Isuzu...
BLEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!


<Jaylin runs screaming from the room.>
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 04-18-2001, 12:03 PM
zsvx
Guest
 
Posts: n/a
Re: Re: New GM/Subaru vehicle

Quote:
Originally posted by Jaylinb


NNNOOOOOOOO!



AAARRRGGGGHHHH!



BLEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!


<Jaylin runs screaming from the room.>
ditto.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:43 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
© 2001-2015 SVX World Network
(208)-906-1122