SVX Rear Strut - Dated 9/12/08 - 2008 looks like an SVX Part Stock-Up Year

[kwren]

Originally Posted by Blacky

Brand loyalty is an extremely important factor in marketing and nowhere more so than the auto industry. If making a few new parts for a few thousand owners of an obscure Subaru model (SVX) means they buy another Subaru, then they've accomplished their goal. If these owners then tell all their friends and family how great Subaru is...

Well said!

Keith

[benebob]

Originally Posted by Blacky

Brand loyalty is an extremely important factor in marketing and nowhere more so than the auto industry. If making a few new parts for a few thousand owners of an obscure Subaru model (SVX) means they buy another Subaru, then they've accomplished their goal. If these owners then tell all their friends and family how great Subaru is...

Problem is, the typical buyer of the SVX is not the typical Subaru person. They didn't sell the SVX at WalMart. Subaru's current line up I'm not so sure about. A friend just picked up his new Impreza work car. Called me to ***** about cheap plastic, noise, poor ride and lack of quality components 20 minutes into his first drive. FTR his last two vehicles were an Audi A-3 and a Land Rover Disco. Not exactly the toughest competition.

[Green1995SVX]

Originally Posted by benebob

Problem is, the typical buyer of the SVX is not the typical Subaru person. They didn't sell the SVX at WalMart. Subaru's current line up I'm not so sure about. A friend just picked up his new Impreza work car. Called me to ***** about cheap plastic, noise, poor ride and lack of quality components 20 minutes into his first drive. FTR his last two vehicles were an Audi A-3 and a Land Rover Disco. Not exactly the toughest competition.

The SVX is unlike any other Subaru, and most people who bought the SVX new moved on to Porsche, Audi, BMW, and other cars which are more comparable. Subaru tried the premium thing with our cars. It didn't work well for them, so they're making mass-produced crap boxes now.

[kwren]

Originally Posted by Green1995SVX

The SVX is unlike any other Subaru, and most people who bought the SVX new moved on to Porsche, Audi, BMW, and other cars which are more comparable. Subaru tried the premium thing with our cars. It didn't work well for them, so they're making mass-produced crap boxes now.

If you take a look at all brands of cars manufactured today, you will find that Subaru does not have a monopoly on plastic...

The plastic is what gives them all that "new car smell"
Keith

[dcarrb]

Originally Posted by dbarnblatt

Now, I started to look for this 10 year rule for parts supply and I can't seem to find it anywhere. I've only heard of this "law." I never bothered to try to track in down and for the life of me I can't find it. DOT, Fed. Reg. Code, Etc. can't find anything. Any help here is welcomed... maybe it is a myth.

I've never heard of any law requiring an automaker to maintain replacement parts inventories for 10 years (or 10 days), and second the invitation for anyone to cite evidence to support this.

dcb

[kwren]

Originally Posted by dcarrb

I've never heard of any law requiring an automaker to maintain replacement parts inventories for 10 years (or 10 days), and second the invitation for anyone to cite evidence to support this.

dcb

Decades ago it was made a federal law and it was for 7 years. I have no Idea if that is still the case.

Before the federal government got involved the "good replacement parts for several decades but when the gestapo took it over, the company's said 7 years... OK

Keith

[lhopp77]

Originally Posted by LetItSnow

OK, I'm gonna go out on a limb with this one - tell me why in the world Subaru would find it rational to make (or sub out) a limited production of decals? Tell me how that makes any sort of sense?

I'm going to go out on a limb on this one---tell me why in the world Subaru would repackage parts with a misleading date???? Get real guys.

(Yes, I know, 9/11 was a huge government conspiracy, )

Lee

[benebob]

Originally Posted by lhopp77

I'm going to go out on a limb on this one---tell me why in the world Subaru would repackage parts with a misleading date???? Get real guys.

(Yes, I know, 9/11 was a huge government conspiracy, )

Lee

Possibly for the same reason as Big Red. A change in there inventory catalog. It makes just as much sense as supporting a dead car with less than 8k worldwide still on the road. This is the time that most clubs would be looking into buying the tooling to make the parts. To bad there isn't an SVX club working to do this... or even an SVX club.

[LetItSnow]

Originally Posted by lhopp77

tell me why in the world Subaru would repackage parts with a misleading date????

We just covered this; NOS with new labels on their Pick (or Pack) date makes a hell of a lot more sense than tooling up for an ultra limited production of decals. You can deny that it may be the case, but it's quite rational, entirely possible, and certainly more likely.

Hey, I concede. Have a nice pipe dream.

[lhopp77]

Makes no sense at all considering product liability. Get real.

Lee

[benebob]

Originally Posted by lhopp77

Makes no sense at all considering product liability. Get real.

Lee

Brilliant. Lee says we can now sue over packed dates. The Brits will be even more willing to ship over stuff without the fear of friv. lawsuits. Where is that damn lawyer's number. I got some free money waiting for me.

[Cam]

All they would say is P date means something other than production date. Nowhere on the package is production date stated. Anything here is simply a guess, or a rational observation. I'm with the ones who say that it makes no sense to set up to make a limited number of parts. It just doesn't make sense from a manufacturing point of view.

Would be nice if they made some new parts for us. I doubt that will ever happen unless the parts cross over to a current model, and less of that will happen with the new generation boxer engine they are designing.

[lhopp77]

Originally Posted by Cam

All they would say is P date means something other than production date. Nowhere on the package is production date stated.

You are right. On the strut label there is nothing mentioned about a P date whether it means Production or Packaged. It just clearly has a date that would lead NORMAL buyers to expect that to be the production date. In answer to Binibub, I did not say you could sue over a false production date. What I clearly stated was that the implications of a possible production date expectation COULD lead to a litigation situation. IF there was a catastrophic failure of one of these items there could be a very strong case that the company indicated or at least implied a new late production item and led the customer to believe that this was the case.

Remember good old Ford and the Pinto. Nearly any gas tank at that time would rupture IF hit in the rear at 50 MPH. That was not the case really litigated. The case was based on the fact that Ford KNEW this and still produced the car. It did not matter that all other car gas tanks would do pretty much do the same. In summary the Pinto was as safe as over 80 percent of the cars on the road at the time, but Ford had placed themselves in a litagatory situation by running tests and making a record of this rupture being possible.

Subaru is making a record of a new production or at least implied new production date. If there was a catastrophic failure and it was determined that these were old possibly faulty items and only repackaged--they have mislead the customer and open the way for some lawyers to get rich.

Just my opinion.

Lee

[icingdeath88]

Is there any way we could maybe ask someone at Subaru and get this figured out? Speculation is going to get us nowhere.

[North Ursalia]

Having worked for Subaru, I can tell you that the P date is closer to a pack date than a pick date, but it is neither really. It is the date that the item was received into inventory stateside (thus being close to a "pack date", but not the original one at time of manufacture. In the case of the US warehouses, this would be the date they received the parts into inventory from Fuji Heavy and labeled the part individually for sale to dealerships.

Unfortunately, this can mean these are truly NOS parts that hit a particular US warehouse in 2008, or it could mean that there was enough demand for a small run of them and are new from 2008. Not 100% sure about the SVX struts, but in my days @ Subaru (up until about 2006) struts had serial numbers on them. If this is the case with the SVX struts, comparing say a very late model production 97's serial numbers with the ones from a new set would tell you if they were manufactured after the 'normal' production run would have ended.

IE: if the late model 97 struts say SN 100200300 and the new struts say 100400300, you know the struts are at least from after the 97 models. If the SN is lower, it is definitely old stock that had been hanging around in Japan somewhere.