Escaping The Dead Zone

The dead zone between mainstream and entry level premium is the automotive equivalent of the friend zone, an area which no brand wants to occupy. You cars are generally nicer than those of regular mainstream brands and correspondingly priced a little higher than the popular competition. Your badge isn't worth much though and therefore your sales aren't that much better than some full price luxury brands. It isn't hard to see that this is not a great recipe for financial windfall for a brand as your profit per each car sold is on the low side and you aren't doing volume either. It's an area that most brands avoid and consequently there are only a few brands that find themselves trapped in this area. Over the past few years the three brands trapped in this area have all made efforts to escape and grow their sales, let's see how well they have done.

Volkswagen: Compact 62%, Midsize 22%, CUV 7% of Market Leader

Volkswagen is the world's best selling brand outside of America by a million or two (literally) and to jumpstart its US operations the brand recently went very mainstream with its core products, the Jetta and Passat. Closest to entry premium of the trio in their last generations there is no denying that both models were cheapened both figuratively and literally as Volkswagen moved down market, cut the price of admission at retail but also made obvious sacrifices to get there. The immediate payoff was fantastic for Volkswagen as the Jetta and Passat posted their best sales ever in a then still recovering marketplace. VW's progress has since stalled against fresh competition even with VW retreating back from most of the ruthless cost cutting. There is hope though as the USDM (and China) Passat is a better effort than the Jetta and its upcoming crossover looks promising to be an even better made for America product. Here's to hoping it arrives while crossovers are still a trend.

Subaru: The Most Baffling Brand In America

As a fan of excellent design this blog is an ardent supporter of the idea that if you make a great design they will come. A great design will usually yield benefits in sales for the brand and it doesn't even have to be beautiful, a properly boxy SUV or pickup can work just as well. With that in mind this blog was a pretty big fan of the fourth generation (2003-2009) Subaru Legacy and Outback. Featuring a crisp and sophisticated design far beyond your standard midsize, the Legacy could have passed as a near premium product. Its Subaru signature all wheel drive, decent interior and stronger than usual available engines let it play in a niche between mainstream and entry level luxury. Unfortunately for Subaru that generation had niche sales figures as well. A funny thing happened next, Subaru design deserted the brand but its sales have surged ever since. It's not hard to figure out the design direction of almost any brand as some lean towards bold, outrageous and swoopy. Others are clean, sharp and lean towards conservative while others still are boxy and purposeful. Subaru design direction on the other hand is impossible to read, its cars lack true beauty, clean lines nor do they make a bold statement. The brand has just enough awkwardness sprinkled throughout to separate itself from mainstream. The Subaru redesign philosophy seems to consist of blowing up its cars in every dimension and adding enough random jagged lines to meet a mandated quota. There are definitely some very redeeming qualities about Subaru that have certainly helped its surging sales over the past few years but it baffles this blog to see Subaru so hot with so little eye towards design*. Nevertheless it certainly looks like Subaru knows what it's doing in the US as it successfully escapes the sales dead zone between mainstream and luxury.

Subaru Shows Profile Of Its Next Impreza

While the next generation Impreza didn't quite make our New York Auto Show top five list, Subaru nevertheless will be debuting the next Impreza in New York. When the previous generation Impreza was unveiled at the 2007 New York Auto Show the initial reaction was far from positive with the majority of the complaints centering around the sedan version. This time around Subaru has decided to give the Impreza a miniaturized Legacy design featuring more prominent wheel arches and a Hofmeister kink style C-pillar. From the teaser image it also appears that the Impreza will use Legacy inspired tail and headlights. Overall the new Impreza features a much better design than the squished look of the outgoing model. Though better overall it does gain an awkward A-pillar window reminiscent, but not nearly as bad, as the one on the Suzuki SX4. Subaru is promising that the Impreza will be the most fuel efficient all wheel drive car in America and will deliver 36 mpg on the highway. Subaru will likely introduce its new 2 liter boxer four to achieve that figure. Stay tuned for the New York Auto Show in two weeks to see the next Impreza from all sides and angles and a final verdict on its new styling.

LA Autoshow Favorites

With the LA Autoshow behind us it's time to take a look at the best production and concept cars from the show. The list of production models making their debut was significant. Chrysler and Dodge unveiled significantly updated versions of their mid-size sedans and minivans along with the new Durango and Charger. Nissan unveiled its new Quest minivan along with the first convertible crossover in the Murano CrossCabriolet. The Buick LaCrosse with E Assists is interesting as well as it promises high fuel economy from a mild hybrid system. Nevertheless, the CLS 63 AMG takes the best production debut category with its matte paint, huge power, and bold styling. The original CLS is widely known as a styling icon, and it appears that the second generation CLS, at least in the AMG form, does not disappoint.








Mercedes Benz CLS63, click to enlarge

On the concept side, he Subaru Impreza Concept and the Nissan Ellure take the honors as best concepts. Both concepts aim to give the public a preview of how their future production sedans will look like. The Impreza concept gives a good preview of how the next Impreza sedan should look like minus the typical show car elements. While Nissan says that the Ellure concept is not a preview of any specific model in its lineup, don't be surprised to see some of its styling elements in the next Sentra and Altima.



Subaru Impreza Concept



Nissan Ellure Concept