Part one of this two-part series concerned the major models the Detroit Three vehicle makers have up their sleeves for 2015. Now we take a look at the other big OEMs.
Toyota Motor Sales USA
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The bad news first: with falling gasoline prices logically comes falling Prius sales, but Scion too is in trouble and no doubt losing TMS USA a decent amount of money. There’s also no rival for the Chevy Trax, 500X, Renegade and Honda HR-V for either brand so if that segment takes off, TMS will be missing out.
Subaru of America, and Volkswagen of America
Anyone who’s outside the US and hasn’t been watching Fuji Heavy Industries’ car division in recent years might raise an eyebrow at the choice to group Subaru of America with VW. But look at the numbers for last month alone: VW lagged Subaru by almost 14,000 cars. You really wouldn’t want to be Volkswagen of America’s boss when Martin Winterkorn makes the call to discuss the previous month’s sales. Sure, for the year to date, VW is way ahead but so it ought to be, with two production plants in the region to just one shared one for Subaru.
This small brand really is big in America. Legacy sales almost doubled in November and don’t be surprised when this car starts outselling the Passat in 2015. It might seem like I am being too hard on Volkswagen but this is one of the world’s largest vehicle manufacturers and it’s being kicked in the teeth month in, month out, by Japan’s smallest OEM.
It gets worse for Volkswagen. Subaru doesn’t have a secret special sauce; what it does have is fresh products and great brand loyalty built up over decades. Next year, its dealers will be receiving a new Tribeca which is effectively an additional model as the old one was discontinued some time back. It should share a lot of its hidden components with Toyota, so it’s likely to generate some very juicy income for Subaru of America, provided it has the right appeal to tempt enough people away from the likes of the new Ford Edge.
There should also be a new Impreza next year as long as Fuji is sticking to the short life cycles that are becoming the norm for its main models. This is also something, incidentally, that Mazda is exploiting to great effect in all its main markets. It’s no coincidence that VW of America has recently been saying that it will shorten its cars’ life cycles to five years from the current seven.
Finally, Subaru will try to keep things moving by facelifting the new Legacy as soon as the 2017 model year, which is also when a new Forester should appear.
