Why CVT's are awesome

[Garandman]

Ironically, the only major manufacturer who has not had a class action lawsuit against them over CVT's is Subaru. But they just started using them again a few years ago - give them time!

 

[ultrarunner]

In all fairness... Subaru agreed to binding arbitration when my boss said the CVT was a disaster...

By the time he received the confirmation from Subaru he had already replaced the car and donated it.

 

[Renze]

Subaru Justy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Because of the long distances, the CVT was considered unreliable, but this has not been the case in other countries"...

In other countries (Europe) a Justy or Swift CVT is driven by grannies to church on sunday and end up at the junkyard at 80.000km and 15 years due to rust issues.

This transmission is a disposable, like the car it is put in. Why on earth do Americans drive a Justy long distance, with gas and road tax a fraction of what you pay in Europe ?

 

[Garandman]

Why on earth do Americans drive a Justy.

I never figured that out, either! They were only sold 87-94. I suspect mos were sold as five speed manual.

 

[Renze]

I never figured that out, either! They were only sold 87-94. I suspect mos were sold as five speed manual.

Its either a half ton pickup, highly inefficient for commuting due to frontal area and weight, or its tinboxes even us Europeans dont want to be found dead in... is there no middle ground ?

 

[ultrarunner]

A very large segment of the population is in love with Japanese cars...

My boss's daughter was going off to college and I have yet to see many college women drive anything but a small import... at least around here.

Fuel is much cheaper here but it costs way more than it use to so the rise in prices has affected attitudes.

I took a lot of flak when I bought my 325iT BMW in Munich from my Euro colleagues... to a last one they said it was a nice car but WHY is it Gas and not Diesel...

Had to explain Diesel was not an option at the time for the American market as it was too dirty for California Emissions which gave them something to ponder.

Subaru also does a lot of marketing to the younger crowd and especially to those wanting to get off the beaten path and closer to nature...

I had narrowed the choice of RTV to Kawasaki Mule and Kubota... went with Kubota Hydro because it was far superior to hill holding on steep grades...

 

[Garandman]

//
Subaru also does a lot of marketing to the younger crowd and especially to those wanting to get off the beaten path and closer to nature...//

In the 1990s, Subaru’s unique characteristic was that the company made all-wheel-drive standard on all its cars. When Subaru marketers went searching for people willing to pay a premium for all-wheel-drive, they identified four core groups who were responsible for half of the company’s American sales: teachers and educators, healthcare professionals, IT professionals, and “rugged individualists” (outdoorsy types).

Then they discovered a 5th: lesbians.

“When we did the research, we found pockets of the country like Northampton, Massachusetts, and Portland, Oregon, where the head of the household would be a single person—and often a women,” says Bennett. When Subaru marketers talked to these customers, they realized these women buying Subarus were lesbian.

Subaru crafted its marketing to identify with lesbian buyers without offending the sensibilities of conservatives.

 

[Renze]

Subaru sells because of the price (justy) and because of its WRC achievements (impreza rally car)

It is too little sold to be identified with lesbians here....

 

[Garandman]

Subaru sells because of the price (justy) and because of its WRC achievements (impreza rally car)

It is too little sold to be identified with lesbians here....

The US market is far different, with European brands playing a minor role. The #1 seller is European brand is Mercedes, 13th in the market.

Subaru hasn't sold the Justy in the US for more than 20 years, and left WRC in 2008 after de emphasizing their effort when the majors engineered rule changes. They sold in the snow belt stating in the late 70's and had less than 1% market share, In the 1990's they popped the roof and raised ground clearance on the Legacy wagon to make the Outback. This happened just as most manufacturers abandoned station wagons in the US and few had AWD, so almost overnight little quirky Subaru became the #1 selling wagon in the US (i.e. "World's Biggest Midget).

Along with building reliable AWD cars, the next breakthrough came when the WRX was picked up for the Xgames. This series became wildly popular and WRX/STI started to sell in regions outside the snow belt. WRC is virtually unknown in the US, but Subaru gave (and continues to give) contingency money for amateur Rallyists so they dominate North American grass roots rallying. ProCar was dumped along the way, having spent a ton of money to accomplish very little, and Vermont Sports Car started building the US Rally team and XGame cars.

Today Subaru is #9 in the US market, outselling brands like Dodge, Mazda, BMW, aforementioned MB and Volkswagen. They aren't necessarily cheap, with top-of-the-line Outbacks and STI costing $35-40,000.

 

[Renze]

....but could you please clarify why lesbians buy Subaru in particular ?

Here BMW regularly advertises in the gay paper, because gays are usually double, higher, income people with disposable income because they dont spend it on family.