What's hot and what's not

"Cé hé sin" (michael-m-mouse) 01/08/2018 at 16:26 • Filed to: UK sales

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A new year has arrived and so it’s time to take a look at the old one. What sold and what remained glued to the forecourt? Let’s start with the UK because they generally write in English and I happened to come across the figures. So, what’s the country of shooting yourself firmly in each foot and one hand for an encore Brexit buying and avoiding? Are they the only country in Europe that does Subaru? Have Jeep suddenly become a thing there? Have VW group sales collapsed after the Unpleasantness? Have Honda suddenly taken off? No, no, no and nope.

Let’s see what happened in 2017.

VW and the other group companies (except Bentley who were unchanged) have all..........increased market share. VW are up from 7.7% to 8.1% which is as high as they’ve ever been.

Subaru are in a death spiral, down from 0.13% to 0.10%

Honda are down marginally from 2.19% to 2.15%

Jeep (who?) are going the same way as Subaru but more so. Down from 0.52% to 0.26%.

Ford have fallen from 11.8% to 11.4% while Vauxhall (GM, as used to be) are down from 9.3% to 7.6% so they’re now below VW in isolation, never mind VAG in total.

So who’s on the up?

Hyundai, slightly (3.4% to 3.7%), Kia (3.3% to 3.7%), Merc (6.3% to 7%) and Land Rover (2.9% to 3.2%) amongst others (such as Ferrari, because the rich are always with us)

Have a UK registered Jeep, a sight ever more rarely seen.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Cé hé sin 01/08/2018 at 16:54

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It seems very odd to me that in a country know for rough roads, rain, and occasional snow, Subaru is a company that ISNT Doing well. Especially now that with the aid of CVTs Subaru’s are getting 30+mpg

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Cé hé sin 01/08/2018 at 16:55

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I don’t see the point of selling in a market mid level cars if your market share is 0.1%. Honda and Subaru are killing it in North America, why even bother with the UK.

TheTurbochargedSquirrel > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 01/08/2018 at 17:00

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I just find it odd that they can do so well here in the states but be a flop basically everywhere else.

Chinny Raccoon > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 01/08/2018 at 17:18

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The people who buy Subarus don’t replace them every three years. There’s a couple in my village. One is a mint 05ish WRX driven by a retired teacher who’s had it from new and the 04 legacy some friends of mine own who live up a rough track and is nowhere near mint.

RT > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 01/08/2018 at 17:23

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Subarus were much more popular here 10-20 years ago.

We even got a special 22B-style WRX STI called the P1, because people kept importing them in the grey market. You can import it in 2025.

We later got another one called the RB320, which was a special edition Hawkeye - it had (you guessed it) 320 horses. Available for import in 2031.

But Subaru pulled out of rallies at the end of 2008, and Prodrive (a UK-based company) was involved in their rally effort. Perhaps this is a reason for their decline.

RT > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 01/08/2018 at 17:24

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Because they used to kill it here 10-20 years ago, and there’s not much at stake either way.

Cé hé sin > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 01/08/2018 at 17:29

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I’d guess that many of the few sold are manual diesels. A CVT isn’t going to make many friends, they tend to be unpopular with people used to conventional gears. Subaru used to have a certain notoriety with boy racer types who liked JDM Imprezas but that’s gone.

Also, most people there don’t go anywhere near the kind of road which would require 4wd.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Cé hé sin 01/08/2018 at 18:14

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Oh yeah I forgot about the popularity of diesel over there. That would make a huge difference. I can’t imagine Subaru making a good diesel car

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > RT 01/08/2018 at 18:16

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So do they not sell the WRX and STI there now?

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 01/08/2018 at 21:28

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_of_the_UK_Manufacturing for honda

For subaru that .1% is still about 40k cars.

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Cé hé sin 01/08/2018 at 21:28

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really surprised about LR and merc

duurtlang > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 01/09/2018 at 04:33

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Honda used to be (relatively) large in Europe in the 80s. Where brands like Toyota and Kia kept it up and have the current market share to prove it, Honda gave up in the late 90s or so and hasn’t been competitive since. The 2.x% Honda market share in the UK is shockingly high to me.

For comparison: in my native the Netherlands in 2017 Toyota had a market share of 5.75% (#6), Kia 5.56% (#7) and Honda 0 .28% at rank #29. Subaru is at 0.13% at rank #33.

Another piece of perspective: For every car Subaru sold in the Netherlands in 2017, Tesla (0.79%, #23) sold 6.

https://www.autoweek.nl/verkoopcijfers/2017/

RT > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 01/09/2018 at 07:43

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They still sell the WRX and STI here, we even get JDM stuff like the Levorg.

https://www.subaru.co.uk/

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > RT 01/09/2018 at 08:31

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Neat

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > duurtlang 01/09/2018 at 10:27

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Subaru went from about 200,000 units sold in north america (2010) to 650,000 units in 2017! They must be doing something right.

duurtlang > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 01/09/2018 at 10:46

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Yes, they’ve been focusing on the US solely and ignoring Europe. A bit like PSA ignoring the North American market.

duurtlang > RT 01/09/2018 at 10:47

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The Levorg isn’t all that JDM. We get them on continental Europe too, with LHD. Theoretically, because no one buys them because Subaru.