The year 2020 was a very difficult year for almost every car manufacturing company, but it was a complete disaster for Subaru. The sales were very low in Europe, and according to the company’s UK managing director, they are now fixing their British and European operations.
In 2019, the firm managed to shift just less than 2970 cars, but last year, it managed to shift only 948 cars. There are 67 Subaru dealers in the UK, which got only 32 registrations in August. John Hurtig, who became the firm’s UK boss last summer, agreed that it was a horrible year for the firm. He said that there’s no need to say anything other than that it’s an embarrassing number, and no one can argue that.
He explained why it was such a horrible year for the brand, and mentioned some reasons, but he also said that the year was not as bad as it seems from the numbers. In December 2019, the registration numbers were quite high, and it was the best month ever for the firm in the UK, so they went in 2020 with a lot of positivity, he added. They sold those cars as discounted pre-registration. In the UK, most firms saw a drop in the registrations due to the crisis, but Subaru was affected the most, as it saw a drop of 66% in the registrations as compared to 2019.
Hurtig claimes there are two other factors as well. The first factor was the customer base. So, it was not easy for them to go out and do business, and they say this based on the feedback their customers gave them. It’s one of the reasons why sales were so low.
He says there is a great need to rebuild the dealer network from the roots. The firm has done a lot of changes in the company, but they also need to change the structure of their dealer network.