Trend to AWD SUVs favors Subaru

WHAT remain of the original batch of 400 contestants in the Subaru Impreza Challenge AIDA SEVILLA-MENDOZA

SINGAPORE—The growing popularity of car-based compact sport utility vehicles with all-wheel drive (AWD) is proving to be a bonanza for the Motor Image Group, the authorized distributor of Subaru vehicles in the Asean, Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia and Southern China.

During a chat with Philippine media at the venue of the 11th Subaru Challenge in this city state, Motor Image Group president Glenn Tan said that the Philippines is so far Subaru’s biggest market among the Asean countries with projected sales of 8,300 units this year. Motor Image Pilipinas currently holds 5-percent share in automotive industry sales.

In the Philippine automotive market, Tan said, more and more new car buyers are switching from passenger sedans to SUVs. The surge in sales of compact SUVs, aka crossovers, can be attributed to the challenging condition of Philippine roads, frequent floods caused by extreme weather disturbances and the advantages of versatility, practicality, durability, fuel efficiency, more interior room, higher ground clearance and carlike riding comfort offered by compact car-based SUVs like the Subaru XV.

Launched on the Philippine market earlier this year, the Impreza-based XV has become the bestselling Subaru model, so much so that buyers have to wait six months for delivery. Tan said he had just arrived the night before from Japan, where he went to ask Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., the manufacturer of Subaru vehicles, for a bigger XV allocation. The XV is hot because it has everything that other compact SUVs have plus something they don’t have: Subaru’s trademark horizontally opposed boxer engine and Symmetrical All-Wheel-Drive. These core Subaru technologies guarantee superb handling, driving pleasure and enhanced safety in every Subaru vehicle.

Boom.Anticipating a regional boom for the XV, Motor Image has formed a partnership with the Subaru automotive division of Fuji Heavy Industries to assemble in Malaysia the right-hand-drive 1.6-liter XV for marketing and distribution in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. Production will start this December, with a targeted rollout of 5,000 units a year which can be ramped up to 10,000 annually when demand exceeds supply. Motor Image plans to also assemble left-hand drive XVs in the near future.

MOTOR Image Group president Glenn Tan with the XV

To encourage impatient XV customers to purchase the Forester SUV instead, Tan has slashed the price of the 2-liter Forester XS by P100,000 and the 2.5-liter turbo Forester XT by P130,000. Corollary to this, since supply cannot meet demand, Tan has raised the price of the XV by P80,000. “I don’t mind losing money if I can keep customers happy and loyal to the Subaru brand,” he said. The all-new 2014 Forester is due to arrive next year with more features and a higher retail price.

Despite the trend toward SUVs, Tan said that Subaru passenger cars like its flagship Impreza and the Legacy are very competitive in the sedan segment. For driving enthusiasts, there are the WRX STi sports sedan and the forthcoming BRZ sports car, the Subaru twin of the Toyota 86. The BRZ is powered by Subaru’s new 2-liter, 197.26-hp boxer engine, the first of its kind to feature both direct and port fuel injection.

But while the Toyota 86 is being marketed as a sports car perfect for loud and extreme motor sports like lateral drifting, Tan intends to present the BRZ as a more solid and more high-spec sports car, just as agile and balanced as the 86 but more substantial and fulfilling to drive for the skilled motorist who doesn’t have to drive like a racer boy to prove himself.

Endurance contest. Meanwhile, Asia’s biggest and toughest endurance contest, the Subaru Challenge 2012, kicked off at 1 p.m. last Saturday at Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza with 400 contestants, 90 from the nine regional countries (Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam) participating and 310 from Singapore. All 400 will try to outlast one another, enduring the heat of the sun, rainy weather, sleep deprivation, exhaustion, hunger and thirst to keep their right palms firmly on Subaru Impreza cars parked in the plaza. They are given a five-minute break every six hours—at 1 p.m., 7 p.m. 1 a.m. and 7 a.m.—to eat, drink water, go to the toilet and/or get a massage.

At stake this year, the 11th year of the Subaru Challenge, is a 1.6-liter XV but if the winner is from the Philippines, where the 1.6 XV is not sold, it will be a 2-liter Impreza sedan worth P1.158 million. Three additional titles with cash prizes are also up for grabs. Glenn Tan commented that the camaraderie and number of participants this year manifest a great competitive spirit and support for the event that has grown steadily over the past 11 years. He added that the Challenge, reflecting the durability of Subaru vehicles, has won more sales for Subaru in newly emerging Asian markets like Cambodia and Vietnam.

Last year’s winner, 42-year-old Singaporean Chong Kait Chi, lasted 75 hours and 36 minutes. (Kait Chi, by the way, is married to a Filipina.) The record holder, Singaporean George Lee, stood 81 hours and 32 minutes in 2008 with his right palm pressed firmly on an Impreza. But last Monday, at 1 p.m., only 40 out of the 400 contestants remained standing. Among these hardy survivors, two were from the Philippines: four-time Subaru Challenge veterans Alex Neblasca and Danilo Biadog, who both outlasted eight fellow Filipinos. The full story of the 2012 Subaru Challenge regional finals will have to wait for the last man to remain standing in the Ngee Ann City’s Civic Plaza in Singapore.