TOKYO — Fuji Heavy Industries wants a piece of the action in the growing South Korea car market. It announced on Thursday that it will begin selling its Subaru Forester, Legacy and Outback vehicles there starting in April.
Sales targets are extremely modest to start. Subaru Korea has set an initial goal of 600 units in the first year and aims to increase that number to 3,000 units by 2015, Fuji Heavy Industries said in a statement. It is in the process of developing its own dealer network in South Korea.
The Japanese automaker said it is betting that its all-wheel-drive system "will appeal to the Korean market, where mountains are spread nationwide and the temperature range is larger throughout the year."
Inside Line says: Just wait until they unleash the Subaru WRX STI on the Korea market. — Anita Lienert, Correspondent
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kdoodoo says:
09:31 PM, 01/24/2010
Buying the Subaru might be questionable but still Honda, Toyota, and Nissan is doing well even without 4X4 and boxer in Korea, I am sure subaru got a merit on their specailized technology. During the recession, Korean cars got better standing with their price but another thing to Look at is the Subaru. They were not much affected like toyota, nissan or Honda. One reason would be the Subaru's market saling scale is smaller than others but also we can say the subaru's specilized vehicles had rigid and constant demand on it. So once Korean people experience the 4X4 and boxer in the snowy slippery roads they will stick to it and demand more Subaru 's.
kdoodoo says:
09:22 PM, 01/24/2010
If subaru brings in the Imprezza, STi and Subaru version of FT-86 in future, there are many people would go for it. Lancer Evo set their price range to about 50,000 bucks in Korea which definitely won't get those kids going for BMW, and Mercedes.
But if Subaru sets price of 40,000 bucks including tariff on the STI, definitely many people will buy it.
Also some of the Koreans likes the cars like hyundai and lexus which hardly has any noise, but some also likes the noise like german cars. If I had choice between altima, camly, accord, legacy, I will definitely go for the legacy. Korea is very mountainous so I am sure many people will go for it if Subaru makes a great marketing on Korean market.
Subaru is in the niche market, so it will take longer time but once it gets into the market, it will be strong.
gmhl10 says:
10:15 PM, 01/21/2010
In Seoul, there are no mountains to drive on and during there really isn't a need to have to drive in the snow because the subway system is very well done and convenient. Most people in Korea don't know much about cars, so AWD, FWD, RWD doesn't really matter to them. OK... so what about the people outside of Seoul and Busan that do drive on mountainous terrain and snow? Most likely, they won't even be able to afford the high cost of a foreign vehicle due to the incredibly high vehicle import tax. The government intentionally does it to keep the competition low. Why buy a foreign AWD when there's a domestic 4x4??? This is my thought on Subaru entering the Korean market. BTW, I'm an auto technician, car enthusiast and I'm Korean.
christian316 says:
09:09 PM, 01/21/2010
Yuck.... Where is style these days?
I am hard on cars, not people... John 3:16