Credit where credit is due, Subaru is the best marketer in the car universe. While Ford may have more fans, and Ferrari may have the wildest ratio of cars built to people wearing its logos, it’s hard to argue that Subaru hasn’t built the most thorough emotional universe around its brand. Now there’s a new design that Subaru is giving to its dealerships, and it’s kinda brilliant. Fleece, it’s what makes a Subaru owner a Subaru owner.
I’m going to try to keep today’s Morning Dump news roundup a little more upbeat. It’s Friday, and I could use a little positive energy going into the weekend.
What else? Inventories are recovering a bit, and hybrid inventory is surging as automakers start stocking up on the tech (if they can). Tesla is coming out against the EPA’s move to disavow the GHG Endangerment Finding, stating that it’ll harm their business.
Uhhh dogs. Let’s do dogs. Isuzu has a new line of accessories for dogs.
Behold, The Subaru Connection Hub
Nothing yet, including my own experience, has persuaded me to abandon my belief that Subarus are mostly economy cars+. The WRX is an economy car+ rally speed, which is excellent. The Crosstrek is an economy car+ grit. The Forester is an economy car+ marketing.
And I bought the marketing! Within a year of buying my new Subaru Forester, I was an REI Co-Op member and had a tent. I literally had never tent camped in my entire life, and then all of a sudden I’m standing outside in the cold morning in a Patagonia pullover, proudly making camp oatmeal on my little green Coleman propane stove and nodding knowingly at the other dads over their little stoves.
Even the names of the cars imply outdoorseyness. Outback, Forester, Tribeca… ok, maybe not that last one, but they got rid of it quickly, and now that model is the Ascent. You’re ascending with a Subaru.
My local Subaru dealer was also a Volvo dealer, and so I usually went over to the Volvo side to work while my vehicle was being serviced (which happened a lot). The Subaru side wasn’t anything special and in need of an update, whereas the Volvo dealer’s waiting room had that whole Swedish minimalism thing going on.
Now an update is coming, and Subaru is leaning hard into it. Here’s how Subaru describes it:
The new concept reimagines the automotive retail experience, transforming dealerships into immersive, hospitality-driven spaces that strengthen customer relationships and community connections while embodying the Subaru Love Promise®, the company’s commitment to be More Than a Car Company® by showing love and respect in every interaction.
The Connection Hub shifts traditional dealership perceptions, positioning Subaru retailers as vibrant community destinations. Customers will experience bold product displays, interactive personalization tools, and welcoming social spaces designed to make every visit – from purchase to service – memorable and meaningful.
What’s that going to look like? A park-like pavilion, a “consetllation lounge” with a “dynamic digital media wall spotlighting Love Promise initiatives.” There will also be “outdoor green spaces.”
That sounds great, and it’s been like 18 years since Subaru has done such an initiative, so it’s long overdue. It’s here I feel like I need to point out that Love isn’t what makes a Subaru a Subaru. No brand will love you, and no brand is your friend (except HEB and The Autopian, obviously).
I said this is like a little REI, but it also reminds me of the LL Bean Flagship store in Maine, which is a bigger version of this experience. It just gets you in the mood to, like, kayak or whatever.
Why is this happening? Subaru is particularly at risk from tariffs, and it’s about to launch more EVs into a space that’s going to be a lot more difficult without incentives. It’s raising prices on just about everything, so image is going to be even more important going forward as it has to justify those prices.
How do dealers feel about this?
Automotive News has the answer:
Jeff Williams, former chair of the retailer council who owns a Subaru store in Lansing, Mich., said the redesigned look fits the brand and its values but is an additional expense when dealers are seeing their margins tighten.
“I don’t think it’s the best timing, considering the current economic state of the auto business and interest rates,” Williams told Automotive News. “But it is a consumer-centric and lifestyle-designed facility that matches our customers’ values.”
Subaru did not release cost estimates for retailers to update their stores.
C’mon, Jeff, it’ll be fun to have a little café.
Year Of The Hybrid Continues
We’re now into year two of Year of the Hybrid (Decade of the EREV, just you wait). While new vehicle inventory increased about 1.1% month-over-month according to S&P Global Mobility, it depends quite a bit on what kind of vehicles you’re looking at.
Importers are getting hit, with declines at Volvo, Audi, and Mazda (with the exception of the US-built CX-50). Automakers wisely stopped producing a bunch of EVs a few months ago, and now EV inventory has fallen from a high of 188,000 vehicles in June to just 169,000 in August.
Buy hybrids? There are a lot of hybrids.
The hybrid segment is showing promising growth, with its share of total new vehicle inventory increasing to 11%, a rise of 3.8 percentage points year-over-year (YoY). Total hybrid inventory has surged by 47% YoY, totaling 292,000 units.
Toyota remains the dominant player, accounting for 34% of all hybrid inventory, and has seen a 26% increase YoY. Notable increases within Toyota’s lineup include the RAV4 Hybrid (+28%) and the Highlander Hybrid (+117%), while the Camry Hybrid has decreased by 37% YoY.
Kia has also made significant strides, with a 173% increase in hybrid inventory YoY, particularly with the Sportage Hybrid (+313%) and the Carnival Hybrid. The Carnival Hybrid is a new 2025 offering.
Bring. It. On.
PHEV share has dropped, which has a lot to do with the Wrangler PHEV’s decline. A PHEV could be a great idea, and they’re popular in Europe, but America mostly has the wrong kind.
Tesla Admits It Needs Those Carbon Credits
I talked a lot about the EPA GHG endangerment finding a couple of days ago, so you can read that if you haven’t to get up to speed. The short version is that the EPA, at the direction of the Trump Administration, wants to kill the legal basis for the government to restrict greenhouse gases. This feels like both a reflection of a White House that doesn’t believe in global warming and a handout to automakers hurt by tariffs.
Personally, I think this is bad. It’s fine to give automakers relief, and it’s reasonable to admit that the goals were going to be difficult to reach, but this is a crappy way to do it.
Tesla, unsurprisingly, agrees with me, and does an extremely thorough job in its filing of ripping apart the EPA’s justification for removing the finding. Why does Tesla care? Maybe it’s because Tesla gets money from automakers that can’t reach these goals, and it doesn’t want to lose this key source of income that helped build the company:
Given the exceedance of the underlying standards that comes from the sale of a battery electric EV, Tesla has expected to continue to generate compliance credits that it can market to other companies –companies that, based on their own business strategies, opt to purchase compliance credits rather than comply with the performance standard. Such credit revenue has facilitated Tesla’s expansion and continued investmentin innovation. Tesla would be adversely affected by the proposed change in these standards that would curtail the value and continued marketability of such long-established credits
The company has made billions of dollars from these credits, and it still makes up a large portion of its profits. If more governments follow suit, Tesla stands to lose a lot of money.
Here, Enjoy This Very Good Boy
I’m seriously bummed that we don’t get Isuzu passenger trucks anymore. How cool would it be to be able to buy a turbodiesel D-Max? Also, in the UK, you can get a D-Max with a bunch of accessories from premium outdoor dog gear brand Ruffwear.
The model in these photos, by the way, is “brand ambassador” Siobhan Sellar.
Marketing Manager at Ruffwear UK, Sarah Burns, said: “We’re thrilled to bring Ruffwear gear to Isuzu D-Max owners. These accessories make every adventure safer, cleaner, and more enjoyable for dogs and their humans, whether you’re heading to a local park or venturing to the Scottish Highlands.”
Group Resources Director at Isuzu UK, Darren James, said: “The D-Max has always been about tackling adventures with confidence. Now, with Ruffwear accessories, dog owners can make every journey even more enjoyable for their four-legged friends, from secure travel to post-walk clean-ups.”
Maybe this company should team up with Subaru in the United States.
Delightful!
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Hey, look at that, Edmonton’s own Purity Ring is back with a new album (it’s been a minute), inspired by games like Final Fantasy X, which is quite obvious when you watch the video for “many lives + part ii” embedded above. Enjoy it, nerds.
I tried to imply to my friends this morning that Purity Ring is the “thinking man’s Grimes,” but I was corrected. Perhaps they are the thinking man’s CHVRCHES.
The Big Question
Did you ever have an animal that loved to be in the car? Did you ever have a pet that hated being in one? Tell your pet/car stories!
Top photo: Subaru
NEWSFLASH TO CARMAKERS: No one is going to a dealership to “hangout”. Give us comfortable chairs, maybe a table or two if we want to get some work done, and that’s about it. How about instead of forcing your dealerships to spend ungodly amounts of money refurbishing their showrooms, you hike the pay of your mechanics who have to fix the stupid problems that beancounters in corporate created?
The first-year Previa has a vertical opening glove box which provided a large flat surface. Our Westi loved to sit up there looking forward. The windscreen was positioned such that their head couldn’t be full up, so with the head down they were looking very much like Snoopy in vulture mode.
Imma set ‘m up, you, Autopian Community, knock ’em down..
The BRZ is Economy Car+…
You need to look at this GHG thing in the bigger context…It has nothing to do with ICE or EV or even climate change. It’s really about NOT taking firm generator capacity offline (ie dirty coal plants). It’s also about NOT penalizing natural gas capacity we need to add to the grid….and yes you can blame AI datacenters for all of this. This is pretty sobering to read, but gives you a good idea why we are in “burn the furniture mode”, because it is literally a matter of keeping the lights on at this point.
https://www.energy.gov/sites/default/files/2025-07/DOE%20Final%20EO%20Report%20%28FINAL%20JULY%207%29.pdf
I don’t currently have any pets, but our dog growing up LOVED the car, but was also terrified of being left. Someday, when I am home more, I look forward to having a dog.
My $0.02 on the Subaru dealership, I always thought the dealership experience hype was bullshit until I went to a Lexus dealer. Lexus has consistently been a cut above the rest, but even still I would rather go to a decent indy for service, and when I do that I would rather drop the car off the night before and then pick it up on my way home. In almost every scenario the best customer service representative is the one with whom I don’t interact. If we are talking that only means that somewhere a ball was dropped.
My dog- a 10 year old pit lab mix- has always loved car rides. Up until recently the longest ride he’d been on was maybe 2 hours or so to the beach. Was a bit worried about how he’d do when we moved from Texas to Oregon but he did just fine being in the car all day with us. Some CBD and stops every few hours to run him around was all he needed.
My cat once peed on me out of the carrier when we were moving across the country. I tell myself he didn’t mean to, he just had to go, but come on, he meant to.
Both my current dogs are great in the car. They just lay down in the back seat.
My lab is not a huge fan of the car. She likes to go with us because it means she won’t be left at home, but she’s really uncomfortable with all the moving around.
She’s most comfortable when she can lie down across a bench seat, which is why I need three rows even with just my family of four. She does not do well riding in a cargo area.
Related side note: for your and your pet’s safety, I do highly recommend the kurgo dog harnesses. They’re one of very few that are actually crash tested and are pretty easy to “buckle up”.
Honestly, after taking my car to a local muffler place that doesn’t have a shuttle service and having to work from a nearby park, I don’t hate this. Would be much better than sitting in the lounge at my local car dealer listening to Judge Judy or whatever they’ve got on for daytime tv.
It’s sad that the most influential argument they can make about this is “it will hurt our business”, not “the finding was accurate and removing it will screw over everyone for generations to come.” But whatever moves the needle, I guess.
I wouldn’t worry too much. I’m pretty sure no major country in the world is looking at US government policy and thinking, “Yeah, I want me some of that.”
Subaru must have figured out who is their main competition for their target demo. A Rivian “experience center” is basically a REI mixed with a independent coffee shop that doubles as an art gallery and you can look at Rivian stuff. Once the new Rivians launch its bound to hit Subaru hard. Especially as they are raising prices. Once their cult starts unraveling it will be impending doom unless they better accommodate current members or pivot to a different demo.
Every time I’m in the suburu dealers during the day there are tons of older people hanging around looking at a smallish tv waiting for their cars to be done while drinking terirble Keurig coffee.
At the same time if you walk into a Rivian experience center there are people working and drinking barista grade drinks. The average age has to be 30 year younger.
I’m going to assume that unless Rivian starts selling cars that are priced in the 25k-45k range (like basically all Subarus) that Subaru is going to be ok.
I get that Subaru has some wealthy buyers that think of the brand as classless, and that those people could theoretically afford a Rivian, but I don’t think Rivian is a real threat until they prove that they can actually make cars at a significant Subaru-like volume.
R2 is supposed to be $45k the r3 is supposed to be cheaper. Could be 2 to 3 years. But that fits Subaru doing their build out now. It will take them a few years to get though all the dealers.
The van takes up a lot of space at normal. They are building about 50k a year now with very little wait so they are meeting demand.
But that modern purpose built Georgia facility with smaller vehicles that resonate with a bigger demo should be able to catch Subaru 350k within a few years. It’s more about demand then their capabilities.
The new smaller Rivians certainly have potential, and I’m sure Subaru is aware that they could become a competitor. I genuinely want an R3, it looks great.
We’ll see if they can turn the corner and pump out some cars at regular people prices.
For sure, any Subaru owner I’ve shown the r3 and r3x too they seem super excited about the design and ask lots of questions but some don’t want a Bev. If they had a rex version I bet it would be near universal appeal.
Where are all those 20 somethings getting Rivian money?
I don’t think they own one (yet). That’s why they are calling it an experience center. It’s more of community space coffee shop thing then a dealer. Kind of what capital one has tried to achieve with banks just actually achieved. Some of them you can’t even buy a Rivian in so it’s more of like a gallery showroom merch shop and you have to go buy the vehicle online. I think you can take delivery at them at least most.
Most of the time they are in a city in busy almost tourist area and their service center is in a more industrial part. I’ve seen people in their 30s with rivians they probably make enough to justify the cost.
I bet it will turn out to be an good investment it’s expensive buy good will and very cheap to distroy it. When the less expensive models hit the market their key demo will already be hanging out in their space. They can get a demo drive look at all the options and order one. All without being sold anything.
I had a black lab that LOVED car rides. At the time, I drove a single cab Chevy S-10. It was fairly uncomfortable with 2 people and a 90 lb dog. That was the best damn dog I ever had.
I have his spiritual son. He’s very loyal and we let him wander our front yard off lease sometimes. One day, we forgot that we had ordered something delivered. When the uber/door-dash whatever driver pulled up, the opened the back door to get something and my boy jumped in the car. In the back was two kids in car seats and the front seat had a mother that was NOT expecting 90 lbs of lab to appear in her car, plop himself between the kids and demand a ride.
Oh, and if you are interested, we are fostering his spiritual son. Found wandering in a very rural area. We called to this guy and he hopped into the front seat and couldn’t wait to go for a ride. Poor guy was underweight and covered up in boo-boos from living rough, but as happy and as kind a dog as you can find.
Funny I found that dog when I was working at a summer camp. Had reports of a loose dog hanging around so we brought her to my cabin, got some food and water and then put an ad in the paper to find the owner. At the end of the summer, nobody had contacted us so my brother and I volunteered to take the dog home.
My parents were NOT thrilled but they had a 300 acre farm where she could run around off-leash all day. She actually got into the habit of visiting an elderly couple with an adjacent property every day. They gave her treats so she kept going back. Sammy lived with us for over 10 years before old age finally got her.
About 20 years ago, I had taken a day off from work for some reason. My wife ran the older kids off and met what she thought was an older golden. We took him in and looked for his owner. Later in the day, we were at a vet and he protected my toddler from an aggressive dog without having a fight. We kept him. Ended up he was about a year old and underweight at 75 lbs. Dude ended up being 120 lbs of the best boy ever. I’ve worked with 100s of dogs since him with animal rescue and nobody was even close to that guy. He could walk into a room full of barking dogs and get them to shut up with a look. Broke our hearts when we had to put him down 13 years later.
What was shocking is that late in life, when he was getting slow, he had an x-ray. Sometime when he was a puppy, some a-hole had peppered up with bird shot and he had bird shot stuck all over him. The fact that this wounded puppy ended up being the best dog ever with everyone is just a testament about how we don’t deserve dogs.
God bless you.
Thank you, but it’s my wife’s doing. She volunteered for a rescue group about 12 years ago and eventually founded her own little one. My job is to try to get the black lab foster to stop using my pillow when I get up to pee. Dude is no longer covered in boo-boos and is getting portly. He’s an exceptional dog.
My wife did the same thing for all of our time together.
After she passed away our lab was so depressed I adopted an Aussie pup, 8 weeks old to be company for her dog.
Not the smartest thing I ever did, but seems to be helping…
I’ve often thought I need to get a full size truck with a front bench seat, which would make my dog happy to be in between us.
Pet Story. Yesterday, I went to get a medical procedure done. Nothing major, but not allowed to drive. So my wife drove. In the car was:
(2) black lab/pit mixes (one ours one foster)
(1) German shepherd (ours)
(1) Great Pryenes/Pit mix (ours)
(1) Blue Heller mix (foster)
We have an old minivan. All but one seat has been completely removed and all the carpeting has been replaced with carpet. Everyone got along, everyone got a pup cup, everyone got to meet new people and loved the attention. And one threw up and peed (the heeler). Which wasn’t a big deal because of vinyl floor.
This is sort of standard for my wife. I think her record for pup cup orders is 10.
“… positioning Subaru retailers as vibrant community destinations” is the stupidest marketing drivel I’ve read in a while. Nobody wants to go to a damn car dealership unless they have to.
You’ve never been to a Subaru dealership. People would just stop in to see us, drop off pizzas or bagels, talk to their salesman, etc. and I just worked in the service department. Apparently this was very common in the sales department
Wow. Only time we went back to the dealer that sold us our Subaru is to ask how she let it go out the door to us with dangerously over-inflated tires so that our first long trip involved the TPS monitors going off on an interstate. Our current dealer is not much better. The place you worked must have been better-run. Between that and the fact that we also realized too late that Subarus are economy cars and not a deal, our current one will be our last (we’ve kept it for ages, but we keep all of our cars for ages unless they are truly unreliable)
Get a friend with a 3D printer to make you a knockoff “my Xth Subaru” applique’s except that it says LAST(th).
I’ve had similar experiences. The service guy gaslighting you is always extra classy too. He shut up when I informed him the piston on his desk was not a cylinder and did come from the current fa or fb but a ej. Then scowled when I said they were supposed to come with a 6 pack of those. Loose electrical connectors behind panels that have never been removed are still to be blamed on the driver or owner it seems. But don’t worry it’s still covered under warranty. Insane behavior all of them.
It’s a hard decision on who’s worse, sleazy salesmen or sleazy service advisors.
When they team up it’s truly horrific experience. I had a friend who was head of service at a well respected Ford dealership. When Ford phased out mercury they encouraged the Ford dealers essentially buy out the Lincoln dealers I think they gave them some kind of compensation. One of the Lincoln dealers they bought out was insanely sketchy and made them take all their staff as part of the deal. It took about a year and half before they got rid of all those fools. But not before their reputation took a hit. They made sure to put them in their location in an auto park so they could go find a new dealership to be a part of.
We were one of the top in the Midwest but it was all management. I started with the new General Manager and in 6 months all of the creepy and sleazy service advisors were gone. I would have stayed but I went from an hour commute to 15 minutes
The Subaru dealership I take the car to occasionally is pretty nice and everyone is friendly, but no way am I just gonna pop in there and hang out. It’s not like they have a bunch of interesting cars to look at, they’re just Subarus and I already have one of those! Also, the coffee is terrible.
Oh I agree, but it didn’t stop some people lol. And yes, our coffee was awful. I just used the hot water to make tea
My current dog is really not a fan of car rides, but because most of the time we’re either coming into work (I suspect he prefers the office to home), or going to see my folks, he doesn’t fight getting in and tolerates the ride. However the one day a month where we end up at the groomer, his look of betrayal is terrible.
It’s funny how dogs each have a different opinion about rides. We have 5 dogs. On one extreme is our lab mix. He’s bad about jumping into stranger’s cars and demanding a ride. If a car door is open, he’s game (and everyone loves having a random 90 lb pure black animal jump into their car!).
On the other extreme is our chiwiennie. Mention a ride and she hides under the bed and refuses to come out. The other 3 are random. Sometimes, they decide that they want to go for a ride, sometimes not. There’s no pattern for them.
My Scottish Terrier gets car sick depending what car I am driving but she mostly chills in the seat and take long naps.
My Yorkie is nuts and wants to be on my lap or by the window pressing all buttons on the door and giving me kisses while I am driving. It will not stop and I think its my fault since when he was a puppy, he traveled on my lap for 3 days from Mexico and I guess he just wants to be with me.
My wife has modified a phone case so it can be duct-taped over the driver’s side window controls as needed. She’ll lock out the windows and put that there to keep a dog from unlocking it.
Out first Westi got car sick easily, so I would take him on a short drive, then a longer one, and then longer until he finally got over car sickness. This was in my ’64 F100 crewcab natch!
Our current hoarde loves going for rides. The mini-golden doodle goes back and forth between windows, our current Westi justy pokes a nose out, and the Cavalier tries to get to the window, but can’t quite reach it as much as wanted.
My last dog LOVED riding in the car because we went to Fort Funston in San Francisco every day for six years. Okay, not every day but at least 350 days a year.
Where I live, deep in the heart of Subaru country (upstate NY near the Vermont border) this sort of strategy might not land so well. Our local dealer has the best reputation in the area, but a lot of that is because they’re independent, the building is about as modest and basic you can imagine a modern new car dealer being, and the salespeople have all been with the company long term and they’re all super laid back. The benefit of this is that I can show up at this dealer at any time, and not be pressured to purchase a car at all.
Turning every Subaru dealer into a massive, expensive, empty-ish building makes the brand less approachable, and inevitably is going to put pressure on the dealers to do more volume and more scumbag dealer stuff to survive. That sucks. Don’t do it.
In related news, our elementary school open house (this week) was sponsored by this same dealer who apparently bought the school a bunch of stuff. Now that’s some marketing I can get behind.
That’s all well and good, Subaru, but are you going to crack down on those dealerships that are basically running as merit badge mills? You know, when you see a brand new Subaru with tons of badges across the tailgate, and you really wonder, did the owner actually meet the requirements for all of those, or is the dealer just signing off on every card stuck in front of him?
I am 100% behind you. Last week when I pulled up behind the “Cardiologist, rock climber, dog fancier, Improv enthusiast,” Outback Wilderness the other day, I called bullshit.
What did she call back?
Lol, wait… what?
I just looked this up. I had no idea those were separate badges or really what they had on them. I knew about the ___th badge part indicating how many Subarus you’ve owned, but I guess I wasn’t aware that the extension beyond that stood for anything. They’re apparently called “lifestyle icons”. Ugh.
Don’t love it, but I guess it’s better than the equally common F— Y– made out of M-16s sticker. And at least they’re discreet enough that I was never actually able to make out what they were.
Eh, the only one they really test for is Eagle
ScoutSubaru.Well, other than the Subarus that get invited to Order of the Arrow. They test for those but those folks are weird, man.
Great. I need some camp stove fuel. Can I get some at the dealer while I’m having my oil changed?
Roll it right into the loan on your new Crossbryd.
None of my cats — or dog — were particularly overjoyed by car rides. A couple would make a helluva fuss, while the others just hid wherever they could and whimpered. The dog and one cat were okay except they had to ride on my shoulder when I was driving, which didn’t help.
One cat was a slight exception. She hated to ride, but when I brought home a Rolls-Royce for a week, she jumped in, curled up on the lambswool carpet, and steadfastly refused to move. She had good taste.
I had to look up REI.
Wagner Subaru in Ohio is one of the oldest dealerships (if I remember correctly), they sponsor the Southern Ohio Forrest Rally, they have at least one if not two old Subbie’s on display (the BRAT is probably there, and there was an old 360 or something as well as a pedal car).
I haven’t been there since early this year (66K on the Crosstrek I bought from them with 9 miles on it) but it still looked like a regular dealership.
(And they had a Subaru theme C&C a few months ago that brought out quite a few models I either hadn’t seen in years or seen at all. The new-ish Justy was my favorite.)
100% on Subaru. My wife bought a Crosstrek and within 2 years we’ve moved to Santa Fe.
This is probably controversial, but I believe Suabru and Dodge/Ram ad campaigns are equally as cringy in how aggressively they try to push a hyper idealized image of their cars to their market. The only difference is Dodge/Ram yell about V8s to insecure conservative men, while Subaru markets to insecure, slightly outdoorsy interested people of all genders. Both are a form of car cosplay that aren’t really as good as what people think.
This take came in hot but I think you’re onto something so I’ll co-sign it
It’s definitely as nuanced as it could/should be, but Subaru people seem to be as blindly loyal as Hemi and Ram people, and the marketing absolutely plays into it. Also just about every person I’ve known that has owned a Subaru has had some immense disappointment in owning it, usually ending up costing them way more than it should have, which is a distinctly Stellantis sort of vibe.
I was going to say, Subaru and full size domestic pickups have the cringiest advertising, but I’m probably not in the target demo for any of them, so I guess it all works for the people who are
Subaru recently ran a commercial that depicted a woman rescuing a dog and it was pretty shameless
Not all the Subaru folks I know would dive into peril to rescue a dog, but nearly all the folks I know who would dive into peril to rescue a dog drive a Subaru.
Alright I’ll bite and respond with this.
Has any automobile manufacturer done what we would consider an effective campaign without being extremely lame? Toyota? God no. Honda even? How many times do I have to watch a Passport traverse a fictional desert? GM? The last notable ad campaigns they had where the horrible real people ads, and the even more horrible GM employee pricing ads that were released at the exact same time that they laid off a crap ton of people.
Subaru certainly has their stinkers. The worst I can remember is the one where classic outdoorsy white couple picks up blind man who apparently is a seer or something? They’re certainly guilty, but I don’t necessarily think they’re any worse.
Isuzu. At least Joe Isuzu was an honest man.
I think VW has had a few winning ad eras. Jeep in the 90s. I guess the tongue-in-cheek style must speak to me.
There are people who celebrate toyotathon and Honda days. While the actual ads may not have been great those words entered the lexicon of a fair few.
I initially thought you’d written “Subaru markets to insecure, slightly outdoorsy people interested in all genders” but hey, both could work.
Of course you’re allowed to like or dislike their advertising, but I’d have to think “effective” is the better descriptors. They know their customer s and are capitalizing on it. Don’t blame the car manufacturer for the mentality of their customer. Finding a customer and meeting their needs/wants is just good business.
Definitely on to something. Those guys constantly saying “Mopar or no car”. Subaru must be “ru or canoe”
I mean, Mazda already sells a rebadged Izuzu D-Max in other markets as the BT-50. That’d probably be the easiest way to get it over here without having to revive Izuzu as a brand. Perhaps they could drop Mazda’s 2.5T in it instead of the diesel for the US market…
The best thing about Subaru is the giant sunroof on the Forester 😀