Subaru sold 40 percent fewer BRZs in the U.S. in 2019 compared to 2018, and December sales were down 62.5 percent from a year ago. In the BRZ/86 cars’ first few years, they were each selling about 8,500 units a year in the U.S. but Subaru only sold 2,334 last year.
Two of Subaru’s other cars also saw a notable dip, with Impreza and Legacy sales dropping by 13 percent and 12 percent respectively. You might think that this is because people aren’t buying Subarus, but the company’s overall sales were up almost three percent. What are people buying if not cars? I think you know the answer to this.
Subaru SUVs were up in sales, with the Ascent, Forester, and Outback all selling more than last year.
Are the buyers all going from BRZ to SUV? While it costs almost twice as much, the Supra gets compared to the BRZ a lot, and its first month of sales beat the combined BRZ and 86 sales, so that may account for some of the attrition. Buyers are definitely not going to the Nissan 370Z, those sales were down over 30 percent. Likely it’s just an older car and not getting the rare late-in-life sales bump seen by cars like the Dodge Challenger.
Toyota Supra chief engineer Tetsuya Tada has said that there is a new 86 development team and that the next car will be a better car to drive than the Supra. There is a report that the next 86/BRZ will move from the modified Impreza architecture to Toyota’s TNGA platform. While people lament the current car’s low power, the successor could be interesting.