While Detroit’s ‘Big Three’ continue to suffer one of the worst periods they’ve ever faced, and even Toyota faces its first annual loss in seven decades, Subaru looks set to post an overall sales increase for 2008.

Subaru bucking the downward trend

Subaru executive vice president Tom Doll says that sales for 2008 were up 1.2 per cent – a modest but significant figure when compared to the overall industry drop of more than 16 percent for the same period.

“We are settled mostly in niches, and our customer is better financially heeled than other car customers - we have good demographics.”

Doll says these figures were achieved without any discounting or other incentives added to sweeten the brand’s offerings.

Three Subaru models record sales gains

Subaru has seen three of its models achieve sales gains in 2008:

• The all-new Forester increased 33.8 percent
• The also brand-new Impreza is up 9.6 percent
• The Liberty – Subaru’s oldest current model, for which a new concept will be revealed at the Detroit Motor Show in January – achieved a 9 percent increase over 2007 figures.