It seems the Automotive News is going Japan crazy with their in-depth Q&As. Following
our post yesterday about the Q&A with Mazda’s CEO
comes one with Subaru’s Chief Executive Officer Kyoji Takenaka. Again the interviewer asks some great questions but it
seems there’s something lost in the definition of “premium brand.” I’m still left not knowing if the B9 Tribeca (still
called B9X in this Q&A) will be the first luxury Subaru. It seems that way although earlier in the piece Takenaka
says Subaru is pushing value not luxury. That means improving their sales and service staff (good idea btw) not
necessarily building a Phaeton. But again it sounds like the Tribeca is going to compete with the BMW X5 and VW Touareg
too so that sounds “luxury” to me. I’m intrigued to drive a Subaru H-6, AWD SUV though. After loving basically
everything they’ve done in the past few years if anyone can make an enjoyable to drive SUV (with better mileage
Takenaka says) it would be Subaru. There are also mentions of Subaru diesel and hybrid powertrains for the not too
distant future.
Subaru Q&A scares us with more "premium" talk
It seems the Automotive News is going Japan crazy with their in-depth Q&As. Following our post yesterday about the Q&A with Mazda’s CEO comes one with Subaru’s Chief Executive Officer Kyoji Takenaka. Again the interviewer asks some great questions but it seems there’s something lost in the definition of “premium brand.” I’m still left not knowing if the B9 Tribeca (still called B9X in this Q&A) will be the first luxury Subaru. It seems that way although earlier in the piece Takenaka says Subaru is pushing value not luxury. That means improving their sales and service staff (good idea btw) not necessarily building a Phaeton. But again it sounds like the Tribeca is going to compete with the BMW X5 and VW Touareg too so that sounds “luxury” to me. I’m intrigued to drive a Subaru H-6, AWD SUV though. After loving basically everything they’ve done in the past few years if anyone can make an enjoyable to drive SUV (with better mileage Takenaka says) it would be Subaru. There are also mentions of Subaru diesel and hybrid powertrains for the not too distant future.