In the meantime, Subaru will begin to sell down current-generation inventories of the two nameplates before the redesigns arrive.
“Therefore, we can keep our incentive cost reasonable,” Doll said. “It’s likely you’ll see some declines in Outback compared to the prior year as we go through the summer and balance out.”
Doll said Subaru had the same situation last year with the introduction of the redesigned Forester.
“We had lower Forester sales, but when the new one came out it just took off and has done extremely well since then,” he said.
“As we manage and balance out, you may see some reduction from last year but the way we look at it, it’s really nothing to worry about. It’s all part of our plan to introduce the new one effectively.”
Subaru’s expected growth is taking place in an overall market that was down 3.2 percent in the first quarter. And the automaker continues to battle tight production capacity at its two plants in Japan and Indiana.
In mid-January, Subaru stopped production at its main factory in Japan for more than a week to address a suspected defect in a power-steering part.
In January, Doll told Automotive News, “If we could get more, we could sell more. Our initial sales target was much higher than where we ended up, at 700,000.”
Despite the headwinds, Subaru’s U.S. sales have been ahead of Doll’s forecast, increasing 4.7 percent over first-quarter 2018 to total 156,754 vehicles. But in light of what’s ahead, Doll is sticking by his 3 percent prediction for the full year.
He said, “We haven’t backed off that.”
