As the first model of Subaru after its establishment, and the legacy of the former Fuji Heavy Industries, the Legacy can be said to have high hopes from the entire company.

After three months of non-stop publicity, Legacy is not a household name in Neon.

But when people see it, they still have the impression that it looks familiar.

At that time, because of the matter of licking the emperor, the neon society would carry out the so-called self-purge every once in a while.

This has affected TV advertising to a certain extent, but with the cooperation of Shirakawa Holdings, Subaru's local advertising has done well.

It's okay if you don't let TV commercials broadcast, but I can put up my poster casually, right?

So with the overwhelming street posters and highway advertisements scattered, people finally had some impressions of Subaru's new model.

After all, the advertising bombardment that comes every once in a while is familiar enough, and it is often seen on the way home or on the journey, so everyone is even more impressed.

But what really catches the eye is Legacy is the cool full-color LCD instrument cluster, which is no exaggeration to say that this is definitely a major innovation unprecedented in the automotive industry.

Ahead!

In the past, even if the mechanical watch added a little lighting effect, it was too far from the high-definition LCD instrument.

For many people, the moment the key is twisted in the Subaru Legacy advertisement, the black screen suddenly lights up and tugs at the heartstrings of countless people.

It's beautiful, and it's stunning.

Many people who don't know what is going on once thought that Subaru had stuffed a color TV set in the car.

Although this idea is exaggerated, for this era, such a full-color picture is almost the same as a color TV.

So Subaru had already caused a stir when it ran the advertisement, but everyone was a little skeptical at the time.

After all, it's not uncommon for fake advertisers to advertise exaggerated products.

Today's neon laws are far less perfect than those of later generations, and false advertising is not uncommon.

So for the advertisement played by Subaru, everyone was amazed and silently watched.

The things that come up are too advanced, and even if they are true, they still make people suspicious.

For this reason, some current affairs critics are still arguing in newspapers or radio about whether the full-color LCD meter is likely to be real.

Subaru was unmoved by the doubts of the outside world, and it was busy with one thing in three months, that is, production and stocking.

After all, time is already tight, and large-scale mass production is required, and the OEMs there in Gunma have been busy.

In this way, in the midst of eye-catching, amazement, questioning, and controversy, Subaru Legacy was listed as scheduled at the beginning of the 12th century.

People who had been waiting to see the excitement for a long time poured into Subaru's 4S stores in neon all over the city on the first day.

They enter the store, and they don't look at anything else, just look at the top-of-the-line luxury model.

It's not that everyone has a lot of money, but people are purely curious about whether the LCD screen on the deluxe version is real or fake.

So when the staff of the 4S store unscrewed the key, and the black dashboard of the car lit up with the Subaru blue six-star logo, the entire crowd in the store exploded.

"Colorful! It's really colorful! ”

"It's so clear, it's incredible~"

"It's amazing, the watch hand has disappeared~"

"This picture design is really good-looking, you don't have to stare at the pointer to see the code speed in the future, there is a direct display on the screen."

In fact, Subaru Legacy LCD instrument panel also has a pointer, but it achieves this function through the picture.

A circle of white numbers, red pointers and early warning code speed are clearly presented in front of you.

The whole screen shows the yard speed on the left, the engine speed on the right, and the mileage and current driving speed in the middle.

In addition, there is basic information such as the date and time in the upper right corner, and the empty space in the middle of the dial is reserved for the CD player.

That's right, the display information of the car CD player is also integrated into the LCD instrument cluster.

A small monochrome LCD screen that was previously reserved for CD players has now been eliminated for space reasons.

Full of details and sci-fi design, all of them amazed everyone.

After the shock, everyone rushed to the sales staff of the 4S store.

In the face of gossip inquiries and one order after another, the staff in the store were busy and sweaty.

Some anxious people directly took out a bag of brown paper envelopes and stuffed them into the arms of the salesperson and asked to pick up the car immediately.

It was all cash, more than 5 million yen, and it was only about 5 centimeters when stacked.

I usually stuff it into my bag and pick it up easily. Of course, more people take credit cards.

In this era, credit card swiping has almost become instinct for everyone.

A dinner is hundreds of thousands of yen, and a disco is hundreds of thousands. Spending 5 million to buy a unique luxury car is not unacceptable.

That's right, everyone is rushing to buy Subaru Legacy not for its so-called horizontal positioning, full-time all-wheel drive, or safety performance.

Everyone buys it just because it has the only neon and the only LCD instrument in the world.

The aesthetics of the bubble era are pompous and radical, not afraid that you are too unique, but afraid that you are too ordinary.

When people buy things, the characteristics of brilliance, novelty, and eye-catching become the first factor of purchase, and the price is not so important.

There is no doubt that Subaru's LCD instrument meets this point, and the Legacy name has become the darling of the automotive world.

Looking at the report in his hand, not to mention Nakamura Takao at the beginning, they were excited, and even Shirakawa Kaede himself was overjoyed.

With 4,700 units in the first month, 6,300 units in the second month, and 8,500 units in the third month, Legacy has rolled off the assembly line with a total of 20,000 vehicles since its launch, and now it has basically sold out.

In fact, in the first month, everyone already knew that Legacy would not be bad.

Although less than 5,000 units were sold that month, it was lower than Nissan's CIMA.

But that's because the production capacity limits the sales, and in the next two months, with the gradual release of the production capacity of the main engine factory, the sales volume is also rising.

A large part of this is due to the backlog of orders placed in the first month and delivered in the next two months.

However, with the fermentation of Legia's reputation, follow-up orders are also coming in a steady stream.

According to Subaru's internal estimates, this increase will continue for some time.

But no matter what, the sales of nearly 20,000 in three months are definitely an unprecedented victory for Subaru.

Not to mention Fuji Heavy Industries, there are few Toyota cars that can break this record.

Of course, the premise is that only the local market is calculated, and if the whole world is counted, Toyota will not have the scum of Subaru seconds left.

However, although it is not as good as Toyota, Shirakawa Kaede is already very satisfied.

You must know that Subaru's net profit from selling a car can reach 13%, and most of the nearly 20,000 sales are contributed by the luxury version, after all, it is the only one equipped with a full-color LCD instrument.

Based on the 5.4 million yen price of the luxury version, the average Subaru car nets about 600,000 yen.

20,000 units is a net profit of nearly 12 billion yen, three months, and three months of production capacity ramp-up!

Sure enough, it is still selling cars to make money, but the production capacity of neon has not reached its peak, and the vast overseas market has not been developed.

Shirakawa Kaede has already seen countless small money beckoning to him, and Legacy is the first one.

The follow-up Pleiades VI SVX version, and then there are more models waiting for Subaru.

Taking a deep breath, Shirakawa Kaede pressed his own excitement, the 12 billion profit in front of him was enough for Subaru to get out of the shadow of continuous losses.

"Let the factory in Gunma fully produce Lion models, and discuss with Isuzu to convert the production capacity of the Oizumi plant into the production capacity of Legacy as well."

Previously, due to losses in overseas business, Subaru's own capacity utilization rate was less than half.

In order to find a way out and to save itself, Subaru chose to OEM for Isuzu.

The two companies have previously cooperated in the field of special vehicles such as buses, and even Isuzu has a 1.7% stake in Subaru.

However, now Legis's big sales have not only made use of all the factories in Gunma, but they are still not enough to make up for the consumption rate of the market.

In this case, we can only give priority to satisfying the internal and push back the OEM orders.

Nakamura Takao was not surprised by Shirakawa Kaede's order, after all, the OEM profit was only much.

"Please rest assured, Isuzu is already communicating.

The other party also expressed understanding of our demands, and it is expected that the model switch will be completed within a month. ”

Subaru and Isuzu have a joint venture and a technical partnership, so the relationship between the two is generally good.

Unfortunately, Subaru still has too few fully automated production lines, and if it were like Toyota, which can assemble a car in less than two minutes, there would be no capacity limitations.

Some of Toyota's popular models can sell millions of units a year. For example, the previous Lotus shipped 900,000 units worldwide in a year.

Counting many other Toyota models, this output is actually very terrifying.

But Toyota's automated production line is just as powerful, with a car rolling off the assembly line in almost 72 seconds.

This speed is deservedly the first in neon, and no other manufacturer can match it.

Shirakawa Kaede was very envious of Toyota's fully automated production line at this time, but at present, he could only think about it.

Not to mention the Subaru model because of the horizontal opposite, full-time four-wheel drive, resulting in complex technological processes, the vehicle production speed is greatly reduced.

Just a fully automated production line is a huge expense, and it can go so far as a pile of steel is brought into the factory and comes out with a complete car.

The current Subaru life is tight, and the fully automatic production line can only be carried out slowly in the future.

"When will the models of North America and Europe be launched?" The sales of neon are very attractive, and Shirakawa Kaede is extremely looking forward to its performance overseas.

"It started to be launched in April, and we have prepared an inventory of 10,000 units in advance."

When the number "10,000" was reported, Takao Nakamura even gritted his teeth.

The reason why he behaved like this is because the pressure on this inventory is very high.

It is well known that the number of inventories produced by automobiles is also a science. Too little is in short supply, affecting the best sales cycle.

If it's too much, then there's pressure to lose. Cars are very expensive to manufacture, especially luxury models, which cost millions.

10,000 vehicles, that is, tens of billions of yen of investment smashed into it.

This is another sky-high expense, and there is also a stock of new cars.

If it comes out of the depot and is not sold within half a year, it becomes a stock car.

Although the performance has no effect, many consumers mind this, saying that they just don't want to buy stock cars.

So no matter which aspect you consider, the inventory of 10,000 vehicles is a lot.

After all, the overseas market is not as crazy as neon here, and everyone only thinks about spending money and not other things.

At this time, the overseas market is still rational and calm, so Shirakawa Kaede doesn't know how Legacy will perform overseas.

But don't worry too much, at least for now, there is a neon market.

I really can't sell it, so it's a big deal to pull it back and digest it internally.

"Shirakawa-san, according to the forecast of the marketing department, Legacy sales in April are likely to exceed the 10,000 mark!"

"Huh?"

When Shirakawa Kaede was considering a fully automated production line, Nakamura Takao's words surprised him.

"So many?"

(End of chapter)