Subaru wants customers to have pride in 'premium' cars
Pop quiz the average Canadian about the nature of Subaru and you're likely to hear about a line of sturdy, inexpensive and eccentric compact cars from a plucky little company that believes in the virtue of all-wheel-drive and horizontally-opposed engines.
One word you aren't likely to hear from those consumers in relation to Subaru is ''premium,'' which is interesting since that is much on the lips of the people who run that plucky little company.
Actually, Subaru isn't a little company at all, plucky or otherwise; it's part of a conglomerate called Fuji Heavy Industries and an active participant in GM's huge global alliance.
Since it designs and creates the cars, it's that big Japanese firm that has Ted Lalka and his colleagues in Mississauga using that word ''premium,'' but Subaru Canada's vice-president of marketing seems to be okay with the notion of taking the brand upscale from the ''fondness'' that people feel for it now.
What Lalka is not okay with is any suggestion that ''premium'' is synonymous with ''expensive,'' as he does not use the word to describe what the new Subaru models are all about and resists the idea if it's raised.
But clearly this is what Japan has in mind, since the senior players at Subaru have suggested that the plucky little brand could by the end of this decade share equal billing with BMW, which pretty much leads the league in using its premium status to charge too much for its products and earn extra profits for its shareholders.
The corporate thinking is that consumers will be so thrilled by how much better the new Legacy and Outback are than previous models that they'll be glad to give the Subaru dealers more money for the privilege of owning them.
The latest models are certainly better than anything to bear the Subaru badge before, especially in terms of their refinement. They have slicker styling, use better components, fit together tighter, run more quietly, and operate more smoothly.
Unfortunately, you can say the same things about pretty much every vehicle on the road in relation to its predecessor. Somehow, Lalka and his colleagues will have to convince people that Subaru's upgrade is more meaningful than anyone else's.
In Lalka's mind, the key to being a premium car company pretty simple. ''I define premium as pride of ownership regardless of features,'' he explained in an interview in the company's head office, which will soon move to its fourth location in 20 years, each of them bigger than the last.
Lalka believes that, If you think ''I know I made the right decision" and have a sense of pride, ''then that's what premium is all about. It's no longer about Corinthian leather. It's not about that anymore; it's more about do I feel proud that I bought a Subaru.''
Lalka said that pride would be different from the pride that some people take in buying, say, a Lexus or BMW.