Reborn Tokyo Golden Age

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

After three months of non-stop publicity last year, even though Legacy could not become 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 incident of licking the emperor, the neon society would carry out so-called self-restraint every now and then.

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 TV commercials are not allowed to be broadcast, but I can put up my posters as I please, right?

So as the overwhelming street posters and highway advertisements spread, 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. We often see it on the way home or during the trip, so everyone’s impression is even deeper.

But what really attracts attention is Legacy's cool full-color LCD instrument panel. It is no exaggeration to say that this is an unprecedented major innovation in the automotive industry.

Far ahead!

Even if some lighting effects were added to the previous mechanical watches, they were still far from the high-definition LCD instruments.

For many people, the moment the black screen suddenly lights up when the key is turned in the Subaru Legacy commercial touches the heartstrings of countless people.

So beautiful and so stunning.

Many people who didn't know what was going on thought Subaru had stuffed a color TV in the car.

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

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

After all, it’s not unheard of for fake advertisers to make exaggerated product advertisements.

Today's neon laws are far less perfect than those of later generations, and fake advertisements are commonplace.

So for Subaru's advertisement, everyone was amazed and silently watching.

The things he took out were too advanced, even if they were true, they still made people suspicious.

For this reason, some current affairs commentators are still debating in newspapers or on the radio whether the full-color LCD instrument is possible.

Subaru was unmoved by the doubts from the outside world. It was busy with one thing within three months, and that was production and stocking.

After all, time is tight and large-scale mass production is required. The main engine factory in Gunma has been extremely busy.

In this way, amid eye-catching, exclamation, questioning and controversy, the Subaru Legacy was launched as scheduled at the beginning of December.

People who had been waiting to see the excitement poured into Subaru's 4S stores in various places on the first day.

When they enter the store, they don't look at anything else but the top-of-the-line luxury models.

It's not that everyone is very wealthy, but people are simply curious whether the LCD screen on the deluxe version is real or fake.

So when the 4S store employee turned the key and the Subaru blue six-star logo lit up on the car's black dashboard, the entire crowd in the store exploded.

"Colorful! It's actually colorful!"

"It's so clear, so incredible~"

"It's really amazing, the hands of the watch disappeared~"

"The design of this picture is really beautiful. You no longer need to stare at the pointer to check the code speed. It will be displayed directly on the screen."

In fact, the Subaru Legacy's LCD instrument panel also has pointers, but it implements this function through the screen.

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

On the entire screen, the code speed is on the left, the engine speed is on the right, and the mileage and current driving speed are displayed in the middle.

In addition, there is basic information such as 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 panel.

The small monochrome LCD screen that was previously reserved for the CD player has now been eliminated for space considerations.

The full details and sci-fi sense of design amaze everyone.

After being shocked, everyone rushed to the sales staff of the 4S store in unison.

Faced with numerous inquiries and ordering requests, the employees in the store were sweating profusely.

Some impatient people directly took out a bag of brown paper envelopes, stuffed them into the salesperson's arms and demanded to pick up the car immediately.

The money inside was all cash, just over 5 million yen, and the stack was only about 5 centimeters long.

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

In this era, swiping credit cards has almost become instinctive for everyone.

A dinner is several hundred thousand yen, a disco is several hundred thousand yen. Spending 5 million to buy a unique luxury car is not unacceptable.

That's right, everyone is rushing to buy the Subaru Legacy, not for its so-called horizontally opposed, full-time four-wheel drive, or safety features.

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

The aesthetics of the bubble era were exaggerated and radical. We were not afraid that you would be too unique, but that you would be too ordinary.

When people buy something, dazzling, novel, eye-catching and other characteristics have become the first factors of purchase, and the price is not so important.

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

Looking at the report in their hands, not to mention Nakamura Takao and the others were excited beyond words, even Shirakawa Kaede himself was beaming with joy.

There were 4,700 vehicles in the first month, 6,300 vehicles in the second month, and 8,500 vehicles in the third month. Since its launch, a total of 20,000 Legacy vehicles have rolled off the production line, and now they are basically all sold out.

In fact, in the first month, everyone already knew that Legacy would be good.

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

But that's because production capacity limits sales. In the next two months, as the production capacity of the OEMs was gradually released, sales continued to rise.

A large part of the reason for this is that orders placed in the first month were backlogged for delivery in the next two months.

However, as Legacy's reputation has grown, subsequent orders have continued to come in.

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

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

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

Of course, the premise is that only the local market is counted. If the whole world is included, Toyota will leave no trace of Subaru.

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 price of the luxury version of 5.4 million yen, Subaru will make an average net profit of about 600,000 yen per car.

20,000 vehicles means a net profit of nearly 12 billion yen in three months, and it is also three months when production capacity is ramping up!

Sure enough, they still make money by selling cars. Neon's production capacity has not reached its peak, and the vast overseas market has not yet been explored.

Bai Chuanfeng has seen countless small coins waving to him, and Legacy is the first one.

The follow-up Alcyone SVX version, and more models are waiting for Subaru after that.

Taking a deep breath, Shirakawa Kaede suppressed her excitement. The 12 billion profit in front of her was enough to get Subaru out of the shadow of continuous losses.

"Let Gunma's factory fully produce Lion models, and discuss with Isuzu to convert the production capacity of Oizumi factory into Legacy's production capacity."

Subaru's own production capacity utilization rate was less than half due to losses in overseas operations.

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

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

However, the current sales of Legacy have not only utilized all the factories in Gunma, but it is still not enough to make up for the consumption rate of the market.

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

Nakamura Takao was not surprised by Shirakawa Kaede's order. After all, the profits of OEM work were only high.

"Please rest assured Shirakawa-san, we are already communicating with Isuzu.

The other party also expressed understanding of our appeal and expected to complete the model switch within a month. "

Subaru and Isuzu have stock ties and technical cooperation, so the relationship between the two is generally pretty good.

It's a pity that Subaru currently has too few fully automated production lines. If it could assemble a car in less than two minutes like Toyota, there would be no capacity constraints.

Some of Toyota's most popular models can sell millions of units a year. For example, Lotus previously shipped 900,000 vehicles worldwide in one year.

Taking into account Toyota's many other models, this output is actually very scary.

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

This speed deserves to be 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 for now he could only think about it.

Not to mention that Subaru models are horizontally opposed and have full-time four-wheel drive, which makes the process complicated and the vehicle production speed is greatly reduced.

Just a fully automated production line is a huge expense. The extent it can achieve is that a pile of steel is transported into the factory and when it comes out, it is already a complete car.

Life is very tight for Subaru now, and the fully automatic production line can only be developed slowly in the future.

"When will the North American and European models be launched?" Neon's sales are very attractive, and Shirakawa Kaede is also looking forward to its overseas performance.

"It will go on the market in April. We are preparing stocks in advance. We have also prepared an inventory of 10,000 vehicles."

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

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

As we all know, the inventory quantity of automobile production is also a science. Too little supply exceeds demand, affecting the optimal sales cycle.

If there is too much, there will be pressure to lose money. The manufacturing cost of cars is very high, especially luxury models, which cost millions.

Ten thousand vehicles, that is tens of billions of yen of investment.

This is another huge expense, and new cars are also said to be in stock.

After leaving the car factory, if it is not sold within half a year, it becomes a stock car.

Although there is no impact on performance, many consumers are concerned about this and say they just don’t want to buy a stock car.

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

After all, overseas markets are not as crazy as Neon here. Everyone only considers spending money and nothing else.

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

But there’s no need to worry too much, at least there’s still a neon market to cover for now.

If you really can't sell it, the worst possible outcome is to bring it back and digest it internally.

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

"Um?"

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

"So many?"