[daghdha]

I posted this in the waiting list forum, but thought to post it here as well...maybe one of the insiders knows more about this?
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Hi there,

After reading the newswire and laughing like a school boy looking at the specs, I called up the dealers in my area to see what kind of activity has been going on.

My question is this:

I'm currently on the waiting list at one dealership (dealer A). I'm #11. I got on this list about a month ago.

I called around, and found dealer B that I can get the #2 spot. Now when I talked to them, they said that they would fax this in to 'reserve' a spot at the subaru dealership, and that there is a master list at the subaru headquarters that keeps everyone in order.

My question is this: Since my #11 spot at dealer A was faxed in a month ago, does it make sense to even try to get this #2 spot? i.e. would #11 at dealer A get a STI before #2 at dealer B? (since the dealer A 'order' was already submitted to the subaru headquarters.)

My thinking is that #2 at dealer B is better, but I'm not sure...

thoughts? Anyone can comment on how SOA is going to disburse their subaru's?

josh...

 

[m ben]

I think the #2 spot is a _much_ better bet to get a car.

if you do the math based on the rumoured 300 cars/month, that's only 3.600/year, or 6 per dealer assuming they're evently spread out.

however, some dealers are small/don't sell many WRX'es & if the rumours are true about how the allocations are going to be made, then some dealers will not even get 11 cars in two years, let along soon after launch, when you'll be itching to get ahold of one.

if the #2 dealer isn't demanding an outrageous deposit & so long as it's refundable, then I'd get into spot as well as sticking with the #11. the #2 spot will likely be better than the #11 spot, even if the #11 dealer is massively larger than the #2 one.

I don't know about this "reserving spots with SoA" stuff which has been discussed in the past. I've spoken with the dealer my name is #1 with & they're still just waiting with thier list of people for the confirmation that they can start submitting orders. they're a very large dealer so I don't think they're going to be getting bad information, nor are they likely to be telling me tales, but we'll see. they're not asking for any deposit until they are able to place orders either, which is cool with me.

once the dealers get concrete information about the pricing & allocations, we'll be able to know more accurately when cars will be delivered & how they'll be spaced out. it can't hurt to be on a second, shorter list, so jump on it if you want to be safe.



Ben

 

[wojo]

Don't kill me for this comment...

My dealer told me that the cars will be allocated based on the size of each dealer, so the larger the dealer the more cars they will get.

BTW - I am #11 too, but strongly considering putting another deposit somewhere else. Your actual position might be different as there could be many others that have put more than 1 deposit or simply might pass on a car when their turn comes

 

[DVTURK]

What kinds of (fast) cars have you DRIVEN???

I am in the DC/MD/N. VA area and apparently the demand already exceeds the number of cars alloted to this region (based on total US 4,000-5,000 units) . Below is an email from my Subaru dealer:

"Yes its going to be low supply. The people who are waiting to see the car first are going to be out of luck to get one. The Subaru Rep said in this area, they already have more deposits then cars . Its good that you are 2nd on our list."

Ben

 

[wojo]

That's making me nervous What dealer has your deposit?

 

[DVTURK]

Product positioning

Paul Brothers Subaru
770 Eldent St.
Herndon, VA 20170

Ben Greer (703) 437-6000
Filled out a Buyers Order for a $500 Refundable deposit
Promised to sell at or below MSRP
I am #2


Also, Farrish Subaru in Fairfax, VA has only about 3-4 people on the list to date

 

[daghdha]

2.5L question

Good information guys, keep it coming!

I had actually put the deposit in on the #2 spot, but I got a call back from the #2 dealer saying he couldn't place my order because SOA refused to accept the order and told them that I already had a order submitted to SOA from the #11 dealer...

bottom line: I have to cancel the #11 dealer in order to get the #2 spot. ugh.

how is it that people are on multiple lists, unless their dealer hasn't submitted anything to SOA yet??? unless #2 dealer was BSing me...

josh.

 

[wojo]

DVTURK - thanks for the info. I just dropped my name from the waiting list at Stohlman's and placed a "factory order" with Farrish . I was #11 on Stohlman and now I am #3.

I had some trouble choosing the color, but decided to put blue down. After all, classic is classic.

 

[DVTURK]

Good deal.

Now we will have to wait until we see what the MSRP will be and the options.

My dealer is not taking down customer preferred colors until the official specs and options are made available.

 

[Emanon]

Japan

Well, alot of this allocation stuff is confusing. Basically, SOA buys cars from Subaru in Japan (Fuji). SOA then works through a their regional and district sales reps to sell the cars to individual dealerships.

What you have to understand is that at the dealership level, there's a bunch of dealing that goes on. If a dealership wants 5 STi, their sales rep may only offer them 3 STi (unless of course they want to buy 30 Baja, in which case 5 STi might work out).

Generally, high volume dealers get more cars. If all Subaru's cars were equally popular, all this would be simple. In the upcoming months, Suabru will have some very popular cars, and some not so popular.

I hope all this helps. Further, there is no central SOA sold order list. If dealers take deposits, it's at their discression.

What all this boils down to is, if you've got the money, put down deposits wherever you can.

 

[DVTURK]

My question to my Subaru Dealer
Do you know how many STis will be allocated to this area and how will they be distributed (e.g., distribute cars to #1 person on order list to all dealers in area then #2 on the list etc. or based on size of dealership)?


Dealer Response
Subaru will just send some many to each State, from there, they will distribute them amount the dealerships . They wont care how many deposits one dealership may have or not have.

I think you be fine, its the people four or fifth on the list need to worry.

 

[yxan2]

well my dealer told me that they will place an order as soon as there is an order sheet out with all the codes for all the options and color codes etc are out, he said that SOA wouldnt take an order on something that you couldnt order.. I know this goes against what alot of people have said but somehow I cant see how u can go thru with an order all the way to SOA with out really having an tangible object to buy yet. My guess is that some dealers have gone out and said that but wheter thats true or not remains to be seen

 

[CloNeGTS]

When I spoke to my dealer on the phone about putting down a deposit back in October, he said SOA was taking all of the pre-orders and putting them in a big pile as they got em. They were arranged by when you got the preorder in and in which region. Each region will get so many of the STis based on demand for this type of car (WRX). Then the region will distribute the cars to the people on the list.

That's how he explained it to me anyway. Logic says the time you placed your sold order is more important than dealer number. Otherwise, it's a race to find the backwoods dealer that hasn't heard of the STi yet and get an order in to be number 1. If that's how it will actually work......that's a real shame.

And now that I think about it......think of this. We are more or less custom ordering a car, just as you would if you said "I want a Rex with this goofy list of options, so order it for me." You would place the order and SOA would make the car and send it to you. Now those orders should be filled in time order, right? Otherwise, the smallest dealers would have the best turn around on new cars and the high volume dealers would have to say "Sorry, you are #10 on our WRX list, it'll be forever."

Does that make sense?

 

[daghdha]

That makes sense CloNeGTS...but from what emanon has said, it's the distribution reps who determine which dealership gets the sti's... they would be the one who actually does the ordering to SOA HQ...the dealers would just submit their orders to the distribution reps who would then place the order to SOA. refer to emanon's previous post in this topic.

confusion reigns again...

I agree that it would be sad if all you had to do was find some backwater dealership in la-la land and get on their #1 spot...while those who are #11 but placed their orders months agao wouldn't get anything. Then again, since when have corporations done what is fair or made sense?

Story. When I put a deposit on my #11 spot, the salesguy said he would fax this to subaru to reserve my place. So this is why I assumed that there was some SOA order list. (which emanon dispells as a myth).

I don't know if he was talking about the distribution rep, or SOA...but when I tried to get my name put on a second list, the #2 dealership also faxed my order to SOA/distribution rep. The next day, I get a call from the dealership saying that they got a call/fax from SOA/distribution rep saying that I was already on the sti list with dealer #11 and that the SOA/distribution rep wouldn't accept my spot. They named dealer #2 by name and everything, so I assume that it was legit. So it seems that if SOA is not doing some kind of list, the distribution rep does. Anyone know the distribution rep's phone number for the midwest area?

I guess they could have called around to all the other dealerships to make sure I'm not on the other dealer's list, but I highly doubt that...wouldn't make sense for them.

Strange huh? anyone know anything else about this?

josh.

 

[daghdha]

hey all,

I just thought to put closure to this question...

basically, emanon was right...each dealership will be given a number of sti's based upon past performance in the region. This way one dealership can't get the lion's share of the sti's because that wouldn't be fair to the other dealerships who'll probably end up bringing lawsuits up to the regional office if this happened.

And it seems at least in my region...(mid-america) that they aren't allowing more than one deposit per person/address... other regions might differ from this.

So it doesn't matter how early you get your order in to a dealership if you're #198 The distributors have to be fair to the dealerships, since the dealerships are their customers...

Thought to settle this once and for all...