Liberty, Exiga wagons out, says Subaru

SUBARU has confirmed it will drop two wagons from its passenger car line-up as buyers show a preference for high-riding SUV versions of the vehicles.

Subaru Australia national corporate affairs manager David Rowley said the Liberty wagon and seven-seat Exiga would both be culled from the car-maker’s line-up next year in response to slow demand.

“There won't be a Liberty wagon or Liberty Exiga in the MY15 line-up due early next year,” Mr Rowley said.

“Outback offers a flexible SUV alternative to the Liberty wagon.”

Subaru is slowly becoming an SUV specialist, with sales of the Outback – essentially a high-riding version of the Liberty wagon – Forester wagon and Impreza hatchback-based XV accounting for almost seven out of every 10 sales the brand makes in Australia.

The Japanese car-maker is preparing the way for a new Outback model to join the Australian line-up early next year, which it hopes will substantially add to sales of the urban-friendly adventure lifestyle vehicle.

The car-maker flagged at this year’s New York motor show that the new Outback would also play a markedly more important role in Subaru’s global line-up than the current version, with the Liberty wagon and Liberty Exiga flagged as casualties.

Subaru late last year announced the death of its larger, taller Tribeca seven-seat SUV, axed after sluggish sales in North America.

The car-maker is still finding the market tough in Australia, with sales over the first six months of this year falling by 3.2 percent as June sales slumped by 6.5 percent compared with last year.

The boxy Forester SUV continues to be Subaru’s strongest seller, followed closely by the XV crossover that sells in one of the fastest-growing segments of Australia’s new-car market. Its strongest selling mainstream model is the Impreza small hatchback.