ordering and VDCs

[aptosca]

I'm thinking (planning?) on getting a VDC. I'm trying to understand how the
market works on this.

I did a bunch of research on all the car buying services, etc., people like
Costco, Autobytel, etc. It appeared that most of what these folks do is
contact the local dealers, charging them a referal fee in the bargin. Heck.
I can do that and since the dealer doesn't need to pay a referral fee, maybe
they can quote cheaper. Subaru makes it easy enough to ask for a quote from
the dealers through their web site. I'm guessing Subaru doesn't charge for
leads.

So I contacted a bunch of dealers in the area. Nice thing on the Subaru
quote form is that you don't have give a phone number so you can decide when
to switch from e-mail to phone to in-person.

It's actually gone pretty well. Nice easy e-mail exchanges with a few
dealers in the area.

But here's the question: they seem to be consistent on saying you pretty
much have to order a VDC. Using the Subaru inventory searches (don't know
how accurate those are), it does in fact look like there are few VDCs on any
lots. At the same time, I've always heard that Japanese car makers don't do
factory ordering.

So does anyone know how this works? If I order with a dealer, does that go
all the way back to the factory? Or does Subaru make a smattering of these
cars and use the orders to figure out how to allocate them with any extra
(are there extras?) going to lots? There are some on the lots, it appears,
unless these are ordered cars where the inventory system isn't taking that
into account or where the order fell through. But very few.

I've had dealers give two prices: one for picking up immediately/soon vs.
ordering. Low for ordering, high for not ordering. I'm trying to figure
out the economics of this. Are these things order-only even though there is
sufficient walk-on-the-lot demand? That's about the only way I can see the
pricing making sense. An artifically low supply?

 

[MDCORE]

I have an '01 VDC.
When I bought it, I read that only about 12% of the Outbacks made were the 6
cylinder models, and of those only about 18% were VDC's (I'm giving these
figures from memory- they may not be spot on, but they're close).
So of the 180,000 or so Outbacks sold that year, less than 20,000 were 6
cylinder, and about 3600 of those were VDC.

I don't think it's an artificially low supply, there just aren't that many
people willing to spend that kind of $$ on a Subie. At that price level, you
could get an entry level Beamer, Mercedes (I think), or Lexus. Maybe not with
AWD, but the market gets a little different at that price level.

You don't say where you're located, and what area you're looking at.
I am in the Mid Atlantic (eastern panhandle of WV), and there were enough
dealers within a 4 hour drive that I had a pretty decent selection to choose
from. The cheapest price I found was at Fitzgerald Automall. I took their
posted price to the other dealers and they were quick to match their price on
what I wanted.

I don't know why they would want so much more if they had to order one- since
they aren't paying interest on the vehicle for the time it sits on their lot
until they sell it, it should actually be cheaper to the dealer to order one,
get it in, and move it right out.

dukephoto

 

[Pete Grey]

I"ve got an 05 VDC that I ordered.
Some dealers won't admit that can factory order, but they can.

They said 6 weeks, took about 5.
Paid 1000 over invoice.

-pete

 

[aptosca]

I figured the same thing about an order: costs them little.

From what the dealers are telling me (and these appear to be fairly
straightforward folks), few if any VDCs show up here that aren't ordered.
The claim is that the ones on the lots are ones for which an order fell
through. I suppose that's not out of the realm of possiblitiy, since, as
you mention, 30K+ is not a well known price point for Subaru. There are a
few on the lots by the Subaru inventory system, but not many, so not a
terribly large amount of competition. (On the other hand, how much walk-on
demand for VDCs? Don't know.)


Man, the Fitz quote is $300 less than invoice. The quotes here over
invoice, though less than Edmunds TMV.