Market and Sales
Subaru marketed the Baja in the United States, Canada, and Chile. Limited advertising, late arrival of the turbo-charged model, heavily styled lower-body plastic cladding and a yellow-and-silver introductory color scheme discouraged broad appeal. James Healey, writing for USAtoday at the time of the Baja's introduction called it a "controversial fashion statement with limited utility".
The Baja received the 2003 and 2004 J.D. Powers's APEAL (for Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout Study) Award—measuring owner delight with the design, content, layout and performance of their new vehicles for "Most Appealing Compact Pickup" and the Consumer Reports 2006 highest score for reliability in the pickup truck category.
With Subaru projecting to sell 24,000 per year, only 30,000 were sold over four and a half years. Subaru discontinued Baja production in April 2006. However, Subaru stock-piled an inventory of 2006 models before discontinuing production, allowing dealers to continue to selling 2006 models as late as February 2008. The Baja was removed from the Subaru USA website on July 31, 2007, following its removal from the Subaru Chile website in April 2007.
Read more about this topic: Subaru Baja
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