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Subaru has been in a slump lately, but it appears the worst of it may be over. After engineering a pretty big shift in its assembly strategy last year, it looked like Subaru had lost its grip on two wildly different groups of buyers: WRX and Outback fans. Well, followers of the flat engine can rest a little easier, because Subaru has apparently stopped the bleeding.
It’s a little early to say for certain, but April seemed like the brand’s inflection point. For the first time since temporarily axing the base model WRX for 2025, Subaru regained traction with its sport compact, with sales jumping 50% from a year ago. That trend continued in May. On paper, in fact, last month looked even more impressive: WRX sales were up 148% compared to the prior year, but that’s only because last year’s volume was particularly abysmal (just 482 units). That makes this past month’s volume of 1,195 look quite good indeed, but sales had already improved to 1,178 units back in April.
WRX isn’t quite back to where it was in 2024, but that matters way less to Subaru right now than another model whose volume fell off in recent months: Outback. It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that Outback is the company’s key profit generator, especially here in the United States. Forester may do more volume, but Outback’s more affluent buyers are Subaru’s most coveted. And for much of the past year, its sales have been in steady decline.
There are good reasons for that. Like WRX, Outback was hit by Subaru’s assembly reorganization last year. Production of the wagon moved from Indiana to Japan to make room for U.S. production of the Forester, whose lower margins make it more vulnerable to the price impact of tariffs.
But now, the Outback appears to be out of its stupor. Some have gone so far as to call the Outback’s SUV-ish styling pivot a failure, but the numbers so far in 2026 are telling a different story. While it still hasn’t caught up with its 2024 volume just yet, Subaru managed to sell more than 11,250 Outbacks in May, just besting its monthly tally from a year ago. With 48,884 sold so far in 2026, the midsizer’s volume is still off by nearly 22%, but if the current trend continues, it should eat up a good chunk of that remaining deficit before the year is out.
Fortunately for Outback (and more importantly, for Subaru’s financial health), there’s good news elsewhere in the portfolio. Both the Trailseeker and Uncharted are finding buyers, and the now-U.S.-built Forester is absolutely flying off lots again. It’s up over 8% for the year and appears to be accelerating once again after a comparatively unremarkable April.
When we checked on Subaru after Q1, the company’s U.S. volume was down 15% compared to 2024. After April, that shrunk to 12.7%. With May in the books, Subaru is now down just 8.3% compared to last year. At this rate, Subaru could end the year up compared to 2025. Who saw that coming back at the end of Q1?
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Byron is an editor at The Drive with a keen eye for infrastructure, sales and regulatory stories.
