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We project that sales of the new Legacy will bring overall sales of domestic passenger cars up 4.4 thousand units above previous year's total. We also predict sales of all minicar models to drop, with an estimated decline of 12.2 thousand units, while overall domestic automobile sales (including passenger and minicar sales) will decrease by 7.8 thousand units.
The U.S. market is expected to experience a sales increase of 36.9 thousand units. This increase will come primarily from sales of the Legacy, with a projected increase of 30.2 thousand units, and the Forester, whose sales are expected to rise by 16.6 thousand units. This upsurge will compensate for the anticipated 5.9 thousand unit decline for the Impreza and a decrease of 4.0 thousand units for the Tribeca. In Canada, sales are expected to increase for all models with the exception of the Tribeca, resulting in an increase of 4.0 thousand units. Sales in Russia are expected to remain sluggish. Shipments to Russia will be limited to a small quantity of the new Legacy and the Forester, with an overall projected decline of 19.0 thousand units. Sales in Europe will also fall for all models across the board, leading to an overall decrease of 20.5 thousand units. In Australia, sales are expected to pick up in the second half period with the launch of the new Legacy, limiting declining sales there to a mere 1.3 thousand units. In China where we have been enjoying buoyant sales, we expect sales to increase 23.3 thousand units overall with performance of the Legacy increasing by 9.4 thousand units and the Forester by 15.7 thousand units. In other markets, we expect sales to drop for all models, with a total decrease of 11 thousand units. These figures all add up to an overseas sales increase of 12.5 thousand units. Combined with the projected sales decline in the domestic market totaling 7.8 thousand units, we expect to see an increase of 4.7 thousand units. These estimates bring the projected total sales volume to 560 thousand units, up 52.1 thousand units above our original forecast at the beginning of this fiscal year.