As always thanks Carl, do you have any insight on the tourings taking longer than any other car ???
Percentage of model mix is skewed compared to our normal mix.
For example - looking at my inbound and ordered '19 Outbacks. Base model, 3 Premium options, 2 limited options, and touring. I have 2% base, 31% premium, 48% limited, and 19% touring.
My Ascent mix is running 37% Touring, 39% Limited, all the rest are premiums, but only 2 of those are actually order units, the rest of the premiums are just stock units. I have NO limited or touring coming in that aren't orders.
So it's pretty simple - they probably ordered parts based upon the normal expected mix, and when it's NOT the normal mix, you have issues. Back in the day, we were supposed to run a 50/50 mix of sedan / wagon. The line was balanced for that, and it was great when we'd run 2 sedan / 1 wagon, because it was just easier on us. When they'd run 1 sedan / 2 wagon ... or worse, 1 sedan / 3 wagon ... we ended up shutting the line down at least once every half hour just so we had time to catch up, because the wagons were a lot more work than the sedans. They probably balanced the line for a 50/50 Captains chair / bench seat production, because I'm sure the Captains chairs are harder to install. And other things - the rear camera, the front camera, and I'd bet the seat plant wasn't set for all that brown. If I were a betting man (oh, wait, I do play poker) I'd bet that we'll see issues for at least a few more months while they finish tweaking the production line AND the supply line.