After many years, GAC Acura has returned to the public's attention again, and it is actually in the way of "bidding farewell" to the Chinese market.
Recently, a number of media reported that the factory of GAC Acura has stopped production, and the few remaining exhibition halls have either demolished the Acura display or dismantled it after the inventory is cleared. As for the follow-up maintenance, the future will be taken over by GAC Honda, although there will be no major difference in service, but the previous second-line luxury will obviously be discounted.
Although GAC Acura officially did not issue any official statement and said that "we are still working normally", combined with the facts that have been put in front of us, this explanation is obviously particularly weak. Let's take it for a moment that GAC Acura is saving some of its dignity and decency.
Since entering the domestic market in September 2006, Acura's sales performance has been very sluggish.
In the 10 years from 2006 to 2016, although lexus was sold in china in the form of imports, it was not recognized by the market due to excessive pricing and "dissatisfaction" with the Chinese market. Later, in 2016, GAC Acura was established to start a localization strategy, but it still failed to arouse consumer interest. In 2021, the cumulative sales volume was only 6554 vehicles, down 45.05% year-on-year, and it sold 0.53 million vehicles in a single month in December last year, a record high, and now it seems that it is just a wave of clearance.
After more than ten years of ups and downs, it is difficult to escape the end of "losing" the Chinese market, although people feel sorry for it, but it is not worth regretting. Because of this evil result, GAC Acura itself "made" step by step.
After Acura entered the Chinese market, it did not succeed in establishing a luxurious brand image. From the beginning of the introduction of RL and TL, because of its high pricing by the BBA hanging, to 2012 to lower the posture to launch the price of about 320,000 ILX, because of the configuration of a single and 1.5L hybrid by the market dislike, 10 years of import era, Acura has always hovered on the edge of the luxury market. The situation of weak brand awareness and influence, until the arrival of GAC Acura, did not improve at all, and was even ridiculed as "Chang'an King" and "Hardcover Version Tian".
As for the later "fracture" promotion in order to sell the car, its retention rate dropped rapidly, and the old owners wanted to cry without tears. Bending the knee to "enter the excess" Honda 4S store to carry out sales, have further lost Acura's already small sense of luxury. The luxury market plays the brand premium and the sense of image honor, acura is good, directly play this "face".
In addition, Acura's product planning in the domestic market is also very confused, the product matrix is not perfect, the localization progress is slow, the model launch and update iteration rate is slow, the product is not in line with the market demand and a series of factors, which directly leads to the embarrassing situation of "no car to sell" in GAC Acura. Domestic production for 5 years, only brought three models, the current model on sale is only CDX and RDX two, TLX-L because the price is too high, can not just pass the BBA and other competitive models have been retired in advance. This is in stark contrast to up to six models on sale in the North American market.
If Acura is developed by the United States, it is more in line with the taste needs of North American consumers. Then, when the TLX-L is folded one after another, the Acura RDX, which acts as a savior, still chooses to introduce "original" into the country, which seems to be a bit self-contained. Domestic consumers like "big" cars, so most of the models introduced by joint venture car companies will be extended to hang "L", but RDX insists on "self", although the mechanical quality is quite durable, but because its body size is not as large as Honda Guandao, the configuration is decent, and the lackluster brand appeal, the price of 328,000 yuan is really difficult to arouse the attention of consumers.
As for the high price of GAC Acura's products, it is one of the main impressions of consumers on its brand. Even if it has reached the stage of inventory clearance, the terminal discount is still only 50,000-70,000, and the normalized offers of other second-tier luxury brands are not much different. So many consumers who want to read the bottom, go out and turn around and go to the competitor store next door.
Even in the highly inclusive Chinese market, the survival of the fittest is also pursued. And GAC Acura's mistake is that it is too self-sufficient, unwilling to bend the knee to understand the real needs of the market, which is something that can learn half of Lexus's skills, and will not end up in such a mess. However, losing the battle in the domestic market does not mean that it cannot be found in other fields, just like Suzuki found confidence in the Indian market, Acura may also be cured in the North American market.
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