Honda Acura, Nissan Infiniti and Toyota Lexus, which are the so-called "Japanese three masters", are also the only three high-end brands of Japanese cars.
Lexus is only sold in the form of imports, and the sales statistics are on different paths, so I will not interpret them here; now it can only be said that Lexus's sales are declining, and the reason may be related to Toyota's recent successive doxxing. Honda Acura used to have a joint venture brand, but it withdrew two years ago. Therefore, only Dongfeng Infiniti is still struggling to support the Japanese high-end car brands, and it is really difficult to speak alone in terms of sales data, referring to the figure below, which is the brand's retail sales data in January 2024.
The only models with data are the QX50/60, and the mid-size rear-drive sedan Q50L has actually been discontinued, although it has not been announced, so there is no data on the car in the monthly sales data for the past six months. No car brand has only two SUV models, and the product lineup is really not perfect, but the unpopularity of the QX50/60 is not simply because of the weak brand power, but also because the product power of the vehicle itself is quite weak.
Taking QX50 as an example, the guide price of the car is 333,800-469,800 yuan.
As a second-tier luxury brand, Infiniti wants to stand out, and QX50 should use a high-standard longitudinal engine architecture as a fuel vehicle, with medium and large displacement engines, and the transmission also needs to use automatic transmission.
Is the QX50 the standard?
The Infiniti QX50 uses a 2.0T engine, which is acceptable, but the engine adopts a transverse layout, which is the most basic drive architecture, and entry-level cars are also used, but some SUVs in the same price range also use the same architecture, so this standard is barely acceptable. However, the CVT for the transmission is a little too much, except for the Japanese cars, there is no car series for the middle and high-end cars with the continuously variable transmission! Because the original intention of the Dutchman Van Domins to invent this kind of transmission is to lower the price threshold of automatic transmission cars, the characteristics of the continuously variable transmission are low manufacturing costs, and the transmission efficiency is also the lowest, the focus is that its service life is relatively short.
Therefore, there are often only two types of automatic transmission cars that use continuously variable transmissions, one is entry-level cars, and the other is Japanese cars.
If the QX50 is placed in the Nissan brand, its terminal price will not increase by 200,000 yuan.
What about the QX60?
This car still uses a 2.0T engine, fortunately, the transmission is upgraded to 9AT, but it still uses a transverse engine platform; such a medium and large SUV is placed in the general joint venture brand, and the same standard car can refer to Volkswagen Tourang, Chevrolet Trailblazer, Buick Encore or Ford Edge L, the threshold price of the two-wheel drive version of these cars is already less than 200,000 yuan, and there are four-wheel drive options within 250,000 yuan.
So how much does the QX60 cost?
Its guide price is 378,800-619,800 yuan, it can be said that even BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi cars in the first-line luxury brands dare not set such a high price for such a car, Infiniti is really very courageous.
The three major luxury brands of Japanese automobiles have gone through an acura, Lexus has been selling in an imported way in order to maintain a sense of mystery, but unfortunately this mystery is also difficult to maintain; now only Dongfeng Infiniti is left, when a car series has only one joint venture luxury brand, even if its product power is strong enough, it is difficult to be recognized by the market, not to mention Infiniti's vehicle product power is still quite weak.
Therefore, although Infiniti has always emphasized that it will not withdraw from this market, its brand dealers are difficult to withstand the pressure, and it is naturally impossible to make the store operate normally without sales.
As a result, some Infiniti cars have been merged into the Dongfeng Nissan automobile network, so it can be predicted that Infiniti will be more difficult in 2024, because the competitiveness of Dongfeng Nissan's mid-range models has also declined, so it has to withdraw from the new model Nissan in the near future.
The above is the Nissan Tanlu, which is a medium and large SUV, and the standard is on par with the Infiniti QX60.
The engine used is also 2.0T, and the maximum power and peak torque are exactly the same as those of the QX60! Even the transmission uses ZF's second-generation transverse 9AT. It can be said that the Tanlu is the Nissan version of the QX60, so as long as the price of this car is low enough, the QX60 is bound to be eliminated. Nissan, whose brand power is weakening, has been very conservative in terms of new car pricing, the pre-sale price of Nissan Tanlu is 239,800 yuan for the two-wheel drive version and 279,800 yuan for the four-wheel drive version, and then look back at the Infiniti QX60 with a price covering 37-620,000 yuan, do you still have illusions about this brand?
Perhaps no matter how "stubborn" Dongfeng Infiniti is, the first issue of the sales report will also make car users gradually abandon this brand; when Infiniti steps on the edge of the market, the entire Japanese high-end car brand camp will collapse, and the golden age of Japanese cars is coming to an end.
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