Here is another article to get your minds thinking a little. Last time I wrote about Perodua/ Daihatsu not giving us what Indonesia gets. This time it is Nissan Malaysia.
Now Nissan Indonesia's idea of what an urban crossover vehicle that is chic, cool, hip, modern, hipster, tumblr, uber, rad and phoar is so much more chic, cool, hip, modern, hipster, tumblr, uber, rad and phoar compared to what Nissan Malaysia has in store for us. Take a look at what is offered by Nissan Indonesia above, and what Nissan Malaysia is offering us below.
This is the official small Crossover offering by Nissan here in Malaysia - the X-Gear. I mean honestly. When I am over in Jakarta I see many Jukes plying the jam packed streets of Jakarta. The car is actually quite cool to look at, quite cool to be seen driving in and obviously quite cool getting in an out of one.
When I am in Kuala Lumpur I do not see many Nissan X-Gear supposed crossover vehicles around. Once in every two months actually. There is a reason for this obviously. Nothing in the world could look so fuddy duddy and dull at the same time. Even an uncle with no taste would agree that the Juke would knock the socks off the X-gear into the year 1985, where it belongs. I mean look at the styling. I think Honda did the Civic Shuttle which was styled like this (without plastic bits) back then. Slapping on some plastic cladding here and there and very slightly taller springs do not a Crossover make.
I sometimes feel we do not get cool stuff like the Indonesians and even the Thais get. It is not as if the price of cars are so expensive here. 282,600,000 Rupiah is actually RM86,000 or thereabouts. Even if it becomes around RM100,000 with CKD assembly with taxes here in Malaysia it should sell like how the Honda HRV is selling. Hotcakes. (It should sell higher here due to taxes - as a comparison, a base Grand Livina sells for RM61,000 whereas here is goes for RM83,000). Why should it sell? Well, it looks good doesn't it? Anything that looks better than the X-gear should sell actually. We need something radical like a Juke instead of the X-gear.
I mean Malaysians are a very look and style conscious bunch of people. They want good looking things within a certain price range. Both brand and looks matter. Something that looks like the X-gear is bound to sell in numbers which it is selling today compared to the Crossovers offered by Honda, Mazda and even Haval. I think the cheaper M4 is getting more sales than this poofy looking crossover. I also think that Mazda is damn happy with the sales of the CX-3 which costs so much more.
I cannot understand the business logic here. Similar parts with the Grand Livina? Who cares if you sell less than your competitors. Somehow, Indonesia still gets a few cars we should get. A lot of our car companies are holding back. Instead of getting a fashion forward styled Juke, we get a horrid Joke of an X-Gear. And we supposedly are the higher GDP per capita country and supposedly have a more developed nation status. You we sure about this? We're getting something supposedly chic and cool styled in 1985 instead of 2016.
Note: This is the official lineup of vehicles for Nissan Malaysia. Note the Crossover section
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