10-06-2010, 12:25 PM | #1 |
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Nissan will build 4 Door B-Segment Car for Smart Dealers
Several news sources are reporting that Nissan will build a small 4-door vehicle to be sold by the U.S. Smart dealers beginning in the fourth quarter of 2011. It appears the vehicle will be in the exact segment targeted by the Fiat 500 and the Scion iQ.
Here's a link to a report by the Detroit Free Press - click here In my opinion, this deal is ironic on two different levels. First, it's ironic that Penske goes to Nissan to bail out his struggling Smart franchises since it was Nissan who pulled the plug at the last minute and killed his plans to buy Saturn from GM. It was reported at the time that Nissan would ultimately supply Saturn and the U.S. Nissan dealers convinced Nissan to kill the deal. Second, it's ironic that it's OK for Nissan to help Smart because Smart is part of Daimler. (Daimler and Nissan have a limited partnership for small cars.) My bet is the Nissan dealers won't be happy about this deal to bail out Smart but it will be hard to fight because it has support in the Ivory Tower. |
10-06-2010, 12:50 PM | #2 |
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Here's an illustration released by Daimler indicating what the vehicle might look like:
Overall, I like it but I still think the Scion iQ has a more youthful/aggressive stance that will appeal to more buyers.
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10-06-2010, 02:52 PM | #3 |
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I just read the report in Automotive News and thought the following excerpt was very interesting:
"Nissan currently is developing two vehicles to be sold for about $10,000 each in the United States, Patrick Pelata, Nissan's chairman for the Americas, said in January at the Detroit auto show." To be clear, although there's nothing to suggest the vehicle sold by Smart will be priced at $10K, it must be sobering for a potential Fiat dealer to think they might have to compete in that arena with a vehicle that may cost $4K to $5K more. I'm not dumping on the Fiat 500 - I still think it's a pretty cool car - I just can't get passed how competitive that segment will become. It sounds like the Fiat dealers will be competing with MINI, BMW, Audi and Scion on the high side and Nissan and Smart on the low side. I wonder how many buyers there are once they're split-up among all the OEMs?
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10-06-2010, 03:04 PM | #4 | |
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Quote:
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10-07-2010, 08:27 AM | #5 |
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Just saw an ad for the new Jetta at 15990.00. Very nice looking car, if the 500 has to compete with that it could be a tough go.
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