Gasgoo.com (Shanghai Oct 21)– Dongfeng Nissan has enjoyed great success in the debut of the next-generation X-Trail and the company wants to deploy the same strategy for the new Qashqai SUV. But this time, this “sophisticated” carmaker has raised the sticker price on the new Qashqai by ¥20,000, so as to leave room for future bargain, according to an insider who is familiar with this issue.
The sticker prices for the 7 newly debuted Qashqai models differs from ¥139,800 to ¥189,800, which are about ¥20,000 higher than the old Qashqai, announced Nissan during the new Qashqai’s debut in Chengdu, China.
But most analysts believed Nissan’s pricing strategy was not smart at all, considered Qashqai’s less obvious advantages and vague product positioning. The new Qashqai’s price is not competitive in the small SUV segment. What’s more, the price reduction of some compact SUVs, such as X-Trail and RAV4, also poses much pressure on Qashqai.
Maybe Nissan has got a little cocky after the successful debut of X-Trail and made a wrong move on the pricing of new Qashqai. Or maybe this carmakerjust came up with this price to save room for bargain in the future. Clearly, the buyers are not buying this anyway and now it seems Nissan has already missed the chance to replicate X-Trail’s success on the Qashqai.
