LexFather

Well so much for that idea lol... Seems he likes Caddy..


http://www.inautonews.com/infiniti-c...s#.U7-vVe29LCQ

Vladi

Mr. Q has left the building. This was a wrong idea right from the get go. You can tell the green CEO by some screamingly visible irrelevant decisions that make no impact whatsoever like renaming the model lineup for instance. You rename your model lineup once you have a stellar products, all of them. Then you can consider a "brand reboot". But he even accomplished to fail at his own renaming game by having models wear defunct Q badge instead of super popular and most successful badge to date G.

Its easier to say than to get it done and no one here really knows what was going on behind the closed doors of Renault. Maybe he didn't even want to rename the line up, maybe he wanted to name them all Gs, maybe he expected more independence from mister egomaniac himself Ghosn, maybe he pushed for a completely different product but he was outnumbered. Or simply he was just fired for not knowing what the hell he was doing.

mmarshall

Either that, or GM may simply be offering him more.

He must have done something right at Audi when he was there, for sales to increase over 40%. Of course, that was also the period when the emergence of the Chris-Bangle BMWs (which he had no control of) drove some of their former customers over to Audi.

TangoRed

Now THAT is not good lol. He was the only reason I had confidence in Infiniti's future. Hope they find another visionary...

TangoRed

That was also the same time period where BMW sales were higher than ever.

mmarshall

True....but my point was that Audi also clearly benefitted.

Vladi's post about not knowing what goes on beyond closed doors at Renault is also a good point. Carlos Ghosn, like Henry Ford II, may (?) be the type of big-corporation CEO who simply doesn't want a potential rival for the top job just one or two steps under him. Old King Henry was notorious for that....firing the company's top execs right under him after they got a few years of experience.

doge

Yes but it bears no relevance, the 7 series and 5 series saw huge surges in sales. While you and I may think they are ugly, sales figures do not reflect it.

MPLexus301

iTrader: (3)

This I agree with.

But this part? I am not so sure. Why would you rename something once it's a stellar product and has so much brand equity? Would Toyota rename the Camry? Would BMW rename the 3 series? Would Mercedes rename the S class? No, no and no. If they were going to reboot with new names, I think they actually chose the perfect time to do it.

Right now I think it still looks weird because they renamed all models in a new model year, with the Q50 being the only one that actually received new sheetmetal and a redesign. Personally, because it was always "Q50", I don't look at the car and think, "This is/should be a G37," the same way I do about M37/Q70 or JX35/QX60. Really, the Q/QX monikers are simpler and I think that within three years when the entire lineup is redesigned with new Q/QX models, it will make more sense to all of us. It just seems odd to have a 2013 M37 sitting next to a 2014 Q70, and yet they're the same car visually. Give it time...

As for the issue at hand, I think this is bad news no matter how you look at it. De Nysschen is pretty clearly a guy who knows what he is doing and I had a lot of faith in his ability to make the changes necessary at Infiniti. Is he replaceable? Sure. I guess we have to wait to see who his successor is.

I think the future of Infiniti looks pretty odd right now. What was once a well-regarded Japanese luxury brand is now a mix of parts, platforms and engines from Mercedes, Nissan and Renault. Some of this is natural with the relationship between Nissan/Renault and Infiniti, but I still find their partnership with Mercedes to be odd, and I really dislike the rumor of the next E Class and Q70 sharing platforms. Infiniti begins to look like Mercedes' "other woman" where Merc gets what they want and goes back home at the end of the night.

Going to be an interesting few years...

LexFather

^^ great post


Just got an autonews update (it's private) he's being hired by Caddy. Obviously his heart and passion was not with Infiniti and I never understood fanboys complete defense of him while pinning all their hopes and dreams on him. He either will drown in GM red tape or help turn caddy around. There have been articles recently how Caddya dealers and employees have lost faith as they have no strong and tenured leadership, high levels leave abruptly all the time and sales I think are down 5% this year.

His claim to fame in two years is naming everything like Audi lol. Next up the new Cadillac Q1000!

mmarshall

We've actually had a couple of CAR CHAT threads on the issue of whether Infiniti should have gone with the all-Q/QX-naming system. I myself am of the opinion that regular names, without the alphabet or letter/number soup, make the most sense of all.....though much of CL seems split on that.

mmarshall

Thanks for the heads-up, Mike. Marry Barra must have been impressed with him. Cadillac (so far) seems to have been unaffected by the recent recalls/ignition-switch issues, too.

Let's see what he does now with Cadllac's XTS.....which, IMO, except for its AWD option and plush interior, was a joke from Day One.

Sulu

It may simply have been the fact that a number of positively contributing factors all played out at the same time for Audi.

By 2005, 20 years had passed since Audi's near death in the USA due to the unintended acceleration problems with the Audi 5000, and buyers of new Audis would not have remembered that fiasco. Also, Audi was pumping some exciting new models with innovative new technology starting from the late-1990s / early-2000s. It needed someone to get those great products out to willing buyers.

Comparatively, Infiniti did not have a lot of good product to sell in the 2 years that Mr. de Nysschen was there.

So he may be good at shepherding already established product to buyers but not very good at pushing for, and introducing new models into the market.

S2000toIS350

I am thinking the quick departure is due to:

Issues with Ghosn
The Q50 not meeting sales goals (he had stated the car needs to do the heavy lifting for the brand
No traction on improving brand perception (they do nothing for the customer in my opinion )
Not able to get things done (as evidenced by not being able to get a fix in place for the in touch system)
Sales are not going anywhere fast and without some meaningful coin rolling in, the needed investment in new product and the brand is not being supported by Nissan

Vladi

Well that was kind of my point really They took current models and renamed them. They took existing products built upon philosophy that brought them straight to the act that they have to reboot and they went on and included them all in the actual reboot. That's what I meant by not having a stellar product.

But ask yourself this, there is no right or wrong it' just some food for thought, the G was and still is their best car in the lineup so do they start the clean slate by getting rid of the most successful nameplate or even better question do you think its smart enough to turn the page and have redesigned G be their first model in reboot series of models? That would imply that next gen M has to be even better than the new G, which is highly unlikely.

Check out what Lexus has been doing. Whenever they debut new design language (philosophy reboot) they do it with GS, their most irrelevant model sales wise. Then after GS attracts some attention from the industry and public they drop the bomb with IS, bread and butter RWD, to build up on what GS has done for promotion of new philosophy and go full throttle with it. And then comes the iconographic LS like icing on the cake to complete the full circle. They know how to protect their "bread and butter" and hype it as hell. You regular Joe might have missed the debut of GS but by the time IS comes out everybody is talking about that spindle grill and your Joe hears about it, likes it and jumps straight into IS because of it.

Ok I am kind of oversimplifying this but like I said two different strategies with two different outcomes. There is no right or wrong.

When it comes to renaming I don't think any manufacturer is insane enough to dismiss iconic name plate like 3 series, S-class, RX, Accord, etc. But even here we have two upcoming strategies as well. MB has dropped CL and CLK in order for those models to feed of E and S class brand names. While on the other hand BMW doesn't want their coupes to be part of their 3 or 5 series sot they checked in the 4 and 6. So which one is right? Probably both cause intentions are different.

LexFather

Vladi your initial post was on point. I think some of it is a "circumstance" thing. It was NOT him that turned around Audi it was Pierch and a team effort. Pierch insisted Audi become like BMW and become a serious force.