Despite Lost Sales, Infiniti Says Name Change Right Move
#46
Lexus Champion
Lexus did this too. LS400, LS430, GS400, GS430. Toyota had some great names: Celsior, Aristo etc. But they knew nobody would pay $50 -75K for a Toyota so they resorted to creating a brand.
Personally I would love to call my GS an Aristo!
#47
Acura went through the same challenges many years ago when they discontinued the Legend name, which was pretty well-known and respected, and went with the TL designation. I'm still not sure the average person knows what a TL is (and now it's a TLX).
#48
#49
Lexus Fanatic
iTrader: (20)
I have no idea what are these same names supposed to mean anymore. And i worked in car industry for 9 years, and follow cars on daily basis.
If I have no clue anymore what is what, I have no idea how do they expect regular people to figure it out... oh wait, they cant.
car names are MEANINGLESS except for branding and even then, bmw changed the 'oh so important' number of their best selling coupe from 3 series to 4 series and it had NO impact on sales.
#50
Lexus Fanatic
The only Japanese-designed open-top AWD vehicle I can remember (if you can remember any more, feel free to post) was the ill-fated Suzuki X90, an awkward design with only minimal sales. Not surprisingly, it didn't last very long. And it wasn't a true convertible...more along the lines of a T-Top with removable panels.
#51
Lexus Fanatic
Originally Posted by bitkahuna
well you don't know the names because you don't care. it's really not very complicated with q for sedans and qx for utilities of various sizes (3,5,6,7,8,etc), just like audi with a and q models.
if people like what they see they'll figure it out.
#52
Have to agree with bit here....though it's not necessarily a matter of people liking or not liking what they see. The alphabet soup from automakers may look (or seem) daunting at first, but familiarity comes with repeated exposure to it. An then, just when everybody is getting used to it........some new managers come along and change it to something else LOL.
#54
Pole Position
I dont understand Infiniti or Acura. Both companies either use the Maxima/Altima platform or Accord/Civic platform for all their models and calls it luxury. Since when is a sales decline a good thing? Especially it is over a name change?
#55
Lexus Test Driver
Originally Posted by situman
I dont understand Infiniti or Acura. Both companies either use the Maxima/Altima platform or Accord/Civic platform for all their models and calls it luxury. Since when is a sales decline a good thing? Especially it is over a name change?
#56
Lead Lap
#58
Lexus Champion
#59
Lead Lap
#60
I say Infiniti marketing team royally screwed up on the renaming of the models. A horrible decision.
The G has years and years of brand recognition, There is a lot of value in that. It takes a long time to build a model brand like that. And in one swift swoop it's all gone.
I say the marketing guy at infiniti smoked too much pot and over fantasized on the brand strategy.
that's like lexus changing up the IS line to C class, like bmw changing 3 series brand to a name like "autobahn". It's just plain stupid, and hence, u see the sales results now.
The G has years and years of brand recognition, There is a lot of value in that. It takes a long time to build a model brand like that. And in one swift swoop it's all gone.
I say the marketing guy at infiniti smoked too much pot and over fantasized on the brand strategy.
that's like lexus changing up the IS line to C class, like bmw changing 3 series brand to a name like "autobahn". It's just plain stupid, and hence, u see the sales results now.