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Old 1st April 2018, 12:50   #1
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Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan

Tough times for Nissan dealers. First, they received stepmotherly treatment from Hover - related thread.

Then, Nissan stepped in and established a direct relationship with them, but the company lost its way - related thread.

Not that Nissan dealers are angels - they don't even know how to spell 'customer service'. Here's a signed petition they have just sent to Nissan (including Carlos Ghosn).

Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan-replyfromall1001.jpg

Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan-replyfromall1002.jpg

Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan-replyfromall1003.jpg

Last edited by GTO : 6th April 2018 at 15:19.
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Old 1st April 2018, 14:52   #2
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Re: Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan

Nissan is a very sad story in India at least.

As the owner of a Nissan Sunny which is 6 years and 80000 km old, I can vouch for the quality and reliability of the vehicle, but Nissan cannot expect to release minor facelifts and sell 7+ year old models in this segment...

I fail to understand the logic behind the lethargy that Toyota, Nissan show towards the Indian market, when it comes to releasing new models.
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Old 1st April 2018, 15:19   #3
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Re: Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan

Does not look like all dealers are involved in this revolt. I cannot see the Mangalore dealer there, or anyone from Bangalore.
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Old 1st April 2018, 17:12   #4
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Re: Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan

Looks like Chopras, Sharmas and Botras who own the dealerships have not diversified across brands. They seem to own Nissan dealerships at multiple cities and towns.

Once a dealership owner signs up with a brand (Nissan/ Datsun), how difficult is it for him to exit the partnership and sign up with another brand? (Hyundai/ Maruti). I thought if a dealership is treated unfairly or if there are not enough volumes, there would be a natural attrition.

No point in complaining about rising Datsun sales. Still better than nothing.
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Old 1st April 2018, 18:22   #5
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Re: Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan

As we know manufacturers have thick skin!

It might be less effort to write to MG and Kia to explore the possibility of switching to their brands!

Last edited by ajmat : 2nd April 2018 at 11:35.
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Old 2nd April 2018, 09:57   #6
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Re: Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan

Quote:
Originally Posted by smartcat View Post
Looks like Chopras, Sharmas and Botras who own the dealerships have not diversified across brands. They seem to own Nissan dealerships at multiple cities and towns.

Once a dealership owner signs up with a brand (Nissan/ Datsun), how difficult is it for him to exit the partnership and sign up with another brand? (Hyundai/ Maruti). I thought if a dealership is treated unfairly or if there are not enough volumes, there would be a natural attrition.
Most dealers are unhappy due to the non promise of new models by Nissan. Further, while the Datsun sales are increasing, there has been a greater decline in the sales of Nissan. So the overall numbers are falling through the years. This will impact revenues for the dealer.

It is a known fact that money is mostly made on the recurring servicing of the vehicles sold and not the actual sale. After the free services are over, most if not all will shift to independent garages or do only the bare minimum needed to keep the car running.

Many car manufacturers will not allow multiple car brands under the same ownership. I know for a fact that MSIL won't allow their dealers to hold other car dealerships. There are other brands that do allow, at times either across different states or different segments e.g. a Fiat dealership and a Mercedes dealership.

Shifting to another brand (Maruti / Hyundai) is especially tricky due to the larger real estate space required + proximity with existing dealer. Not to mention the added renovation costs, bigger stockyard etc.
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Old 2nd April 2018, 10:10   #7
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Re: Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan

Quote:
Originally Posted by samaspire View Post
Does not look like all dealers are involved in this revolt. I cannot see the Mangalore dealer there, or anyone from Bangalore.
That's what I was wondering. 3 dealers in bangalore and none of them signed this petition.

The brand and some of it products had the ability to easy surpass Renault and even Ford but the company has badly messed it up and done irreversible damage to the brand name.

People are actually selecting Renault over Nissan.

What's worse is their international portfolio of cars has quite a few relevant for India models something that most manufacturers don't even have. The Qashqai, X-Trail, Kicks are perfect SUV's that have appeal for India.
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Old 2nd April 2018, 11:18   #8
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Re: Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan

Quote:
Originally Posted by smartcat View Post
Once a dealership owner signs up with a brand (Nissan/ Datsun), how difficult is it for him to exit the partnership and sign up with another brand? (Hyundai/ Maruti). I thought if a dealership is treated unfairly or if there are not enough volumes, there would be a natural attrition.

No point in complaining about rising Datsun sales. Still better than nothing.
Valid point but I think this letter could be

1. just a coordinated effort to prepare for exit from the brand to possibly adhere to some clause in the existing agreement which might require for some prior notice etc

2. possibly some internal negotiation for poor sales has fallen apart and hence the dealers are up in arms. the letter is possibly leaked to media to build pressure on Nissan to compensate dealers
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Old 2nd April 2018, 13:02   #9
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Re: Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan

Quote:
Originally Posted by AbhiJ View Post
As the owner of a Nissan Sunny which is 6 years and 80000 km old, I can vouch for the quality and reliability of the vehicle
Tell me about it. Very happy with the Sunny, but HATE the dealership experiences. I'm actually glad that the car is out of warranty now so that I can go to an independent after-market specialist.

Quote:
Originally Posted by smartcat View Post
Looks like Chopras, Sharmas and Botras who own the dealerships have not diversified across brands. They seem to own Nissan dealerships at multiple cities and towns.
Could be that they get better support (including monetary) from the company, or that they are in locations where it is actually viable to run a Nissan dealership.

Quote:
Once a dealership owner signs up with a brand (Nissan/ Datsun), how difficult is it for him to exit the partnership and sign up with another brand?
Not too difficult.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ajmat View Post
It might be less effort to write to MG and Kia to explore the possibility of switching to their brands!
I agree. Nissan doesn't appear to have a future in India and they should just wrap up the brand. But the dealers are probably trying their best to work things out with their existing partner before switching. If I were in the same predicament, I would happily drop Nissan in favour of Kia; the Koreans are showing a lot of promise.

Quote:
Originally Posted by blackwasp View Post
After the free services are over, most if not all will shift to independent garages or do only the bare minimum needed to keep the car running.
. Especially after the incompetent way in which they were treated during the warranty period. My Civic still visited the Honda dealer, even after the warranty expired, and my Mahindra did too, but no way that's happening with the Sunny.

Quote:
What's worse is their international portfolio of cars has quite a few relevant for India models something that most manufacturers don't even have. The Qashqai, X-Trail, Kicks are perfect SUV's that have appeal for India.
Nissan, from the very beginning, has given India step-motherly treatment. First was their focus on exports over local sales. Then there was the matter of appointing a middle man (the Hover rogues) to interface with its dealers. One cannot have a half-hearted approach in a market as competitive as India.
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Old 2nd April 2018, 15:24   #10
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Re: Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan

Quote:
Originally Posted by GTO View Post


. Especially after the incompetent way in which they were treated during the warranty period. My Civic still visited the Honda dealer, even after the warranty expired, and my Mahindra did too, but no way that's happening with the Sunny.
I agree with the Nissan service experiences being a pain. My Micra is 3 yrs old now, another year for the extended warranty to be dealt with and I cant wait to go to another service centre.
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Old 3rd April 2018, 10:39   #11
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Re: Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan

Things are going from bad to worse. This is the latest email sent by the group of Nissan dealers:

Quote:
Dear Sir/s,

In continuation to the previous mail (3 attachments, reply from all, signatures), Nissan India management's reply was to threaten termination to the dealers instead of facing up to the real problem.

They want the dealer body to disown the earlier email.

Also some other major concerns are being highlighted as follows:

1. Increase in market-share promise to media outlets to get new dealers on board, but inaction in terms of product lineup (link).

2. Comparison of old vs new infrastructure setups; reduction in sizes clearly indicates a step back rather than a step forward in market share (comparative photographs attached).

3. True intention is to use India as a production base & the Indian local dealer body as a mule test run for their dated products.

It seems to be heading the Chevrolet (GM) way with closures of dealerships. Since 2014, more than 30 dealers have either been shut / closed / forced into closure & Nissan appoints new dealers with smaller infrastructure to ease closure of operations in case they exit India (find attached sample expiry termination letter).

The dealership agreement is like a one-sided dotted line agreement giving Nissan the privilege to exit without any liability.

Majority of the dealerships and their dealer principals are facing bankruptcy which will add to the country's NPA woes. Dealers have a genuine fear that Nissan could exit India leaving dealers in the lurch.
Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan-img_8285.jpg

Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan-old-vs-new.jpg

Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan-old-vs-new2.jpg

Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan-old-vs-new3.jpg
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Old 3rd April 2018, 10:57   #12
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Re: Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan

I think this will soon go the GM way for Nissan. Even worse! Even GM (at least in the initial years) treated India more seriously.

I mean, they entered India mass market with 2 cars - Micra and Sunny. Still carrying on with the two. Apart from that - numerous iterations of the same car under Datsun badge: Go, Go +, Redigo, EasyGo, Go cross. Soon, it would be GONE!

Last edited by Nav-i-gator : 3rd April 2018 at 11:03.
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Old 3rd April 2018, 16:19   #13
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Re: Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan

Another sad event for Nissan, and they are treading along the lines of GM. Lack of mutual trust between dealers and Nissan wont help the latter in long run. For the products, I have repeatedly stated that atleast Sunny has untapped potential but the price cut came in too late. Nissan is exasperatingly slow to bring new products at a time when they do have such products in other markets. Maruti is a market leader for a reason; 3rd generation Swift/Dzire is finding new homes while Nissan is planning to work on a reworked existing Micra platform for new Micra. Why such treatment to Indian customers ? No sympathy towards Nissan IMHO.

While in general, and to the best of my knowledge, Nissan dealers are not exactly oriented towards customer service/satisfaction, in case of Nissan it seems to me that they lack any sort of motivation now. Their worry about ROI certainly makes sense, but IMO they still can open dealership for another brand depending upon contract. If Tata Motors could make a comeback, then Nissan certainly could have done the same given their vast resources and long list of products/powertrains. For that matter even FCA could bounce back on a single product. Wonder how or rather why Nissan couldn't do the same.

Might sound harsh, but winding up domestic sales is best bet for Nissan to prevent further damage to "Nissan" brand. Surprisingly, Toyota, Nissan and Honda haven't fared well Indian small car market.

Last edited by aaggoswami : 3rd April 2018 at 16:21.
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Old 3rd April 2018, 20:28   #14
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Re: Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vid6639 View Post

People are actually selecting Renault over Nissan.
Renault is making better decisions in the market, even though their own decisions aren't the greatest. The Duster came before the Terrano and the Kwid has no Nissan equivalent, by which I mean the Datsun doesn't have the same look which is what is driving the Kwid's sales. Even the Logan had a taxi-driver following of some sort.

Here in the US as well, Nissan doesn't make particularly exciting cars, but their cars are pretty competitive and similar to the other mass market players. Thus, they have a decent market share.

Instead, Nissan India launched the Evalia which was disastrous before it was even produced, the Micra and Sunny which are old and were not even particularly competitive/technologically advanced/good looking when they were launched. Essentially lacking USPs or differentiation.

For the Indian market, always look at Hyundai. They have consistently held a challenge to Maruti by offering us a lot of interesting options such as sunroofs, 6-airbag options, automatics when nobody had them and all of these decisions based on good, competitive cars like the i10, i20 and Verna.

I genuinely feel bad for Nissan dealers. As a sales and marketing guy, it is extremely difficult to motivate oneself about a boring or dated product. Motivating the customer is another challenge altogether. Jeep has proven that the launch of an interesting car is all you need. Nissan have missed the bus.

Last edited by carmayogi : 3rd April 2018 at 20:37.
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Old 3rd April 2018, 22:54   #15
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Re: Nissan dealers up in arms; send a signed petition to Nissan India & Nissan Japan

Quote:
Originally Posted by narayan View Post
Valid point but I think this letter could be

1. just a coordinated effort to prepare for exit from the brand to possibly adhere to some clause in the existing agreement which might require for some prior notice etc

2. possibly some internal negotiation for poor sales has fallen apart and hence the dealers are up in arms. the letter is possibly leaked to media to build pressure on Nissan to compensate dealers
From what I’ve learnt, this is motivated by some of the terminated dealers of Nissan who haven’t sold a single car in many months and their customers are actually highly dissatisfied.
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