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NEWS
Nissan Pulsar's aggressive stroke
New small car revives pricing and revered name from the past to draw in the puntersNissan is delivering a broadside with its new Pulsar to re-establish the company's presence in the small car segment.
And the importer must get the car's launch right, says the company CEO Bill Peffer, because much rides on positive market acceptance for the Pulsar. As we reported last year, sales of Nissan's superseded small car, the Tiida, have been on a constant slide since the car's mishandled launch in 2006, and sales in 2011 were just 3577 – barely 20 per cent of N16 Pulsar sales during that model's last full year on sale.
And the small car segment is critical to the growth plans of any volume-selling company in Australia. The typical small car is the accepted vehicle of choice for the modern Australian family. In sales for 2012 so far, the small car segment – including prestige small cars – represents nearly 44 per cent of passenger cars and nearly 23 per cent of all vehicles sold, according to industry statistician, VFACTS.
It's an important segment, which is why it's also highly competitive.
So the company has revived an old model name for the new car, has specified the right equipment for the target buyer and has carefully positioned the car to find its way readily on to shopping lists around the nation.
Bill Peffer provided some background to motoring.com.au at the Australian International Motor Show last week. Asked whether Nissan Australia had considered adopting the name 'Sentra' rather than 'Pulsar' for the new car (pictured), Mr Peffer indicated the US market model name had been considered.
"Certainly it was something we looked at," he responded. "But if you look at the awareness of the Pulsar name in this country, seven years after its departure, it's over 70 per cent. Compare that to the Tiida that's just going out of production after six years, there's 56 per cent awareness.
"There's over 300,000 Pulsars still in operation, in this country, seven years after the last one was built. So the equity we built through five generations and 25 years of Pulsar made it a clear choice to bring it back as the Pulsar."
What about the price of the new car? It's considerably more expensive than the Tiida, at entry level, but remains just under the $20,000 price threshold that seems to be such a long-standing impediment for small-car buyers in this market. Equipped as standard with alloy wheels and Bluetooth across the range, the Pulsar has arrived in Australia at an entry-level price ($19,990) that pitches it directly against the new Toyota Corolla – and undercuts other market rivals, the Mazda3 and Hyundai Elantra. Nissan has promoted the fact that the Pulsar's base price is the same as it was for the N15 model back in 1996. But does that cheapen the car, if anything, in the eyes of buyers?
"I'm not aware of anybody that has ever bought a new car with an RRP that is too cheap," replied Mr Peffer. "The car is value-packed and hasn't inflated in price in 16 years. This is a ballistic segment; we need a fast start. One in four cars are sold in this segment, so we don't have the luxury of waiting for a logical ramp-up; we're going to have to enter this market with several thousand units of sales, from the get-go.
"We've only got one choice, to launch it and do it right this time."
Out of curiosity, we checked with Hyundai marketing director, Oliver Mann, since both Hyundai's Elantra and i30 models are now among the more expensive entrants in the small car segment. At entry level both the Hyundais are more expensive than the Pulsar and the new Toyota Corolla, and they are priced higher than even the Mazda3 – not only the most popular small car in the country, but currently Australia's top-selling car of any kind.
"One thing you've got to keep in mind I guess, is there's retail price and there's transaction price," Mr Mann explained. "I think the Tiida had a retail price of 18 or 19 grand, I think it was... and it was trading for about 15.
"The list price is one thing, the transaction price is something that all manufacturers then fiddle with. And we have to do that honestly, when supply is kind of doing this [using a hand gesture to mimick a roller coaster]. You're continually trying to balance availability with sales opportunities.
"But what we're not, obviously, is we're not repositioning, which is what several of our competitors are doing – and we're not into being a heavy discount brand."
So Hyundai is clearly putting behind it any intimation it's a producer of budget-buy cars, but can it and Mazda hold off a hard-charging Nissan?
The battle in the small car segment has just got interesting...
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Written byKen Gratton
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