Infiniti
Infiniti, the premium vehicle brand of Nissan Motor Company, officially entered the North America automotive market in late 1989. The marketing target was the premium vehicle customer in the USA with little interest in Nissan’s mainstream models. The brand arrived concurrently with premium market rival Lexus, which Toyota created as a corporate division and introduced following Honda’s successful launch of its Acura premium brand a few years earlier.
Infiniti initially launched two models, the Q45 with an eight-cylinder, 278-horsepower engine, four-wheel steering, and an active suspension system and the two-door M30, a badge-engineered Nissan Leopard with a six-cylinder, 162-horsepower engine and an automatic transmission. The M30 coupe was underpowered for its weight, the heavier M30 convertible more so, the M30 bore little exterior resemblance to the larger Q45, and their interiors were almost completely different.
By the mid-’90s, Infiniti sales lagged behind those of Lexus and Acura. In 1999, Infiniti revived as the G20 the discontinued Nissan Primera, a compact sport sedan. The company marketed the G20 as a competitor to European entry-level luxury sport sedans, but it was heavier than the Primera, and its four-cylinder engine disappointed performance expectations. Marketed mainly to middle-aged professional women, it lost out to the similarly-priced Acura Integra.
By 2000, the brands slow sales had it in financial trouble. The company rededicated itself to the development of sporty luxury cars. This helped redesign the Q45 for the 2002 model year, and the G35, a sports sedan replacement for the G20, was very successful. Motor Trend magazine voted it Car of the Year in 2003 which improved more than sales.
Nissan developed a business strategy to separate Infiniti from its Nissan roots and re-define the brand as a Japanese BMW. The automotive press acclaimed the M35/M45 when it won an eight-car comparison test inCar and Driver, and Consumer Reports rated it as the best luxury sedan. With the same eight-cylinder engine as the Q45, the M45 became the flagship model after Infiniti discontinued the Q45 in 2006. For the 2007 model year, Infiniti introduced a redesigned G35 sedan followed in 2008 by the G37 coupe and the new EX35 compact crossover, the brand’s first compact luxury crossover model.
At the 2014 Detroit Auto Show, an Infiniti corporate spokesman, predicting flat USA sales in 2014, said to expect some small product improvements by 2016 but that significant change would not be evident before 2020. Infiniti has struggled lately to compete with Audi, BMW, and Mercedes. He said the company will reduce sales expectations to allow dealers to develop a better business model with less reliance on discounts and incentives that depreciate car values. “Our aspiration is to set up Infiniti as a highly respected, highly regarded premium luxury brand,” he said. “Right now we are in a consolidation phase.”
The sales network now has 230 dealers in 15 countries. Annual USA sales since 2002 have been as low as 81,089 in 2009 to as high as 136,401 in 2005.
In 2012, the company moved its global headquarters from Yokohama to Hong Kong incorporated as Infiniti Global Limited for proximity to the emerging premium vehicle markets in Hong Kong and mainland China. In February 2014, the brand will be part of the Japanese domestic market for the first time, initially as a Q50 hybrid version, the Skyline. The Infiniti badge is a stylized representation of a road extending into the horizon, stretching to infinity.
Visit Inifiti of Canada Site: www.infiniti.ca
