Aren't Nissan Ireland a great bunch of lads?

Mc Love · 11-01-2019 2:01pm

Bought my last car from a Ford Dealership - guess what? Car was an import!

Old diesel · 11-01-2019 2:15pm

My reaction to this is that on a wider level Nissan are a bunch of plums - and will lose to the Koreans etc as a result. Crap happens.

On the SUV focused thing someone mentioned - they still make saloons outside Europe - for example the Altima and Maxima are offered in the US.

However inspite of making some decent cars like the 1st and 2nd Gen Primera they struggled to develop any positive image in the saloon/hatchback scene in the pre Quasqui era.

They struggled with issues like bland styling - styling is quite a big thing.

20 to 25 years ago you could have a Primera eGT/GT which was for those in the know considered a fabulous machine to drive for a family saloon. But it looked like the boring 2 litre diesel taxi you hopped in the back off after a night out.

The modern Quasqui has the modern hugely desirable styling - but not the stand out drive of a Primera GT. This fits the customer of 2019 prefectly.

Quasqui was and is a big success for them - so why make a saloon that no one wants when you can actually make your crossover a household name.

chicorytip · 11-01-2019 5:49pm

Toyotafanboi wrote:

To me, this is only Nissan panicking because their product line up is ****e. If they didn't have the Qashqai, they'd have folded here a long time ago IMO. I know the Leaf does ok for itself but it isn't enough to carry the brand. The Pulsar, Micra, Juke and whatever else they sell are mostly rubbish, when added to the reputation for poor quality that there 2000's onwards stuff has, why would anyone buy one? The whole BOGOF thing they are doing now really screams of desperation too.

Each of the models you mention are very good cars, at least the equal of similar type vehicles made by the likes of Hyundai, Ford, Peugeot and Renault.

Arthur Daley · 11-01-2019 6:13pm

Big number of these Nissans are built in the Sunderland plant.

They lost their way and were not playing to their strengths from the late 90s onwards, but the latest Micra has them back in the game in that segment.

road_high · 11-01-2019 10:01pm

I didnt think Nissan had lost their way too much- the Quoshqui is still the default crossover (think it’s no 3 in sales).
Though as other makers have managed to integrate more premium feel into their cars (Peugeot and Opel for example) Nissan haven’t really. The last Micra was in fact the opposite and didn’t work even at a low price. That’s part of the issue, their fit and finish has been decidedly average in a world where interiors and exteriors matter.
They used have a great name for reliability but they burned this with a serious of flawed cars. Rivals Toyota held onto theirs

Cee-Jay-Cee · 11-01-2019 10:17pm

Old diesel wrote: »

My reaction to this is that on a wider level Nissan are a bunch of plums - and will lose to the Koreans etc as a result. Crap happens.

On the SUV focused thing someone mentioned - they still make saloons outside Europe - for example the Altima and Maxima are offered in the US.

However inspite of making some decent cars like the 1st and 2nd Gen Primera they struggled to develop any positive image in the saloon/hatchback scene in the pre Quasqui era.

They struggled with issues like bland styling - styling is quite a big thing.

20 to 25 years ago you could have a Primera eGT/GT which was for those in the know considered a fabulous machine to drive for a family saloon. But it looked like the boring 2 litre diesel taxi you hopped in the back off after a night out.

The modern Quasqui has the modern hugely desirable styling - but not the stand out drive of a Primera GT. This fits the customer of 2019 prefectly.

Quasqui was and is a big success for them - so why make a saloon that no one wants when you can actually make your crossover a household name.

Because believe it or not, not everyone wants a Qaashqai and many many people still buy saloons. I drive saloons and always will, I will never ever drive a cross-over and many many other people are the same.

Shefwedfan · 11-01-2019 10:22pm

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

I don't know. Every day of the week on here there is someone harping "Ireland is the dumping ground for the ageing diesels the UK doesn't want", that "the UK is ahead of the emissions game and fobbing off it's tired diesels on poor old Paddy".

Now someone wants to ban it and that's not good either?

If we're going to go so deep with the self wallowing, lets at least try to keep a consistent theme.

To be fair, I said it in another thread a few weeks back but the days of "Paddy spec" ended 10-15 years ago. Virtually everybody wants technology and creature comforts in cars now.

To me, this is only Nissan panicking because their product line up is ****e. If they didn't have the Qashqai, they'd have folded here a long time ago IMO. I know the Leaf does ok for itself but it isn't enough to carry the brand. The Pulsar, Micra, Juke and whatever else they sell are mostly rubbish, when added to the reputation for poor quality that there 2000's onwards stuff has, why would anyone buy one? The whole BOGOF thing they are doing now really screams of desperation too.

I have mentioned about the UK dumping old diesels and its true. I don't think anyone wants UK imports to stop. They want diesel imports to slow down. So increase the VRT on diesel import. So the only reason you would go for a diesel is if you really are doing the mileage to warrant a diesel.....fairly simple suggestion

In terms of Nissan, they are number 9 in the top 10 manufacturers in the World. Not too shabby to be honest.

Other manufacturers are coming out with simiar, Ford recently wanted Ireland to change our tax system to suit their cars because they can't get them down to the correct level.

It is funny people go on about Paddy spec etc, bu Dacia's etc are filling the roads around Ireland.....dealers would not bring in the Paddy Spec if they didn't sell them......

Yer Da sells Avon · 11-01-2019 10:29pm

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

The Pulsar, Micra, Juke and whatever else they sell are mostly rubbish

The Pulsar is old-fashioned and the Juke is an acquired taste, but the current Micra is absolutely not rubbish.

bazz26 · 11-01-2019 10:30pm

The Pulsar was discontinued a few months back.

Atlantic Dawn · 11-01-2019 10:30pm

jmreire wrote: »

Yes Toyotafanboi, you are right. I was in a VAG dealership the other day as a car transporter was unloading, all the unloaded cars were UK imports, and they joined the many others already on the site. So I presume that other dealerships are doing the same thing too in order to survive.

Toyota/Lexus main dealers at this too, lots of them bringing in hybrids direct from the UK that have come back from lease/PCP deals.

road_high · 11-01-2019 10:39pm

Yer Da sells Avon wrote: »

The Pulsar is old-fashioned and the Juke is an acquired taste, but the current Micra is absolutely not rubbish.

The Juke needs to be replaced. It’s out since 2011. Must be out soon surely.
I thought the Pulsar was selling reasonably here but mustn’t have been worth it financially.

Old diesel · 11-01-2019 10:53pm

road_high wrote: »

The Juke needs to be replaced. It’s out since 2011. Must be out soon surely.
I thought the Pulsar was selling reasonably here but mustn’t have been worth it financially.

Pulsar struggled elsewhere - I remember reading some article a good while back about the production ending and the article outlined some dreadful sales figures on a European wide basis.

It's like the way people are wondering from an Irish prospective "why did they end Avensis and diesel production" but outside Ireland an Avensis diesel is outdated as a concept.

They sold 993 Pulsars last year and tbh I wonder who bought them.

You can understand why someone would buy into a brand new Almera in 1996 as they consider they were buying into excellent reliability reputation built up from the Bluebird and Sunny days.

But that's not in play with 2019 Nissan

Old diesel · 11-01-2019 11:04pm

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Because believe it or not, not everyone wants a Qaashqai and many many people still buy saloons. I drive saloons and always will, I will never ever drive a cross-over and many many other people are the same.

Tbh I have wondered how the Maxima would do in Europe. But I don't think it has the qualities to shake up the saloon market.

The US Altima looks a nice car but the road tests I've seen in the states feature CVTs and 2.0 turbo petrols.

Not a great combo for Europe

The Rape of Lucretia · 11-01-2019 11:23pm

Vicxas wrote: »

Some Paddy that just wants the reg plate and nothing else.

Paddy is extraordinarily superficial in his car desires. Year. Then brand. He would drive a hollow shell with wooden benches if it still looked OK from the outside.

The Rape of Lucretia · 11-01-2019 11:24pm

listermint wrote: »

Afraid not, consumer decides based of a predefined list that the distributor cleared.

to pretend the consumer has full control as they do in other counties is disingenuous. The irish market has always and is always designed by the Distributor. Consumer no, because they know no different.

But designed by the distributor to match what they know the consumer wants.

road_high · 11-01-2019 11:35pm

The Rape of Lucretia wrote: »

Paddy is extraordinarily superficial in his car desires. Year. Then brand. He would drive a hollow shell with wooden benches if it still looked OK from the outside.

It’s definitely not like it used be. Twenty years ago plastic wheel trims and windy up windows were standard fare. Specs have improved enormously.
Many of us are quite discerning when it comes to spec- hence the popularity of imports from England as they tend to be very well specced. New cars here aren’t that far behind, the pov specs are never the range best sellers now.

road_high · 11-01-2019 11:38pm

Old diesel wrote: »

Pulsar struggled elsewhere - I remember reading some article a good while back about the production ending and the article outlined some dreadful sales figures on a European wide basis.

It's like the way people are wondering from an Irish prospective "why did they end Avensis and diesel production" but outside Ireland an Avensis diesel is outdated as a concept.

They sold 993 Pulsars last year and tbh I wonder who bought them.

You can understand why someone would buy into a brand new Almera in 1996 as they consider they were buying into excellent reliability reputation built up from the Bluebird and Sunny days.

But that's not in play with 2019 Nissan

The Pulsar was 10% of Irish sales which wasn’t bad considering they do offer a fairly big range. The reason they brought it in was because they said they lacked a Golf class car. But the Pulsar wasn’t good enough to cut it at the end of the day.

PaulKK · 11-01-2019 11:59pm

Ridiculous article.

What kind of logic suggests that someone buying a 3 - 5 year old used car in the UK and paying a couple of grand in VRT is going to turn around and buy some new sh1te eco box that Nissan are peddling?

The whole point of going to the UK is to get better choice on spec and save a few quid. You aren't suddenly going to go buy a new car if that's what you normally do.

We kind of need the UK available to us to import from, it keeps our average fleet somewhat respectable, otherwise we'd all be stuck with 1.4 Corollas and i40s.

There aren't nearly as many dropping 50/60k on decent new metal here for us all to hoover up second hand.

nice_guy80 · 12-01-2019 1:22am

This Paddy fella sounds like an awful eejit

Philb76 · 12-01-2019 9:32pm

StereoSound wrote: »

jmreire wrote: »

Yes Toyotafanboi, you are right. I was in a VAG dealership the other day as a car transporter was unloading, all the unloaded cars were UK imports, and they joined the many others already on the site. So I presume that other dealerships are doing the same thing too in order to survive.

I see this every day, truck loads of UK imports on the N7 going to whatever dealer who brought them in.

See this as well on same road and even more often as for the days of paddy spec being gone see loads of Toyota yaris auris and avensis one to three years old that are exactly paddy spec including two friends cars and the worst offender has to be the entry level skoda fabia for sale here

colm_mcm · 12-01-2019 9:53pm

They have bog basic models in the uk too.

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201808299950671?year-from=2014&advertising-location=at_cars&model=FABIA&sort=sponsored&make=SKODA&onesearchad=Used&onesearchad=Nearly%20New&onesearchad=New&postcode=ln12na&radius=1500&page=1

Philb76 · 12-01-2019 10:09pm

They do colm but the model u posted is the old one in s spec the current entry model in uk s spec is poor enough but it still has Bluetooth touchscreen the active model here has an aftermarket radio

colm_mcm · 12-01-2019 10:17pm

Philb76 wrote: »

They do colm but the model u posted is the old one in s spec the current entry model in uk s spec is poor enough but it still has Bluetooth touchscreen the active model here has an aftermarket radio

The Active spec has a Skoda headunit, it’s not touchscreen, but it’s a normal enough radio with a very small screen.
Unless they’ve changed the radio this year.

https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/skoda-fabia-active-1-0mpi-5-dr-yours-for-29-pe/20273240

I would guess that the Ambition spec outsells the Active spec at least 30:1

Philb76 · 12-01-2019 10:31pm

No that's the one know the price attracts buyers who don't care about spec but would you want to sit looking at that everyday i was just trying to respond that they are very much still here I've seen new model superbs with wheel trims probably company cars but come on

colm_mcm · 12-01-2019 10:33pm

Nobody really buys the Active spec apart from rental companies though. As you say it exists to hit a price point, but the dealers will upsell to Ambition or Style spec, especially if it’s on finance.

If someone really wants a car with no spec why not offer a basic level spec as an entry point?

Philb76 · 12-01-2019 10:40pm

Dacia offered the sandero in the uk in proper basic trim remember the ads but they wer something like 5grand new so they sold

meathstevie · 13-01-2019 4:42am

The moment zero emissions electric vehicles was mentioned I switched off....load of dung unless you believe in the electricity fairies.

elperello · 13-01-2019 10:28pm

This "Paddy spec" thing is just shorthand for a post-colonial lack of national self respect.

If you want "toys" in your car spec them and pay up.
If other people don't what's it to you?

Philb76 · 14-01-2019 2:44am

elperello wrote: »

This "Paddy spec" thing is just shorthand for a post-colonial lack of national self respect.

If you want "toys" in your car spec them and pay up.
If other people don't what's it to you?

I couldn't care less about anybody's decision to wot they drive will repeat the fact is they are still here so maybe the distributors should show some respect and not offer those versions

EdgeCase · 14-01-2019 2:49am

I'd be very surprised if many of those cars were from pre 2014 so I'm not really sure what Nissan is on about. Sounds to me like a desperate call for protectionism that will be ignored.

Aren't Nissan Ireland a great bunch of lads?

Comments