Media comment: Whose luxury car prices robbed their jobs?

Last year, I spent more than 200,000 yuan to buy a Japanese high-class sedan. This money will be able to open a BMW 3 home this year. Unless you love Japanese cars alone, otherwise this is a very simple multiple choice question.

More importantly, in the past 300,000 yuan only MINI, smart these clear car audience, and now, look closely: the sedan is Mercedes-Benz C-class, BMW 3 Series, Audi A4L; hatchback BMW 1 Series, Mercedes-Benz A-class, B-class, Audi A1, A3, Lexus CT200h; even within the tight SUV range, the BMW Brilliance X1 also came to grab the rice bowl. In a blink of an eye, luxury cars blossomed in the price zone of over 200,000 yuan. Luxury cars have fully invaded the auto market within 300,000 yuan. They will face wolf-like rivals.

The luxury car invaded the high-end car market was a bit anxious. “The bargaining behavior of luxury brand entry models has a great impact on us.” Although across the phone, Chengdu Business Daily reporters can still feel the anxiety of Wang Yaohua, market manager of Jintai Guangfeng 4S store. In the face of the endless new products in the high-end car market in the past two years, Wang Yaohua has not had too much worry. After all, Camry's leading position is still difficult to shake. But this year, the declining price of luxury brands has made this Lao Jiang Hu helpless. “Consumers are willing to pay for the brand, and we have no way.” Of course, he will not sit still and let consumers recognize luxury brands. The difference between car costs and mid-to-high-end cars is the focus of his recent marketing. “In fact, many people neglected the late-stage car cost. Although the luxury brand is cheaper, the after-sale price is still 'luxury'. Take the Camry and the Audi A4L as an example, the Camry’s annual maintenance cost is around 3,000 yuan, while the A4L is at least the Camry. Doubled."

The West Line Baixiang Guangben 4S shop is just a stone's throw away, and stands in the top three luxury brand 4S shops of Huaxing Jinye Benz, Chengdu Baoyue BMW and Tongfuxiang Volvo. Recently, luxury brands around the company have made frequent moves and let Feng Jie, the deputy general manager of Chengdu Baixiang Guangben, feel the changes in the market. Feng Jie used the notion of "luxury brand is not equal to luxury car" to emphasize his views on more than 20 million Mercedes, BMW and Audi models. “The debut of luxury brands did affect the sales of joint-venture high-end cars, but the main impact was on customers in the 25 to 30-year-old age group. These 80-year-old and 85-year-old car buyers value brands and prefer dynamic and young models. Accord customers, mainly 35 to 44 years old, have less influence."

From the details of the product, the mid-size car may prove that its market has not been eroded too much. However, just after entering March, a series of measures, including Nissan, GM, Volkswagen, Ford and other traditional high-end cars, revealed the deterrent effect of luxury car prices on them.

Refusing to disregard the virtual high-class car with 200,000 yuan or less as one of the top-three cars of the Camry, the seventh-generation GAC Toyota Camry listed on the occasion of the re-adjustment of the price system, 179,800 yuan is also taken advantage of; Guangqi Honda Accord At present, the minimum price after the Chengdu discount is only 168,800 yuan; Dongfeng Nissan Teana has a comprehensive discount of up to 50,000 yuan, the minimum is only about 165,000 yuan; Even the price of the German high-end car Passat has been strong, the price has been starting to offer... In the high-end joint venture brand models, similar price reduction activities are common, and all brands are doing their own adjustments. As a result, when the luxury brand reached 300,000 yuan or less, the joint venture brand high-end car decisively lowered the price to less than 200,000 yuan, which opened the price gap with the luxury brand. Even insiders of many auto groups have disclosed on many occasions that their joint-venture vehicle division has been losing money for several months. “The luxury car division is making money.”

At the same time, to further reduce the threshold for car purchase is also a response to mid-size cars. More than 200,000 yuan worth of cars will be able to drive away for a few million yuan. According to report, Dongfeng Nissan Teana, Guangfeng Camry, and Guangben Accord have all launched a very cost-effective financial mortgage.

In the final analysis, the auto market is becoming more and more subdivided, with low-end brands going to the high-end and high-end brands rushing to the low-end. This overlap will be higher and higher later, and competition will be even fiercer. Whether it is a luxury car or a middle-class car, it is worth mentioning that consumers will eventually benefit.

Dealer luxury car or will split the joint venture brand customers last weekend, the sun shines, a large number of people into the Sanshenghua countryside outing, the sun, but also to the happiness of Merlin line Buick, Nissan, Suzuki, Citroen, Chevrolet, Skoda and other joint venture brands The number of stores in the auto cluster has doubled. “Looking for such a long time, there is finally a sign of a hint of warming!” A sales consultant for the Chevrolet 4S shop told reporters that after the Spring Festival this year, the auto market is quite bleak, and many customers are holding their money. “But we are separated from ours by a street. The 4S shop of luxury cars such as Audi and Mercedes-Benz is very lively in the exhibition hall. It envied us to die!”

“Luxury car diving is inevitable, in order to sell some of the benefits and sacrifice. Now luxury cars overwhelmingly advertised price cuts, do not rule out the possibility of diverting part of the original plan to buy a mid-level car customers, switch to giants.” Yesterday, East foundry Chengdu days Chao Xu, general manager of the 4S shop at Chevrolet, told the reporter that compared to a joint venture mid-level sedan with more than 200,000 yuan, if customers are willing to increase their car purchase budget of 780,000 yuan, they can directly upgrade to the luxury car camp. However, the prospective customers who purchase mid-to-high-class cars will still consider the performance of the models to a large extent. “Now more than 200,000 mid-to-high-end vehicles are very richly equipped, and even match the top models of luxury cars. So even if someone spends more than 30, Million bought a BMW or Mercedes-Benz entry-level low-end models, manual air-conditioning, hand-cranked windows, no reversing radar ... ... such a 'streaking' luxury car, shrewd owners still will not buy it.

However, a Buick dealer admitted that the terminal prices of luxury brands such as the BMW 3 Series and the Mercedes-Benz C-Class have further underestimated, which has brought the price close to the gap between most mid-to-high-end roofs. At the same time, luxury brands have also changed their methods of offering various kinds of loans for car purchases, which cater to the needs of these consumers who want to redeem. Buick, Guangfeng, Guangben and other brands of dealers all said that it is indeed possible for luxury car prices to divert some of the potential joint venture customers.

“Someone is willing to spend tens of thousands more to upgrade into a luxury car, but some people will consider the after-sales service after buying a luxury car.” He Binling, sales manager of Chengdu Ansett Peugeot, told reporters that luxury cars go down and joint venture cars will definitely Going upwards, although the price gap between the two has narrowed, there is still a big difference between the cost of keeping the two cars. "There are also customers who compare the configuration and maintenance prices and return to buy our car."

Manufacturers to save the area of ​​the new deal to restore the joint venture brand lost the ground offensive luxury car, the regional policies of major and senior cars are constantly changing, from the sales point of view, the big discount strategy indeed helped the middle and senior models to save a lot of lost ground.

“Actually, compared to luxury cars, our Dongfeng Peugeot 508 mainly competes with Passat, Magotan, Accord, and Camry at the same level.” Sun Wei, sales director of Dongfeng Peugeot’s southwest region, said that the pressure on the mid- to high-class car market was very high this year. Large, each joint venture brand manufacturers are constantly upgrading their brands and strengthening after-sales service to compete for more customers. “For example, the 508 has just launched a new 2.0-liter six-speed Tiptronic automatic transmission (with sports or snow mode) to enrich the product line. For the southwest region, we have recently launched an old car replacement discount program for any model. Replacement of 508 new cars with old ones can all enjoy a cash discount of RMB 5,000. These new policies have greatly strengthened our market competitiveness and opened up competition with luxury car segment markets."

Synchronous broadcasts of Japanese luxury cars said that the impact of smaller Mercedes-Benz and BMW parts of the car's substantial price cuts, attracting a lot of money to buy consumers. For Japanese luxury cars of the same level as competitors, the impact is also more or less present. "In the short term there will be some impact on our customers, but Lexus prices have been relatively stable and will not attract customers through promotions. Our customers are not very sensitive to prices." Wu Yingbin, general manager of Lexus, Zhongda believes that the price reduction of German luxury brands The influence on the customer's psychology is unavoidable, but there are differences between the German and Japanese customer groups. Relevant person in charge of Sanhe Infiniti also stated that the premium rate of the German luxury car brands is so great that this behavior is not a long-term one. It is only a staged action when these models are updated. Infiniti can gain a foothold in the same market because it has a fixed consumer group.

“We have a car owner who chose to buy Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Instead, he chose the luxury car brand acura from North America.” Maura, market manager of Acura (Acura) Chengdu 4S, told reporters that although there was no Mercedes-Benz or BMW, Audi is so public, but many low-key luxury cars are also concerned about low-profile people.

As for the recent price reductions of Mercedes-Benz and BMW, the three major Japanese luxury cars have also made corresponding countermeasures. For example, Lexus has 10% to 15% discount on Lexus' most popular ES and RX models, with a discount of up to 50,000 yuan. Prior to this, RX had a price increase due to tight supply. Acura will also introduce two new cars this year, including a hybrid car. The price will also be lowered to more than 200,000 yuan for the first time. This is also a very attractive "for the folk song that has been above 500,000 yuan." brand". Sanhe Infiniti’s recent focus is on financial policy—reducing the threshold for car purchases. Now all models of Infiniti can enjoy the policy of paying half of the down payment, repaying it after one year, and paying interest rates for zero months during the period.

Across the mountains, Niu Hao is pushing the low-cost entry level. The real pressure is the self-owned brand. Although the joint venture brand is directly affected by the impact, but you think about the blood relationship between the joint venture and the imported brand, you know that they will not be truly humane. Residual. It is purely self-owned brands who are “stressful” and the reason is simple: When a luxury car only sells 200,000 yuan, and a joint-venture high-end car only sells 150,000 yuan, how much will an independent brand sell? Therefore, as the bottom of the pyramid, the middle layer, the pressure on the joint venture brand, will eventually be transmitted to the independent brands.

The joint ventures in the sandwich layer actually have a great deal of initiative. They are already backed by big foreign brands, importing, joint ventures, and autonomy. The three models can be selected, and the decisive factors are mainly in the market. Although in a short period of time, the introduction of low-priced entry-level cars in luxury cars poses a certain competition relationship with the joint-venture models. However, because of the bloodlines behind the luxury cars and joint-venture products, it is impossible to really confront each other. In fact, although high-end joint venture products and entry-level luxury vehicles overlap in price, they differ in market positioning. We can call them "an asymmetrical war." In other words, at the same price point, the luxury car brand is an entry model, and the joint venture brand is a mid-to-high-end model. This dislocation competition leaves the joint venture product and imported luxury car free of direct confrontation; once the imported luxury car sales form a scale, Joint ventures can also introduce production. It is reported that BMW Brilliance and other joint ventures are also preparing to launch their own models of luxury cars, which may create greater lethality for other joint ventures and their own brands.

Then, where are the outlets of independent brands that are at the bottom of the pyramid and under pressure? It may only be a way to strengthen itself. Whether it is an acquisition or a joint venture, or looking for “outside the brain” like Chang’an and SAIC, establishing an R&D center overseas, in short, only by truly improving product quality can we defend our position.