Reuters :
A pedestrian walks past Nissan Motor cars at the company’s dealership in Tokyo July 28, 2014. Credit: Reuters
A pedestrian walks past Nissan Motor cars at the company’s dealership in Tokyo July 28, 2014. Credit: Reuters
For more than 25 years, the contest among Japanese carmakers in North America has been a two-horse race, led by Toyota with Honda in second place and Nissan in the rear view mirror -trailing far behind. Not anymore.
Nissan, thanks to the launch of models that are getting high marks for styling, its wider range of vehicles and aggressive discounting, is catching up with Honda.
In the next couple of years it could easily pass its rival in US car sales for the first time since 1987.
It isn’t hiding its ambitions.
“I’m sure that we will overtake Honda,” said Jose Munoz, the chairman of Nissan North America. “How long is it going to take us? Time will tell, but it’s going to happen.”
While he says the company isn’t obsessed with leapfrogging Honda, Munoz is targeting a 10 percent share of the US market by 2016.
Its share in the first seven months of this year was 8.6 percent, up from 7.4 percent in 2009. Honda’s share, meanwhile, has slipped to 9.1 percent, the lowest since 2006, from a peak of 11 percent in 2009. Toyota currently has about 15 percent of the market. Honda had been the trend setter.
The first Japanese company to build cars in the US, it built its sales and manufacturing footprint so rapidly across the United States that Honda executives had a term for it – “crazy speed”.
The company gained a reputation for high quality, and went out to consumers with slogans like “We Make it Simple” and “Honda: The Power of Dreams.”
It “used to stand for high quality and refinement,” observes long-time auto industry consultant Maryann Keller.
“Now, I’m not sure if you ask the average consumer what does Honda stand for, they could tell you.”
Honda may have redesigned its best-selling midsize Accord and addressed complaints about its popular Civic compact, but neither model is considered a style-setter.
“The cars are high quality, they’re very reliable, but not necessarily exciting,” says Dave Sargent, vice president, global automotive, at research firm JD Power.
Nissan closes gap with Honda in US
