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Judging from the sales of major car brands in 2019, in addition to the sudden rise of independent brands, the sales of joint venture brands in the domestic market have also increased significantly, especially the domestic sales of Japanese brands Honda, Toyota and Nissan have risen again. However, Honda, Toyota and Nissan's luxury brands have very different fates.

Toyota luxury brand Lexus is arguably the benchmark for second-tier luxury brands. According to sales figures, Lexus sold 200521 vehicles in China in 2019, up 25 per cent from a year earlier. Honda luxury brand Acura and Nissan luxury brand Infiniti hovered on the edge of second-tier luxury brands, with a far cry from Lexus in sales. Sales of Acura, in particular, are extremely poor in the domestic market. Sales figures show that the Acura brand sold 14786 vehicles in China in 2019.

It is worth noting that Acura sold 159000 vehicles in the United States in 2018, second only to BBA and Lexus, which is quite satisfactory, but poor sales in China. Why?

According to the data, Acura was founded in 1986 as a luxury brand built by Honda for the North American market. After successfully testing the waters in the North American market, Honda promoted Acura to other markets, including the Chinese market.

In 2006, Acura entered the Chinese market as an imported car. In 2016, Acura officially realized domestic production and became the second division of Guangzhou Auto Honda. However, the performance of Acura, which is officially localized, contrasts sharply with that of the North American market. Sales figures show that Acura's cumulative sales reached a peak of 16348 vehicles in 2017. Cumulative sales in 2018 were only 9424 vehicles, down 42 per cent from a year earlier.

Acura can achieve high sales in the North American market, which shows that it is worthy of recognition and trust in terms of products, so why can it achieve high sales in the North American market, but not so well in the Chinese market?

First, the positioning is not clear, luxury brands are not luxurious.

Although Acura and Honda are a family, Acura, as a luxury brand of Honda, is naturally more positioned than Honda. If Acura and Honda are too similar, it will lead to luxury brands not luxurious. Acura is not only similar to Honda in appearance, but also has few bright spots in terms of product power. the platform architecture and engine are similar to Honda, and even some Acura models use Honda engines of the previous generation, which does not form its own advantage.

Second, pay no attention to the domestic market

Since its localization in 2016, Acura has launched only three models, namely, the CDX, RDX and TLX-L. Before the listing, CDX was exposed to use the same platform architecture as Honda. After the listing, Acura officially explained that CDX is not "changing the shell of wisdom", but for consumers, too much explanation is a cover-up.

Third, 1.5T engine recalled every nine months, and the user experience decreased.

In 2018, the 1.5T version of Dongfeng Honda CR-V experienced an increase in engine oil, which forced to stop sales and halved sales, directly affecting Dongfeng Honda's overall performance that year. Acura, a Honda luxury brand, is also doomed. In September 2018, Guangzhou Auto Acura issued an announcement recalling 27554 Acura CDX cars for the same reason as CR-V.

It is worth noting that the throttle began to explode in early 2018, but the recall was not carried out until nine months after Acura. The recall was basically the last batch of models equipped with the engine in question, but it kept the car owners waiting for an extra nine months. It can be seen that Acura's response to this problem is not timely.

In fact, as a member of Honda, Acura's development conditions are not poor in all aspects. however, due to the failure to find its own position in the Chinese market, the pursuit of luxury while product power and consumer services can not be linked to luxury, coupled with the late entry into the Chinese market and the lack of marketing, Acura's sales in China are not good. At present, the competition of domestic luxury brands is becoming increasingly fierce, first-and second-tier luxury brands compete for the market, leaving little time for Acura.

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