AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/07 Report--

During recent media visits to major dealers, it was found that a Guangzhou Automobile Honda 4S store in Chengdu had begun to sell Honda's luxury brand "Acura" models, including Acura RDX and CDX, which were sold directly along Honda Guan Road. A corner of the 4S store became a small showroom of the Acura brand.

According to the sales introduction, the Guangzhou Automobile Honda 4S store is also an authorized distribution store of Acura, which means that the two brands are officially authorized to sell online in the store.

One positioning ordinary joint venture brand, the other is not into the mainstream luxury brand, eulogizing the scene of selling with Honda, which shows Acura's desire to survive in the Chinese market.

Recently, it is widely rumored that manufacturers are considering selling DS and Peugeot Citroen online, which will help to increase brand sales and downgrade operating costs. It is not known whether Acura and Guangzhou Automobile Honda will follow suit.

Acura, Infiniti and Lexus are luxury brands of the top three in Japan. With the exception of Lexus, which maintains the identity of imported cars, the other two are "unaccustomed to soil and water". Even if more and more domestic models are conducive to participating in market competition, market acceptance is always low and sales are still embarrassing. Among them, Acura is the most typical one, which is called "brother" with French luxury brand DS.

The luxury car market rose against the trend in 2018, but in specific brand sales data, Acura and DS sold less than 10,000 units for the whole year, ranking at the bottom. Among them, Acura sold a total of 9424 new cars in 2018, down 42% from the same period last year.

Thanks to the listing of domestic RDX, the state of Acura has been alleviated in 2019, but the foundation is still very low. GAC sales figures show that GAC sold 1823 of its three models in the first two months of 2019, including 1074 in January and 749 in February.

In view of the continued decline in sales, Acura said to the outside world: affected by the slowdown in the overall growth of China's passenger car market, the sales of Acura and Guangzhou Auto Acura's entire range of models have been affected to a certain extent.

In fact, Acura ranks fifth in luxury car sales in the United States, with sales higher than Infiniti, Land Rover, Lincoln, Volvo and so on. However, when it comes to the Chinese market, Acura is hardly recognized by consumers, its brand recognition is low, and its sales rank at the bottom of the luxury brand all the year round.

Interestingly, the online evaluation of Acura is not bad, but the actual situation is the "you buy I recommend, really buy I will not buy" type, not many consumers really recognize the brand and pay, from the sales point of view is very clear.

Why did this happen? Some analysts believe that it is mainly the low premium capacity of Acura brand, the false high price, the design shape is not in line with the luxury car image, few after-sales outlets, marketing problems and so on. Most of the second and third-tier luxury brands are in the terminal price reduction concessions to participate in the competition, so that the original lower brand awareness of Acura, it is even more difficult to break through the tight encirclement of fierce competition in the market.

In 2006, Acura began to enter China as an imported car, and it was not until 2016 that GAC Acura officially made domestic Acura brand models. Until now, GAC Acura has launched three domestic models, namely the CDX, TLX-L and RDX.

Guangzhou Auto Acura RDX went on sale in November 2018 with an official price of RMB32.80-438000. It faces competition from second-and third-tier luxury brands such as Infiniti QX50, Volvo XC60 and Cadillac XT5. The launch of the car is seen as a turning point for Acura in the Chinese market and a life-saving model for the Acura brand.

In terms of actual sales, Acura RDX sold only 190 units in December 2018 and sold 553 units in the whole year. From January to February this year, it sold 370 units and 358 units respectively, which is still far behind its competitors. Among them, Cadillac XT5 sells an average of 5000 units per month, while XC60 sells more than 3800 units per month. QX50, which is close to Cadillac, also has an average monthly sales of more than 800 units, twice as much as RDX.

So, did Acura RDX succeed? No, although Acura brand sales tend to be stable, but the overall base is still very low. If Honda and Acura sell online and increase the exposure of Acura, sales may develop steadily in a short period of time, but there are many uncertainties about the impact on the brand.

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