Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Honda "envious" of Nissan's Qashqai, ponders rival

Honda hasn't been profitable in Europe since 2007, and would like to break the two-percent market-share barrier in the EU and Russia. To do that, it is looking at a rival to Nissan's Qashqai. Nissan's compact CUV alone outsold the entire Honda lineup in Europe in the first nine months of this year, and by no small margin: 153,079 to 105,918.

Those kinds of numbers have Honda justifiably envious of Nissan's little crossover, as apparently offering the CR-V in Europe hasn't generated the same sort of consumer response. Even so Honda's CEO, Takanobu Ito, will say nothing more than that "we are thinking about doing something like that" – a decision could still be a ways off, to say nothing of an actual production vehicle.

Nissan also has city cars like the Pixo and Micra spreading the gospel in the A-segment, and it's likely turning some of those drivers into Qashqai graduates. Likely with that in mind, the company head said they are also considering expanding the Jazz/Fit line, but a true A-segment fighter looks a long way off, with Ito saying, "maybe there will come a time when we will consider A-segment cars for Europe."

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/12/12/h...ponders-rival/

LexFather

Nissan is about to pass Honda and never look back. Honda will never go back to its glory days, its too late, they talk to much, do too little and its becoming clear they had a good 12-20 years and are stuck in reverse/neutral.

You know for all the Hyundai/Kia humping, Nissan's rise the last decade and their continued strong performance should be commended. They also did it with sports cars proving you don't have to be completely vanilla to do better.

mmarshall

Here in the U.S., though, Nissan's Rogue and Juke (the European Qashqui is not sold in the U.S.) can't touch the Honda CR-V in sales. The CR-V sells extremely well here....for a reason.

MPLexus301

iTrader: (3)

Great post. Year over year, model for model, they are really growing the brand smartly and doing a great job

Now, if we could work on Infiniti...

speedflex

True. But sales of both (Rogue and Juke) are still clearly successful. Nissan as a brand though is growing here in the U.S while Honda struggles to retain market share.

I do wish the Rogue looked like the Qashqai.

I8ABMR

This new Nissan looks amazing for its class. They will sell a ton of these,and knowing Nissan it will still be fun to drive

timacks

CR-V is a big seller in north america in general.
Great little suv for soccer moms, etc