I still like the newer one......

Anyone can say that any infiniti has a certain blandness to it.. About the only car today that isnt really bland is the caddy CTS... Other than that, the rest follow the same basic design..... Its not a love/hate relationship like our sans grilled friends or the "current" M, but it is a certainly hot looking car.....

it looks more of what it is, a performance oriented luxury sedan... I do see where you can say it does look like an altima, the side profile and lines do kinda look like that.. but then again, the new STS kinda looks like a CTS... a 7 series kinda looks like the 5 series, E55 kinda looks like a C230... Whatever, all of the brand cars are going to look similar..... However I think they did enough to this car to show that it is a large step above the other nissans that have been produced currently...

EQwhipD wrote:I'm sorry, but it is completely reminiscent of an Altima minus the rims and hood. I hope that Infiniti can sell it as well not fo selfish interest , but for the company as a whole that needs a boost in sales and notoriety. One problem with Infiniti is that there seems to be very little spent in advertising, which causes a major problem. When a company doesn't advertise it's products seem distant and inaccessible to the consumer masses. The Infiniti product is by far one of the greatest in the automobile industry, but advertising does not seem to be a priority in the corporation. Unlike with most other car companies that have to flood the airwaves with advertiisng to try to convince the consumer to buy the car; advertising from Infiniti should take another route because of its superior product. If given the opportunity to showcase their products in multiple ads, the cars will sel themselves. It is going to take a lot more to sell the Infiniti brand than to show its lineup driving through snow like the commercials of present.Evan (NC)

I agree ENTIRELY.. This is why lexus sold and is still selling... They advertise things that people think are cool features only on a lexus that you get on every other car.. Their new ad is for an "air purification system"... Wel every car after 1997 has this anyway, cabin air filters..... Remember the dimpled undercarriage, same idea...

Lexus has a genius behind the marketing department.. They take one feature that the car has, figure out that the people like it, and beat it into your head somehow that only a lexus has it and no one eles offers it, but in reality every other car has..... Infiniti marketing sucks...

However, i disagree with the latter part of your post... Its been proven for 15 years straight that the product does not sell... For the money, the 1990 Q45 was obviously better than the 1990 LS400... but why did the LS outsell the Q? because of the marketing.....

The buyers in this segment (overall) dont care about the performance, its techno garbage and what not... They care about what they see... I dare say 90% of most LS400 who bought one new never did anything beyond check the oil level under the hood..... Infiniti is going to have to market the car to the buyer, not market the buyer to the car..... The car will not sell itself (unless its a BMW, jaguar, MB or whatever, cars that have a true heritage)...

well said wes! i completely agree. infiniti ads are few and far between and they NEVER say anythign about the car itself... the Q45 has always been a better-performing, more advanced car than the LS. the LS's design is a direct copy of MB. The lexus LS is just a "i wanna be a mercedes!" car imho. It also bugs me how infiniti never includes the Q in their ads and nissan doesn't include the maxima.

elwesso wrote: The car will not sell itself (unless its a BMW, jaguar, MB or whatever, cars that have a true heritage)...

That's the only part I SLIGHTLY disagree with you on. From my personal experience, Infiniti is 10 times easier to sell than even the most reliable Honda (Yes I sold Honda before Infiniti). All it takes is to get the customer to drive the car and they're pretty much sold on it. I acutally think that with such a weak marketing dept. they still do very well at selling these things. One thing to note is that around here each dealer does it's own individual marketing and it gets the money to do so from Infiniti. The only time you see Infiniti step in is during high rated sporting events (NBA on Christmas & Thanksgiving), or during Infiniti's "Limited Engagement" winter event, or during late summer.

gniknave wrote:That's the only part I SLIGHTLY disagree with you on. From my personal experience, Infiniti is 10 times easier to sell than even the most reliable Honda (Yes I sold Honda before Infiniti). All it takes is to get the customer to drive the car and they're pretty much sold on it. I acutally think that with such a weak marketing dept. they still do very well at selling these things. One thing to note is that around here each dealer does it's own individual marketing and it gets the money to do so from Infiniti. The only time you see Infiniti step in is during high rated sporting events (NBA on Christmas & Thanksgiving), or during Infiniti's "Limited Engagement" winter event, or during late summer.

You learn something every day... id figure that the honda would be easier to sell due to its intended market... People come into a honda dealership looking basically for a cheap reliable beater......

I think with your 3nd sentance you proved what I said to be true... The fact is, most people in the m45 buyers bracket (that would buy MB, jag, BMW, cadillac, lexus etc) dont give infiniti the time of day..... Hell, ive talked to many people who dont even know what an infiniti is...!!! That may be true, but it takes TV marketing and other things to get the people to come in and drive the car in the first place.. The fact is, no matter what happens, lexus, BMW, MB, cadillac will have a following... Those who bought new will most likely continue to buy new cars from them and not try out anything.....

No matter what happens, BMW will always have a manual in the 540.. And no matter whathappens, it will sell..... Thats just the way people are, if they find somethign they like its very hard for them to change...

elwesso wrote:You learn something every day... id figure that the honda would be easier to sell due to its intended market... People come into a honda dealership looking basically for a cheap reliable beater......

I think with your 3nd sentance you proved what I said to be true... The fact is, most people in the m45 buyers bracket (that would buy MB, jag, BMW, cadillac, lexus etc) dont give infiniti the time of day..... Hell, ive talked to many people who dont even know what an infiniti is...!!! That may be true, but it takes TV marketing and other things to get the people to come in and drive the car in the first place.. The fact is, no matter what happens, lexus, BMW, MB, cadillac will have a following... Those who bought new will most likely continue to buy new cars from them and not try out anything.....

No matter what happens, BMW will always have a manual in the 540.. And no matter whathappens, it will sell..... Thats just the way people are, if they find somethign they like its very hard for them to change...

You find more people cross shopping Honda, Toyota, and Nissan, than you see cross shopping Infiniti, Lexus, BMW, and Mercedes. Honda people are really into haggling, picky about color, need an accountant, first time driver, don't like v6's, can't qualify for a loan, etc etc. Those are frustrating cars to sell....

I'd say about 65-70% of my Infiniti customers are repeat buyers. Infiniti is smart in a way because they know a company gets the most sales from word of mouth. Most people that show up to the dealership either know the exact Infiniti they want, or they have a friend that is so happy with theirs that they want one for themselves. I hardly ever have someone come to the dealership that isn't aware of our product.

My point is, every brand has it's following. Every company has its own ways of accomplishing it's goals. Lexus spent money on marketing, Mercedes, BMW, and Jaguar got their following through decades of popular vehicles and thus sell themselves. Infiniti is obviously trying to separate themselves from the rest of the pack by going in a more innovative direction. They've been successful to a certain extent. True they do need to spend more money advertising, but it seems they're trying to build enthusiast vehicles at the same time. Note "TRYING". A lot of G35 owners now have actually gone on to buy second and third Infiniti's. I in fact have 13 customers I can think of off the top of my head that have done so. Think about that. Thirteen of my G35 sales have turned into FX's, I35's, M45's QX4's (we still have some brand new 2003's on the lot ), and Q45's. That's 13 sales turned into 26. I'm sure I'm sort of rambling on and not making en exact point, but I guess you can say I'm on both sides of this arguement.

Wes - I agree with Evan in that you're comparing two different "animals". The Honda customer is "shopping" and the Infiniti customer is a "prospective buyer". As he mentioned, the guy/gal on the Honda lot is looking for a deal and will forego certain options to get the monthly payment where they want it. The Honda heritage helped got Honda on their short list and the Honda ads got them on the lot. The lack of Infiniti ads (though I feel like I've seen the new G35 sedan commercial 3 or 4 times a day) means that either word of mouth or thorough research has brought them to Evan's dealership. Thus, people on Infiniti lots are generally buyers and on Honda/Nissan/Toyota lots are shoppers.

Now if we can just get more people on the Infinit dealers lot .

Rex wrote:Now if we can just get more people on the Infinit dealers lot .

I'm fine with that as long as I keep selling G35's and FX's at MSRP, man they're making me rich!

Bump for the new forum .