Infiniti FX30D News

Nissan's luxury brand, Infiniti, will have a dealership in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley with AP Eagers and another in East Sydney with Suttons, but has announced that a deal with Penfolds in Melbourne has fallen through.However, the Sydney dealer will not open its showroom for two more weeks while the Brisbane showroom will open in seven weeks. Infiniti Australia general manager Kevin Snell said a new Melbourne dealer would be announced in the next three to four weeks with a showroom open by Christmas.He was speaking last week at the Sunshine Coast media launch of the M sedan ($85,900-$99,900) and FX SUV ($83,900-$114,900). Snell said they were not hampered by the lack of dealers or showrooms. He said the brand had a comprehensive data base from their website and public displays of the cars at the Formula One in Melbourne and Cirque de Soleil events around the country.Snell also confirmed they would have their new models plus two coming models the G Coupe and Convertible at the Australian International Motor Show in Sydney in October. “In the past six months more than 10,000 people have visited the website and we collected more than 200 expressions of interest at the F1 in February,” Snell said.“Our marketing starts next week and we'll have a heavy emphasis on the FX. “We expect to make (dealer) appointments in Perth and Adelaide in the next six months.” Infiniti Australia managing director and CEO Bill Peffer said the Australian market was one of the most crowded in the world with 65 brands. “We offer a new choice for customers that don't follow the rest of the crowd,” he said.“First we have to get the brand awareness established. We're not pushing for volume; we want to establish the brand.” Peffer said Infiniti would be a separate entity to Nissan, but would access the Nissan financial service for loans. “That will be a huge advantage for us,” he said. 

The upscale Japanese brand is making big promises to match its meaty pricetags, aiming straight at the pacesetters in the luxury class. People who like BMW-style performance and Lexus-style pampering are the targets in Australia. The hero car for the aggressive upstart is the FX crossover, but there is also the M sedan from August and the promise of as many as 10 new models - starting with a compact hatch shared with Mercedes-Benz and priced from $50,000 - inside five years. Infiniti refuses to set sales targets, or get specific about much beyond its first three dealerships - Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane - and four start-up cars, but is still talking up its chances. "These are bold cars. We're a performance luxury car, we're not a traditional conservative car," the head of Infiniti Australia, Kevin Snell, tells Carsguide. "We don't do base models that are under-powered. We're not going after low-spec or low-power prestige brands that are bought for the badge, these are cars for people who want to drive." The FX SUV is the headliner for Infiniti, with prices that run from $83,900 for an FX 37 GT with 3.7-litre V6 through - for now - to $85,900 for the FX30d with 3-litre V6 turbo-diesel. But there will eventually be a FX50 at $114,900, complete with a 287 kiloWatt V8. The mid-sized Infiniti M sedan starts with a 3.7-litre V6 at $85,900 and runs to the M35 with 3.5-litre V6 hybrid power train at $99,900. Late in the year there will also be G coupe and convertible models, with prices still to be revealed, although Australia will not get a G sedan until the arrival of an all-new model in around 18 months. But Snell confirms a Lexus-style approach to equipment levels, with full-loaded specification sheets - big wheels, punchy audio, leather, bi-xenon headlamps and much more, across the Infiniti family. There are a couple of extra equipment packs, but Infiniti is avoiding a never-ending BMW style list of options. "We think the FX looks best with 20-inch wheels, so that's what it has. Standard," Snell says. He also trumpets a four-year warranty package with premium roadside assistance that even includes family breakdowns in non-Infiniti cars. But there is nothing from him on the tough stuff - numbers. "We're not trying to sell thousands of cars in our first year. It's three dealers and four cars," he says. "It's a controlled launch. We're going for a trickle-down approach. I'm not going to give a specific sales number." But, in reality - and BMW style - Infiniti is going first for the early adopters who are prepared to splash their cash for something new and different and - perhaps - a bit special. "We're a 'challenger' brand. Modern and progressive. We believe we've got the product and the brand," Snell says. So it's BMW on the driving front and Lexus for customer service, with the Japanese brand in the cross-hairs. "We want to be the number one alternative to the established European makes. I can't control what Lexus does, but I can control what we do." Snell prefers to forget the first failed attempt to bring Infiniti to Australia, back in the late 1980s when it went up against - and lost to - Lexus, which had its first LS400 against the Infiniti Q45. "We were in Australia once before, but only with one car. It's a very different brand, company and market." Snell is aggressive and ambitious and he knows he is going to have a lot of Infiniti cars in coming years. So he's talking big but prepared for a long battle. "We'll build the network over 5-6 years, build the range over 5-6 years, build the awareness. It's a long-term strategy," he says. "This is just the start, just the tip of the iceberg, of what Infiniti is going to offer over the next 4-5 years."  

Infiniti Cars Australia general manager Kevin Snell says the small footprint - both in vehicle range and retail outlets - is an intentional approach to ensure the company can micro-manage its rollout Down Under.Snell says Infiniti will rely on the performance pedigree of its cars and the brand focus on the "customer experience", including home collection and drop-off of cars that need servicing, to help it stand out in a crowded and competitive prestige market."You only get one shot to launch a car brand," Snell says "and we can't afford not to do it properly first time around. We aim to give a point of difference in terms of our customer service and I won't apologise for ensuring we get that right before we go in all guns blazing.""We'd love to be in Perth and Adelaide (at launch) but the reality is we need to make sure the customer experience is right in our first three stores." Those three dealerships will be run by three of the biggest names in the automitve reatail business. Infiniti has appointed the Suttons Motor Group in Sydney, Penfold Motors in Melbourne and A.P. Eagers in Brisbane.Snell says Perth and Adelaide outlets will be added by the end of next year but won't reveal how customers in those cities who want to buy a car now will be serviced. "Like the pricing and sales projections, that will have to wait until August," he says.He also promises Infiniti will rapidly expand its line-up as new models come into the mix. "Between late 2013 and 2016 we'll have six new vehicles," he says. "We absolutely intend to have a full model range - that's the only way we can hit 10 per cent (the global prestige car target for Infiniti)." The launch vehicles include the FX mid-sized SUV with a 3.0-litre V6 turbodiesel, a 3.7-litre petrol V6 and a range-topping 5.0-litre V8. It will be joined by the M sedan, headed by the world's quickest hybrid in the M35h with a 0-100km/h time of 5.5 seconds.