I read from TopGear and MotionCars that Nissan Philippines has launched their competing entry into the top-range compact car arena. It’s a crowded place: There’s the Honda Civic 2.0, the Mazda 3 2.0, the Altis 2.0, the Lancer EX, the Ford Focus 2.0, and the Subaru 2.0RS (AWD!). With such competitors, you would expect Nissan to have brought something new to the table.
But it seems Nissan Philippines just doesn’t get it. All of the above sell at the P1M mark. Mighty expensive for most. But the more successful ones have a clear unique selling proposition. For example, the Lancer, the Focus, and the Impreza are the average man’s rally machines.
But what does the Sentra 200 have? It doesn’t have anything that the others don’t already have. It doesn’t have anything that’s better. In fact, if anything, it has worse: smaller rims, less powerful engine, … And worst of all, it’s already old and outdated right at its launch: This model came out in the US way back in 2007. Maybe they’re planning to dump it here.
Maybe Carlos Ghosn needs to stir things up a bit here. Maybe they should have priced the Sentra 200 more appropriately. Maybe they should have brought in the Sentra SE-R as range topper. Maybe they should just have waited a bit more for the next generation Sentra. Maybe they should just have brought in the new Altima, especially the Altima Coupe. With the “all-new” Nissan Sentra 200 almost anything else is better.