What caused the downfall of Japanese soft-roaders in the Indian market

Come 2024, the sole Japanese softroader to exist is the Nissan Xtrail and if the reviews are anything to go by, this car is nothing but a bad launch from Nissan.

BHPian saikishorrecently shared this with other enthusiasts:

This thought popped up to my mind after reading the 2024 Nissan Xtrail review.

So we live in 2024, a time where all sedans are dead and the only thing that sells now are SUV's, or crossovers if I should be perfect. A buyer has so many options if he has to pick a crossover for himself. The segment is mostly dominated by Indian and Korean options.

But what about these Japanese softroaders? They entered this segment way before the Indian players. Let me give you a glimpse of what I noticed.

There was a time when this segment had options where the Japanese kinda had solid options. I'm talking about the 3rd and 4th gen Honda CRV, the 2nd gen Nissan Xtrail and the 2nd gen Mitsubishi Outlander. Out of all these cars, the CRV sold in very respectable numbers and the other two sold decently well considering their brand image and market presence back then.

After this, fast forward in time, we have the 5th gen CRV and the 3rd gen Outlander. As far as I remember, both of these cars existed in a similar timeframe. Again, the CRV sold in respectable numbers until 2020 whereas the Outlander probably sold in double digits in its entire run. You could see the Japanese completely lost the plot to their competitors.

Now, come 2024, the sole Japanese softroader to exist in the market is being launched in the form of the Nissan Xtrail and if the initial reviews are anything to go by, this car is nothing but a bad launch from Nissan.

Reasons might seem pretty obvious to members and me as well, but I would like to hear what others opinions are on the downfall of these Japanese softroaders. I for one absolutely love the 4th gen Honda CRV. It still looks like a spaceship to my eyes.

Here's what BHPian GTOreplied:

Complete lack of commitment, IMHO. Honda was always lazy, and the last CR-V sold in India was grossly overpriced, had a puny 1.6L diesel in a 35-lakh car, didn't come with features like front parking sensors and weirdly, the 7-seater was offered just with the diesel. Mitsubishi, as we all know, was too weak at the global level, had no money and got absorbed by the Nissan-Renault alliance. Nissan India is a one-trick pony currently (Magnite) - they are bringing the X-Trail and I'm happy to see more product options in the segment, but it's going to have limited success in the market (CBU, missing features, weak brand, tiny dealership network etc.). The X-Trail will most likely do a "Meridian" or worse.

In the end, intense competition, lack of investments, product updates and no innovation led to their death. The 30-50 lakh rupee segment is flooded with great options. XUV700, Scorpio-N, Innova Hycross, Tiguan, Kodiaq, Tucson, Fortuner etc. etc. You can't get away with laziness anymore in the Indian market, nor can you take success for granted.

BHPians will find it hard to believe, but at one time, Honda was the No.1 in every segment it competed in = City, Civic, Accord & CR-V were all the No.1 (or close No.2s) in their respective segments. The Mitsubishi Lancer, in the late 90s, fought tooth & nail with the 1st-gen Honda City for sales and had a wild following (I owned one too & absolutely loved it).

Here's what BHPian SmartCatreplied:

Kodiaq/C5 Aircross/Tiguan/Tucson/Koleos etc is not a great success story either. So it has nothing to do with the Japanese. It's just that market size for large softroaders is around 500 units per month

Here's what BHPian IshaanIanreplied:

The XUV 500 is what happened. It sort of democratised the soft roader and made it more accessible to people considering the high tax our government slaps on CBUs. The Japanese can never produce their soft roaders here because there’s no way Indian suppliers would be able to meet the levels of quality they demand for D-Segment vehicles. That said I feel it is high time they launched their little sports cars here since there isn’t any competition as such for an MX5 or a GR86. Sure we will all call them overpriced at 40lakhs but a lot of us might just end up buying them because there aren’t any other options out there. I mean you cannot get a German sports car with a manual gearbox unless you spend bucket loads of money on a Cayman or an M2 and even though I feel the M2 looks quite nice it is simply too big and wide to enjoy on our roads. A nice little GR86 is the need of the hour to replace their big underperforming soft roaders in our market

Here's what BHPian DicKyreplied:

May seem unfashionable to say nowadays, but going to say anyways.

Lack of diesel.

The 1st and 2nd gen X-trail was sold in India with a wonderful diesel engine and the vehicle itself was capable, but a CBU from a less known company when there were other Bof SUVs and CR-V meant sales were low.

The 2nd gen Outlander was a wonderful car and would have done well if it had come with a diesel engine, though HM-Mitsubishi saw it fit only to launch the petrol-CVT. Competition tightened by the time the 3rd gen came with the same formula but am yet to see even one on the road.

The CR-V was definitely a success even though it was a guzzler and petrol only. The 2nd and 3rd generation were successful with sales concentrated in the metros, but by the time the 4th gen came, sales started dwidling. The 5th gen tried to make amends with a diesel, but by that time the market had moved on and the diesel itself was mediocre by segment standards. Those who used to buy CR-V had either moved onto the Superb/Germans or have downsized their cars post retiring.

The one missing is the pioneer of this segment, the RAV-4. But Toyota has never ever thought of launching it here let alone with a diesel engine.

Right now, even if they wanted to, their hands are tied as the vehicles themselves have gone more upmarket and a result more cost prohibitive for the Indian market. Toyota or Honda find it hard even to launch something smaller like Yaris Cross/Corolla Cross or ZR-V/HR-V let alone models like RAV4/CR-V.

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