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Nissan to bring the Infiniti Brand to Australia?

"We are looking at it. It's under study to see if we bring Infiniti to Australia and when we do that. We need to see whether it makes sense in this country to have the Infinity brand," Nissan Australia's new marketing and public relations general manager, Ross Booth

Alborz Fallah

14:3218 May 2006

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Nissan intends to introduce the Infinit brand to the rest of the world. Nissan Infinit is currently only sold in the United States, Canadian, Mexican, Middle Eastern, South Korean and Taiwanese markets. Nissan intends to extend the infiniti global reach to boost the Nissan profile worldwide. At the moment Nissan Australia has no alternative Luxury brand to compete along the likes of Toyota's Lexus brand. Infact Toyota has been the only Japanese manufacturer to bother bringing its Luxury brand to Australia with the likes of Honda not intending to bring the Acura brand to Australia. CarsGuide talked to Nissan's public relations manager to find out if the Infinity brand was actually going to make its way down under.

Back when Nissan brought the Infinit to Australia in 1993, they started selling the Q45 for a massive $140,000! Not bad for a Nissan in 1993! Nowdays, the people who spent $140,000 on the Q45 can't even trade it in for a Holden Barina ($13,000) as the resell value of the Infinity Q45 is around $12,000! That is around $10,000 a year in depreciation! How good is that? I think I read a while ago that the Q45 had the worst resell value of any car ever sold in Australia!

Nevertheless, the reason I am excited about the Infinity coming back to Australia isn't so that I can laugh at those who want to lose 10g a year buying a rebadged Nissan, but more so because in America the R35 Nissan Skyline GT-R has been renamed to Infinity GT-R. Autoblog writes

The question over whether the upcoming US-spec Skyline GT-R will be sold as an Infinity or as a Nissan is said to have been answered, with the luxury brand name being attached to the supercar when it reaches American soil for the '08 or '09 model year. Autoblog

And what this means for us here in AUS, is that there is a possibility that Nissan will sell the GT-R in the showrooms! I read sometime ago that Nissan fully intended to sell the R35 GT-R in Australia, but having it called Infiniti to begin with might help boost some sales for the legendary super car.

Nissan plans to introduce the Infinity range first in Russia, then in China and Ukraine in 2007 and finally the rest of Europe in 2008/09. I truly hope the Infinit range is considered for the Australian market. With a continuing decline in the traditional family car segment and a growth in the luxury car market, I can only hold high hopes for Nissan Australia to bring the Infiniti brand to Australia.