VietNamNet Bridge – It could be a surprise to many people that automobile manufacturers have imported 2-door cars recently for domestic sales, despite the domestic gloomy market.

The car models recently appearing in Vietnam are not sedans, MPVs or SUVs, but the 2-door sports cars, reserved only for playboys and high income earners. Mazda MX-5, Nissan 370Z, Subaru BRZ arrived in Vietnam many days ago, while Toyota 86 arrived in Vietnam on June 8, and Genesis Coupe 2013 is expected to hit the market in the near future. All of them are imported by big automobile manufacturers in Vietnam.

In the past, car dealers thought that 2-door sports cars were not favored in Vietnam because of their inconvenience, high price, small size, thus allowing to carry few people. However, they have changed their mind.

A lot of Vietnamese rich people are seeking to buy these cars which they would drive when they need to go out to take the air. This explains why car manufacturers still decide to bring these cars to Vietnam, though they anticipate the high expenses they have to pay to advertise the products and they are not sure about the sales of the choosy cars.

The most convincing reason behind the plan by automobile manufacturers to import 2-door sports cars is that they want to polish their images and upgrade their brands into a higher class. While the sales of normal cars have been going very slowly, the manufacturers want to emerge in the crowd. This is considered a way for automobile manufacturers to remind customers of their brands.

Experts say the 2-door sports cars mostly target rich people, while rich people stay safe in the economic difficulties.

The marketing director of an automobile joint venture belonging to the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (VAMA), said in the context of the gloomy market, where SUVs, MPVs and other normal models have got nearly unsold, only original or luxurious models with specific features would be able to attract the attention of customers.

Nissan is a typical example which can prove that automobile manufacturers do not have high expectations on the sales of the expensive models. Nissan’s 370Z has been priced at over 3 billion dong, which is triple the sale price in foreign country and double that of Toyota 86.

Analysts have commented that the unimaginable price shows that Nissan attempts to put 370Z on the par with the big brands from Germany such as Audi TT SLine, Mercedes Bena SLK or Porsche Boxster.

It seems that Nissan wants to cause shocks to customers to advertise the brand. However, the high pricing of 370Z has raised violent criticism.

Even Toyota Vietnam, which has the biggest car sales in Vietnam, has also set up the goal of selling 40 Toyota 86 cars a year, which means that every sales agent just needs to sell 1-2 cars a year to “fulfill their duties.”

A senior executive of Toyota Vietnam has admitted that Vietnam is not an attractive 2-door market for the world’s automobile manufacturers, because only 100-200 cars of this kind are sold each year.

However, he said, Toyota Vietnam still decided to import Toyota 86 in anticipation of the “car socialization process” in Vietnam. Besides, it also wants set up a new positioning for Toyota’s products as dynamic, attractive in both design and features.

Other 2-door models are believed to have reasonable sale prices. However, this does not mean that they would be sold well, because Vietnamese customers favor big size cars with many seats. Therefore, the importers of Mazda MX5, Subaru and BRZ have not set up any concrete goals in sales.

Source: VnMedia