Nissan India enters the used car business

Nissan India has just announced the launch of their used car business ‘Nissan Intelligent Choice’ (NIC). The division will handle the purchase and resale of both, Nissan and Datsun brand of vehicles. The divisions will run out of dedicated facilities and at launch, Nissan have 10 such centres operational in Noida, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and Guwahati.  Additional centres will be added pan India.

At NIC, owners of Nissan models or even other brands can exchange their existing vehicles for a new Nissan or Datsun car. Cars resold under NIC will, however, be either Nissan or Datsun cars, have passed a 167 point quality check and be offered with up to 12 month/20000km warranty and 3 free inspections. If desired, NIC customers can also opt for an extended warranty of additional 12 months /20000km. Customers who have purchased the pre-owned cars can also avail of 24x7 road side assistance and service the cars at any of the company’s 160 service centres around the country.

Nissan Intelligent Choice is a global business model already in existence in Brazil and South Africa and the company is quite bullish on its prospects here. Satinder Singh Bajwa, Director – Sales, Network, CQ (Customer Quality) & POC (Pre-Owned Car), Nissan Motor India Pvt. Ltd. said, “Pre-owned car market in India is growing at an exponential rate. And, we see a huge potential in this emerging business.”

However, Nissan are late entrants to the used car market in India with manufacturers like Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra, Hyundai, Honda and Toyota already present. Thus Nissan will need to extend its reach to gather a sizeable piece of the used car pie.