Automobiles CITROEN appoints Naza Group as its exclusive distributor – what we can expect in 2013

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Now, this may be a day old but as of 1 January 2013, Citroën has ditched Brooklands Motors in favor of Naza Euro Motors, a subsidiary of the Naza Group, as the official distributor for the Citroen brand in Malaysia. For a brand that’s over 90 years old, the Citroën marque is no stranger to us with models such as the C3, C4, C5, Xantia and earlier ZX, ZM seen running around towns. Many associate the brand to offer one of the best suspensions around and typical of its French roots, design has always played a part in its 1,436,000 vehicle sales in 2011.

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Being Nasim, quite a number of online readers expressed concern on its ability to handle another manufacturer until its umbrella (and let’s face it, as long as it’s a Naza affiliated company, trolls will continue to bash any new lines they take in) since there are still room for improvement at its Peugeot service centres. Having Citroën would mean pulling some staffs away from what Peugeot owners perceive as already understaffed and under-skilled. The sad truth is, most of the technical related delay issues (ie warranty claims, depollution rectification, parts claim) are more to do with the work process of Peugeot, the principal, not the distributor. With a slow approval process and slow technical support, Automobile Peugeot Malaysia’s actions directly affects the front liners in the SC. I know because with me visiting them almost everyday in trying to resolve my old 308T issues, I am acutely aware of their SOP.

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There is also a group of the public who is expecting (or hoping) that Nasim works its magic of getting the selling prices down. Well, personally I have my doubts because Citroën and Peugeot have many similar category models. The C4 is equivalent to a 308, the C5 and C 6 is akin to the 508, the Grand Picasso’s sister is the 5008 …. these are just some of the examples of similar platform models between these 2 companies. Think of it this way; if your restaurant offers Penang Laksa as well as Johor Laksa, which dish do you position as your main seller? They may look different, taste different but the basic ingredient remains the same. One might argue and say why not position both? Perfectly fine … as long as you have the capacity to digest both. In this case, unless a prospective buyer has a penchant for laksa (read: French) and has the stomach capacity (read: financially stable enough) to have both, he/she is likely to purchase only one and unlike digesting laksa which may take a few hours, a person is unlikely to change car models within the next few years …. and at the end of the repayment period, one might got for German sausages or kimchi.

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And so, to choose between Citroën and Peugeot as its main seller, Nasim would almost assuredly pick Peugeot since it has invested no small amount of monies in building its infrastructure of sales and service centres. If Nasim introduced the lower spec-ed Citroën models and price them competitively against Peugeot, you might as well give the bosses at Nasim a fork and ask them to repeatedly stab their own thighs with it.

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No, it does not make sense to position the French as the marque for the masses especially when they already have other few CKD-ed French cars. If I were to guess, positioning Citroën as a high price marque by introducing only the top end models would allow them to capture the premium segment while Peugeot would be used to cater for the mid-level executives. Everything Peugeot, from its showroom design to product line up seem to indicate that it is not really interested in the B segment or smaller, sub-RM100,000 segment. For those, they have Kia to front against the sea of Japanese and local manufacturers. Putting Citroën as the top end ensures a greater amount of exclusivity among would be Citroën owners and allow Naza group to cover all of its target market. I am guessing the following range of vehicles would be the main stars in their showrooms:

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The premium DS range of vehicles (DS3, DS4 and DS5) and probably the Grand Picasso as well as other D and E segment cars. In short, nothing below RM140,000 is what I would hazard.

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Until their new showroom opens at the end of February, what Naza decides to bring in is anyone’s guess. Even their own website is not ready (current one still points to Brooklands Motors) but there is a 1-800-222-808 number to call if you wish to find out more. There’s also plans to open 3S centres up north and south but that’ll come later part of the year. Until then, this is shaping up to be an interesting year ahead for Malaysians ….

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