Nissan Motor Corporation has returned to a scorned sales practice to lift margins and market share. The Japanese automaker will give retailers escalating bonuses of $200-$750 on the Rogue, Pathfinder and Frontier if they reach or exceed October sales targets. The nameplates account for nearly half of Nissan's U.S. volume. The dealer volume bonus program — often referred to as stair-steps — is being implemented as Nissan treads water in the key U.S. market. But retailers are wary that the brand will relapse into a decade-old bad habit that pushed difficult sales targets that drove discounting, fostered customer distrust, diminished resale values, and dinged dealer profitability. "Nissan is forcing the dealers to put discounts on the vehicles because it is unwilling to do so itself," said one of several retailers interviewed who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. "Demand has been terrible, so they see this as a way to stoke demand while not having to spend a lot to do it." Ford Motor Company, Kia Worldwide, Cox Automotive Inc., Alan Haig, Haig Partners, Ivan Drury, Edmunds
Urvaksh Karkaria
4mo
Nissan ✂️ threshold for the max dealer bonus payout from 120% of monthly sales targets to 110% — three days after Automotive News reported on the stairstep program. probably unrelated. 🤷🏻♂️
Love to hate the stairstep
Joseph Folz
5mo
Staurstep incentives are inherently unfair. Nissan USA management has ruined the brand.
Information Broker
5moWith nearly 1 million more new vehicles in inventory than a year ago, several brands such as Kia and Ford have deployed sales bonus programs to coax dealerships to close an additional 10 or 15 deals each month. But given the size of Nissan's payouts, Alan Haig, president of the buy-sell firm Haig Partners, questions how effective the program can be. "Based on the amount of inventory on dealership lots, an incentive of $2,500 per car is what's needed. The current incentives seem far too low."