Last Thursday, Nissan Motor president Carlos Ghosn paid a visit to his company's Thai operations and met with local media.

Unfortunately, I was booked for an upcountry event and could not change my schedule, so I missed a great opportunity to listen to the vision of one of the world's leading automotive personalities.

I believe that listening to someone with such a great vision talking about something he is very good at is of great benefit. This is another event I really missed, because Ghosn is considered a world-class executive. Many years ago at the Tokyo Motor Show, the Japanese media surrounded him like he was a Hollywood movie star when he walked into the building.

Personally, I feel he is one automotive executive who should be carefully studied. In his career, he has rescued so many auto companies from the brink of bankruptcy in such a short time. However, I still don't know whether those recoveries were due to planning, finance and accounting or his marketing and sales prowess. I am presently studying marketing and sales and regret that I couldn't be there to listen to him.

Last week, it was like our readers knew the Nissan Motor president was coming to Thailand, because I received two letters regarding Nissan. Here they are below.

I am interested in the Nissan X-Trail. Right now, the dealer has reduced the price more than Bt100,000, but I wonder whether these cars are from an old stock and whether there would be any problems. Why did they reduce the price so much, or is it that they make as much as Bt100,000 from selling a car?

The X-Trail is a very good compact sport-utility vehicle (SUV), and it is difficult to find a worthy opponent in this price range. But Nissan's Marketing Department made a mistake in positioning it in the market, and the communication to the consumer was not to the point, so they were unable to sell many units during the initial period. Right now, there are about 200-300 units left in stock, and they do not want to bear this responsibility. The easiest way to clear stocks is to drop the price, which Nissan has also done with other models in the past.

But the thinking of Thai consumers is much different from in other countries. When the price suddenly drops like this, old customers who purchased the vehicle previously lose their trust in the brand. So when a new model is introduced, these old customers, suffering from the wounds caused by the large depreciation of their Nissan vehicles, do not rush in to buy. They wait for another price drop before coming in.

At the same time, used-car dealers are also not confident about the price of used Nissans. If they take in the cars at the regular market price, and then the company lops Bt100,000 off the price of a new one, then the used cars at the dealerships suffer even more depreciation accordingly, and the dealers certainly lose money.

This is another reason why prices for used Nissans are lower than for other brands. It also affects the decision-making of customers considering buying a Nissan. So selling automobiles with this kind of mind-set is not beneficial to the brand in the long run.

Thai auto-buyers generally feel that government agencies do not protect them as well as they should, so if a particular manufacturer suddenly reduces its price by as much as Bt100,000, they question whether the product is not up to standard. Perhaps the vehicles have been in stock for a long time, they think, and are of questionable quality, especially the parts made from rubber.

But I think the price cut of the X-Trail is not as scary as that of the Murano. Check out that price, and you'll be shocked, too.

Should I buy the X-Trail now? Or might the discount be a prelude to the company packing its bags and leaving, like other brands? Last, why does Nissan sell a much lower number of cars than other brands even though they have a full line of products (and each one pretty good in my opinion)?

Just buy it if you want a good SUV. It's a great vehicle for city or upcountry use and comes with a lot of goodies that the sales people don't tell you about. They just wait for other brands to use the X-Trail as a comparison even though their own product clearly has more outstanding features. Instead of being aggressive, they take a defensive role. In Thailand, I think the X-Trail is the best candidate in this price range, but the quality of the after-sales service still has to catch up with the product.

As for your fear that the discount is because the company plans to shut down its Thai operations, I can assure you it won't. But it is possible they will stop selling in a particular area of Thailand, or a certain dealer may have to close down, which can happen in any business, including other brands.

For your last question, Nissan's marketing and sales people will have to answer that one. If I do, they will surely be angry with me. Let's just say that Nissan has been changing a lot of their executives, but we'll have to wait and see whether this will lead any improvement.

I, too, am an old Nissan fan, and deep inside I hope Nissan will be able to rise up again. It can if it gets people who really understand the Thai auto market working for the firm. I have even told auto executives that if I had to choose to work in marketing for a brand in Thailand, I would choose Nissan, because they have good products in every segment and strong brand loyalty among customers.

By Pattanadesh Asasappakij

E-mail your motoring questions to Pattanadesh@nationgroup.com.