Set sail1992

Chapter 499 The Impatient Isuzu

For the arrival of Zhang Qihang, Isuzu Motors showed full sincerity, and Yoshiichi Hirota even accompanied him personally to explain.

However, while showing enough sincerity, Hirota Yoshiichi is suspected of playing Zhang Qihang as a fool. For example, at this moment, Hirota Yoshiichi pointed to the mid-level car in front of him and said to Zhang Qihang: " Zhang Jun, this is our Isuzu ASKA sedan. This car has performed very well in the Japanese market and has been welcomed by many users. If you are interested, we are very happy to use our most advanced Isuzu products to cooperate with you. "

Looking at this rebranded Subaru Legacy, Zhang Qihang almost laughed out loud: Do you think I don't know about the technical and OEM exchanges between Isuzu Motors and Subaru Motors?
To put it simply, in order to reduce development costs, in the second half of 89, Isuzu Motors and Subaru Motors reached an OEM cooperation agreement: Isuzu Motors provided Bighorn for Subaru Motors to provide OEM support, and put its own bighorn on Subaru for sale;
Subaru needs to provide Isuzu with the OEM of its cutting-edge mid-level sedan Legacy, and sell the legacy with the Isuzu logo.

And the Isuzu ASKA in front of me is actually a Subaru legacy that came off the production line of Subaru Motors.

Of course, it’s fine if it’s just like this, but the problem is that during the three-year OEM validity period, this Isuzu aska, which is actually a rebranded Subaru legacy, only achieved sales of 4367 units.

Yes, you read that right, the total sales volume for three years is 4367 units.

And the car has been discontinued.

But now, Hirota Yoshiichi is fooling himself with this discontinued model manufactured by other manufacturers. Zhang Qihang feels from the bottom of his heart: This old man is too bad!
He said with a smile: "President Hirota, if I remember correctly, your company announced as early as last year that it would stop withdrawing from the car business and stop the R&D and production of cars. In the future, Isuzu will focus on off-road vehicles and commercial vehicles. ..."

Hirota Yoshiichi was a little surprised: You, a Chinese, even know this?
"And," Zhang Qihang frowned, pretending to be puzzled: "Why is this car from your company so similar to the Subaru Legacy I saw at a Subaru dealership, or even exactly the same?"

What Zhang Qihang said, he almost pointed at Yoshiichi Hirota’s forehead and sprayed him with saliva: You think I don’t know that your Isuzu Motors has withdrawn from the car business, and you think I don’t know that your aska is actually a replacement The target Subaru legacy?You old boy is bad enough to dig a hole for me!

At this moment, Yoshiichi Hirota's heart is not the embarrassment that he dug a hole for the other party and was exposed by the other party, let alone anger, but surprise: a Chinese auto company knows so much about the situation of a foreign auto manufacturer. familiar?
He knows that Isuzu Motors has withdrawn from the car business. After all, such matters involving a company's business strategy must be announced publicly, but it would be interesting for him to know the relationship between Subaru Legacy and Isuzu Aska. Enterprise, why are you so concerned about a Japanese company?
Unless he has already "stared" at Isuzu!
Apart from this reason, Hirota Yoshiichi couldn't think of any other reason to explain why Zhang Qihang had such a clear understanding of Isuzu's situation.

"Haha... yes, this Isuzu ASKA is made by Subaru Motors based on their legacy," Hirota Yoshiichi nodded and admitted with a smile, and then pointed to the tall off-road vehicle next to him: " Zhang Jun, since you know the cooperation between our Isuzu Motors and Subaru Motors, you should be familiar with this car, right?"

"This is..." Zhang Qihang took a closer look at the off-road vehicle next to him, and gradually identified it in his heart: "Bighorn?"

Bighorn is a high-performance off-road vehicle that Isuzu is most proud of. When it comes to off-road vehicles, people think of Domineering and Land Cruiser when it comes to Toyota, and Pajero when it comes to Mitsubishi. Then when it comes to Isuzu, there is no doubt It is bighorn. Bighorn is mostly translated as bighorn cavalry in China, and there are also bighorn sheep.
"That's right, it's the bighorn. The overseas version is called trooper," Hirota Yoshiichi said proudly, "The bighorn is one of the best off-road vehicles in the world. If you are interested, I can let you be the bighorn's Huaxia general agent."

Zhang Qihang was really moved when he heard this.

At this stage, domestic road construction is still poor, and high-performance off-road vehicles are needed in many places, especially in the military, oil, exploration and other industries, and there is an urgent shortage of high-performance off-road vehicles such as Pajero and Lu Xun So much so that the country imports more than 10 high-performance off-road vehicles from abroad every year.

If domestic enterprises can produce this kind of car, even if it is only CKD, it will be a good business. It can be said that time earns a lot of money.Zhang Qihang is sure that if he really reached an agreement with Isuzu to introduce the bighorn, the sales of this car will definitely not be bad in China.

However, Zhang Qihang still smiled and shook his head: "Mr. Hirota, if I remember correctly, you Isuzu seem to have an agent in China? I have read about your agent in a newspaper in our country. An ad, you guys have everything from sedans to coaches."

"That's our office," Yoshiichi Hirota explained, "but if your company intends to represent our products, these are no problems."

The reason why the words are so explicit is not in line with the tradition of "belly art" that Japanese people pay attention to when speaking, Hirota Yoshiichi has no choice.

Isuzu Motors is under too much pressure now. In the mid-to-late 80s, because of the signing of the Plaza Accord, Japan’s economic prosperity reached an unprecedented new height. For major automakers, this is definitely a rush to make money. However, Isuzu was an exception. It failed to take advantage of this updraft to make a fortune. Last year, the economic bubble in Japan finally burst. Isuzu, which was not doing well in the passenger car market, had to decide The research and development and production of cars were stopped, and as time came to 1994, the pressure on Isuzu was increasing, and the product line was not far from collapse.

The pressure on Isuzu is high, and the pressure on Yoshiichi Hirota, the president, is naturally even greater. Under such circumstances, Yoshiichi Hirota still has the thought of playing "belly art" with Zhang Qihang: this guy is a Chinese , What "belly art" does he know?
(End of this chapter)