As an authentic "post-70s", when the author just saw this news, the first feeling may be the same as many of his peers, and the so-called "feelings" that cannot be avoided.
As for the second feeling, it is like this: China's auto market is indeed big and attractive! ------------------------------------------------------- ......
Looking at this time, Toyota's Crown sedan, which was only discontinued in China in April 2020 and subsequently "temporarily abandoned", seems to have a high probability of choosing to "return" - well, this is less than two years. ......
From a product point of view, the Crown sedan that attempts to stage "The Return of the King" will be a new generation (sixteenth generation) product. As a "global model", it is based on the TNGA-K platform (naturally a front-drive model) and will be officially released in mid-2022, and then sold in Japan, China and the United States.
Current news shows that the new generation of crowns will "return" to China in the form of imports – it is expected to be listed in the second half of this year, the expected price range is 400,000-450,000 yuan, and the monthly sales quota may be about 1,500 units.
So, what else can the new generation of crowns with labels such as "feelings", "return", "imports", "global cars" and "quotas" bring to today's Chinese auto market? ......
Import + sentiment + hunger marketing: more than 400,000 are not worried about selling? ——The power of the car | Wang Wei
"Spend $400,000 to $450,000 on a crown? ...... I'm crazy! - 5 Series, E Grade, A6 Are they not fragrant? ”
……
As a legendary model of Toyota, when the news that the crown will return to the Chinese market at the end of 2022 was "fried" on the Internet, everyone was excited at the same time, but also "complained" about its high price.
It should be known that the reason why Toyota Crown stopped production in China in 2020 is largely because the price of that generation of models is too high, but its product strength is not enough to support the excessive market positioning.
According to the latest news at present, whether it is the new car will be changed to a front-facing front-drive layout, or it only provides 2.4T and 2.5L hybrid two power options, or the crown in China has long been inferior to the previous brand "gold content"... All of this, perhaps, doomed it to have no impact on the "BBA".
Even in the face of those second-tier luxury brands with terminal discounts of up to 70,000 or 80,000 yuan, Crown Car will appear to be "more than enough and insufficient".
Therefore, if the new generation of Crown sedans finally chooses to return to the Chinese market in an imported way, it seems to be a more "smart" choice.
After all, in this way, in addition to ensuring its "original" product strength and ensuring the quality, it will not appear in the same room with Lexus; more importantly, it avoids a direct conflict with luxury brands such as "BBA" that have been introduced into large-scale domestic production.
In addition, Toyota may also be able to engage in a wave of familiar "hunger marketing" (rumored to have a quota of 1500 vehicles per month). Perhaps, with the "margin" of good word of mouth accumulated over the years, there may still be a group of "die-hard fans" in China, who are still willing to pay for the "feelings" of the year.
Is the "Crown" returning to pursue sales? ——Liu Jie, | power of the car
Spend less than 300,000 yuan to buy a C-class car with a longitudinal transmission, front rear drive, front double wishbone and rear multi-link - note, it is a C-class car, how many can you say? ......
Except for the crown, it seems difficult to find the second one.
Of course, the "crown" mentioned here may have to be in quotation marks – because since the previous generation of products, the 2.0T engine and youthful design have made this legendary model born in Japan on January 1, 1955, somewhat lost its original taste.
Regardless of whether such design adjustments are out of "going with the flow", the two elements of "movement" and "youth" should not be the soul of the crown. As for the Chinese market, the Crown sedan has been discontinued in April 2020, and then continues to compete in the form of an alternative presence of the SUV model, the Crown Lufang.
In fact, China's luxury car market has entered a white-hot competition stage since 2010. In the face of the "BBA" and a number of second-tier luxury brands with a sharp decline in prices and stronger product strength, the crown can be said to be "almost no counter-force" - especially when the price collapse of its products in the later stage and the production process also declines, the sense of value brought by it is even worse than before.
Today, in the face of the continuous rise of Chinese car companies in terms of product strength and brand power, as well as the increasing "inner volume" of many joint venture rivals, if Toyota only relies on the Asian Dragon and the land release with the "crown label", it is obviously difficult to effectively raise its overall product image; as for returning to the glorious period of "Crown 133", it is even more hopeless.
To enhance the overall image of the brand in such a situation, the return of the "true figure" of the Crown sedan is obviously a more direct, more effective and less costly way for Toyota.
In this way, the importance of the 16th-generation Crown sedan, which may return to the Chinese market in the form of imports, may not lie in the number of sales, but in the value of Toyota's traditional fuel vehicle products and even the brand in the future.
Of course, in addition to the upcoming crown, Toyota has finally begun to "speed up" in the field of electric vehicles - the bZ4X built on the e-TNGA platform will also soon be put into the Chinese market.
In the author's opinion, Toyota should have understood the principle of "walking on two legs" long ago - using the crown to raise the image and look forward to the future with electric power.
After all, in the crazy market competition, if you don't advance, you will retreat.