Nissan C-segment sedan leaves gap in Malaysia. Can Lannia replace Sylphy as Nissan Primera?

From the 1970s till mid-2015, Tan Chong did have Nissan C-segment vehicles line-up in Malaysia. In the 1970s, we had Datsun 140J/160J (710 and A10 series), but we also had Nissan Langley sedan ase well short-lived Nissan Stanza T11 in the 1980s as C-segment sedan where position above Nissan Sunny, but below Nissan Bluebird. In 1987, Nissan C-segment sedan in Malaysia was filled up by Nissan Sentra N13 to replace Nissan Langley N12 and poor sales Sentra B12. For whole 1990s and 2000s, Nissan Sentra B13, B14 and N16 positioned as C-segment sedan in Malaysia, then succeeded by Nissan Sylphy G10 since 2008, meanwhile Nissan Bluebird U11, U12, Altima U13 was position between C and D segment here, Bluebird and Altima can be either C or D segment, depends on the market of a region.

The final Nissan C-segment car was Nissan Sylphy B17 where launched in Malaysia around April 2014, fully imported from Thailand, but this sedan was withdrawn from Nissan Malaysia line-up silently since 2016 due to poor sales. Therefore, Nissan Malaysia leaves a big gap between B-segment Almera and D-segment Teana, none of Nissan C-segment sedan fills the gap between Almera and Teana in Malaysia, but its rival Honda Civic, Mazda 3 and Toyota Corolla Altis perform well in Malaysia.

Nissan Sylphy received facelift since 2016, but I did not think Malaysia would get it as poor sales here, but Nissan launched another C-segment sedan to target post-80s Chinese buyers, for China market only, it is known as Nissan Lannia which means Bluebird in Mandarin. Lannia is derived from the word "Lan Niao" (藍鳥) means Bluebird in Mandarin to state that Lannia is new Bluebird.

This new Bluebird, codename U15 is not actual successor of Nissan Bluebird U13 and U14 due to the size dimension. It is totally different segment from old Bluebird (910, U11, U12), but it has same size with 1980s Nissan Stanza T11 and 1990s Nissan Primera. Seriously say that, Nissan Lannia U15 is the actual successor of Nissan Primera.

Lannia size is larger than Sylphy, but smaller than the actual Bluebird. So, it is Stanza-size sedan.

Currently Nissan Lannia is only sold in China, even Japan home market and rest of the world did not receive this sedan, so it is strictly left-hand drive (LHD) sedan. It sounds good if Nissan Lannia makes RHD version for export market. In my opinion, Lannia design looks awesome, far away better than Sylphy. It is excellent to be exported to South East Asia, Oceania and Australasia. When this car comes to Malaysia, I don't agree it is called as Lannia due to bad word for Hokkien speaking people, just like Nissan Bluebird U13 renamed to Altima in 1994.

If Lannia is launched in Malaysia to fill Nissan C-segment sedan position, I think ETCM can name this car either Nissan Sentra or Nissan Primera. Let's analyze:

1. If Nissan Lannia U15 is called as Sentra in Malaysia, I don't think Nissan headquarter will agree as it will confuse the existing Sylphy B17 where it is known as Nissan Sentra in American region. In addition, the position of Lannia U15 is a bit higher than N16 Sentra.

2. If Nissan Lannia U15 is called as Primera in Malaysia and South East Asia, I think it sounds better due to same size with P10-P11-P12. Lannia and Primera, both look sporty which are younger buyers favorite. For South East Asia region, Nissan B-segment sedan Sunny is called as Almera, including Malaysia. The name Almera was used for Nissan Pulsar N15 and N16 in Europe region, but it was resurrected again in South East Asia as B-segment sedan since 2011, first launch was in Thailand. Can Nissan Primera nameplate be resurrected again for Lannia U15 in South East Asia? In the past, Nissan Primera was used to be sold in Singapore, Brunei and New Zealand where the countries did not offer Bluebird. P11 Primera replaced U13 Bluebird in these countries, but Malaysia was used to launch Nissan Primera P11, but not from Tan Chong or parallel imports dealer, instead first generation Mitsuoka Ryoga.

In order to have better competition against Toyota Corolla Altis, Mazda 3 and Honda Civic, I think Nissan shall consider to launch RHD version of Lannia U15 as "All-new Nissan Primera" for South East Asia region (including Malaysia), Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong where Nissan Sylphy was no longer offered in these territories.  

Nissan Primera P10