ASCI claims that Nissan Magnite ad is misleading

ASCI or better known as Advertising Standards Council Of India had reached out to Nissan Motor India Pvt. Ltd. claiming that the manufacturer is falsely advertising their latest compact-SUV that launched in the Indian market, Magnite. Mr Kumal Prakash says that “Best-in-class Wireless Connectivity to Android Auto & Apple CarPlay”, “Best-in-class Fuel Economy (20 kmpl*)”, “Best-in-class Rear Knee Room (593 mm)” and “Best-in-class LED Headlamps, DRLs & Fog Lamps” are all vague and false claims. Nissan has also submitted their replies in response to the claims that the ASCI has pointed out.

Nissan said against the “Best-in-class Wireless Connectivity to Android Auto & Apple CarPlay” claim that all other compact-SUVs offers USB Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Whereas, Nissan is offering Wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay with the Magnite. There is only one other compact-SUV that comes with Wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay which is the Kia Sonet.

In response to “Best-in-class Fuel Economy (20 kmpl*)” Nissan reported that the 20 kmpl fuel efficiency is reported by ARAI with the 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine. For the “Best-in-class Rear Knee Room (593 mm)” the manufacturer said “that the claim is made by Nissan for B SUV segment in which the said model operates” and Nissan also mentioned details of competing manufacturers.

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At last for the claim of “Best-in-class LED Headlamps, DRLs & Fog Lamps”, Nissan said that Magnite comes with an LED Bi-projector headlamp, an L-shaped LED Daytime Running Lamp and an LED foglamp in the lower half of the bumper. Nissan reported that no other manufacturer offers a combination of three LEDs(Bi-projector, Daytime Running Lamp and fog lamp) is not offered by any other manufacturer. Thus, making the Magnite best in the segment.

A secretary of Advertising Standards Council Of India said that the response from Nissan is not sufficient and the manufacturer would need to provide third-party comparative data that is verifiable proving that the Magnite is “Best in Class” when compared with the competitors. In response to this, Nissan said that the current comparison was done according to the declarations and the information provided by the competitors. They also reported that the for the claims whose details were not available on the competitor’s website or social media platform, the advertisers had collected the data from auto portals such as TeamBHP which are considered to be independent third parties.

The Consumer Complaints Council (CCC) studied the print advertisement and the brochure of the Magnite and examined the advertiser’s response. The council also perceived that the advertiser has collected the data of the competitors and compared it to the Magnite. But an independent third-party organization was not involved in substantiation of the claims. The CCC also noticed that the brochure advertised all the variants of the Magnite and because the advertisement was for all the variants, features and equipment levels could be different depending on the variant. Based on these observations the CCC came to an end that the claims “Best-in-class Wireless Connectivity to Android Auto & Apple Car Play”, “Best-in-class Fuel Economy (20 kmpl*)”, “Best-in-class Rear Knee Room (593 mm)”, and “Best-in-class LED Headlamps, DRLs & Fog Lamps”, were inadequately substantiated.

The Council says that the claims are exaggeration due to which they are misleading. The print advertisement and the Ad – Brochure disobeys Chapters 1.1 and 1.4 of the ASCI Code. Due to which ASCI has advised Nissan to suitably modify or withdraw the advertisement.

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