Nissan Adviced By ASCI To Modify Magnite Advert

Nissan has been adviced to modify or withdraw the ad that promotes its Magnite compact SUV by the Advertising Standards Council Of India (ASCI) on claims that it is misleading.

Launched in December last year, the sub-4-metre SUV has gone on to rake in a lot of orders over the past 2 months and is the most affordable compact SUV on sale in India at present.

However, the ASCI approached Nissan India about the car’s advertisement after one Mr. Kumal Prakash complained that the Magnite was being falsely advertised as having the best-in-class fuel economy, rear kneeroom, LED headlamps, DRLs and fog lamps and wireless connectivity to Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.

In a point-wise response to the allegation, Nissan stated that its claim of the Magnite having the best-in-class fuel economy of 20 km/l has been certified by ARAI for the 1.0-litre turbo petrol manual variants.

Regarding the objection about the best-in-class rear kneeroom of 593 mm as claimed in the Nissan Magnite ad, the automaker said that the claim is for the B-SUV segment in which the Magnite competes in and also provided details of the car’s competitors.

Addressing the issue with the claim of the Magnite having the best-in-class LED headlamps, DRLs and fog lamps, Nissan argued that the combination of Bi-functional projector headlamps, separate DRLs and fog lamps (all LED units) is not present in any of the competition.

Finally, the automaker justified its claim that the Magnite also has the best-in-class wireless connectivity to Android Auto and Apple CarPlay by saying that the car’s competition do offer the connectivity tech, but they can only be operated via USB connectivity.

Kia Sonet aside, no other compact SUV offers wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay that features in select variants of the Magnite, said the Japanese firm in its defence.

However, the ASCI claimed Nissan’s response was inadequate and asked the firm to provide verifiable third party data to prove that the above mentioned features of the Magnite were indeed best in its class.

The Consumer Complaints Council (CCC), an independent body that evaluates complaints received by ASCI, noted that the Nissan Magnite ad and brochure promoted all variants of the car as having the features, while that is not the case.

Declaring that the best-in-class claims were inadequately substantiated, the CCC said they are misleading by exaggeration and in violation of ASCI code. Nissan was then advised to suitably modify or withdraw the advert by 11th February 2021.