When Vinay Shahani rejoined Nissan in January 2024, the automaker's marketing effectiveness ranked in the bottom three among mainstream brands. Decision-making remained largely centralized in Japan. And the company sold heavily to fleet customers while dealers obviously wanted more retail focus.
Eighteen months later, and Nissan is in the midst of a major turn around. But Shahani’s contributions as the head of U.S. sales and marketing have come to an end.
However, his exit wasn't as abrupt as it appeared to be on the outside, he told Daily Dealer Live hosts Sam D'Arc and Uli de’ Martino.
Driving the news: "I resigned responsibly," Shahani said. "I've been living in Dallas, [Texas], commuting to Nashville, [Tennessee], I've got a young family. I've got two kids. I've got a dad who's not in the best of health."
But even while navigating personal strain, Shahani spent two months offboarding, to ensure Nissan's U.S. business would not backslide into some of the chaos he inherited.
"Way too many decisions were being trying to be asserted, or I should say, trying to be made by the shot callers in Japan. And that's wrong," he said. "I think Nissan up until let's say, nine months ago, was still that."
The breakthrough: Came through when freshman CEO Ivan Espinosa empowered regional decision-making, and replaced several global executives who "had no right being in the job that they were in," according to Shahani.
With decision-making now centered in Nashville, the first major test was whether the company could realign sales strategy around dealer profitability rather than corporate volume targets.
"There was a natural inclination to sell to rental fleet companies. And I said, we have to stop that," Shahani explained.
By the numbers: That transition means accepting lower total market share for better retail performance.
"Our total market share is going to go down this year. Not because of retail—retail is going up. We've gained a point of retail share since December. We're at the 5% mark. We've got to get to 6%. That is the goal. Christian has said that. I've said that," he described.
"But rental fleet sales are coming down drastically. There's profit that can be made there. It's still a decent profit, but it's not right for the network. We have to get the network to be profitable, more profitable than they are."
Retail sales are up 50% year-over-year so far for Nissan dealers, but there’s still plenty of room to grow, Shahani admits.
Yes but, as many of our readers have pointed out, to capture more sales through the retail channel, Nissan must make sure the product itself gives customers the features they expect at the prices rivals deliver.
This is something Shahani and his team spent countless hours on by analyzing the top 10 features for each vehicle segment against Nissan's competitors
"For example, when you compare [the Rogue] against RAV4 and CR-V, [customers] had to step up into the grade walk like $5,000 before [they] could get the option of heated seats. That was a problem. There's a big problem. We fixed it. We brought it way down in the grade walk," said Shahani.
OUTSMART THE CAR MARKET IN 5 MINUTES A WEEK
No-BS insights, built for car dealers. Free, fast, and trusted by 55,000+ car dealers.
Zooming out: Fixing these product basics opened the door for a fresh marketing approach that finally had some substance behind it.
So, Shahani rebuilt campaigns around "the car is the star," focusing on concrete product advantages instead of generic brand messaging.
This approach moved Nissan from bottom three to top three among mainstream brands in marketing effectiveness, according to behavioral engagement data firm EDO.
Between the lines: Those gains are real, but there is still clearly unfinished business at Nissan.
Despite new models like the redesigned Armada and Kicks showing 6-8% point gains in 36-month residual values, they're still behind the likes of Toyota and Honda.
And even though Nissan's hybrid technology (ePower) arrives next year, product development timelines mean dealers will wait longer than other brands for this key segment.
The reality: It’s these unresolved challenges that now fall on Michael Soutter’s desk. Soutter, Shahani's replacement, brings 10 years of prior Nissan experience, most recently running global aftersales.
"My vision is the company's vision now. It's not a vision that's going to change like you change your socks every day with a new person coming in," Shahani said.
Looking ahead: Shahani moves into a different industry at AT&T as senior vice president of marketing and planning, where he can apply his philosophy of local empowerment, retail focus, and clear value. For Soutter, the challenge is maintaining momentum while tackling the brand's unresolved issues.
A quick word from our partner
Winning in today’s market means more than just adjusting prices or boosting ad spend.
It’s about seeing what’s holding each vehicle back - and taking smarter action from day one.
Long before AI became a buzzword, Lotlinx built the industry's first VIN performance platform — powered by AI and the most robust dataset of VIN and shopper behavior — to help dealers optimize every vehicle and maximize profit.
With Lotlinx, dealers can:
Spot inventory risk before it hits
Move cars with precision
Turn each VIN Into a star
Visit lotlinx.com to discover how to win with every VIN and maximize profit - one VIN at a time.
