They have completely failed to keep up with their competitors. They were slow to adopt new technology, when they did it was unreliable. When you’re shopping for a car, if you compare a Nissan rogue to a Honda CRV, the Honda just seems a little nicer. The technology works better, and it’s the same goddamn price.
Hey now, Nissan went electric with the Leaf (and had the worst battery solution) faster than competitors, it adopted the (worst) CVT for its lighter duty vehicles early, and rarely, if ever, redesigned some of the most (un)inspiring vehicles around!
Nissan did corner the subprime market like no one else though.
Exactly how I’ve felt for a while now. Nissan hasn’t been doing the R&D investments they should’ve been doing, for decades now. The first and second gen Leafs were their last real contributions to the automotive industry. The first one because it made EVs more mainstream, and the second because it made actually EVs more affordable.
Nissan already gets transmissions for the Z and hopefully some other vehicles from Mercedes. Nissan’s partner Renault uses Mercedes small diesel engines.
What they should do now is badge-engineer a low-end Mercedes like the GLA, GLB, or their electric equivalents, and sell it for less than Mercedes does. If Mercedes is willing. Do what Toyota did with the new Supras and BMW, except do it with the Skyline and Mercedes, the M256 inline 6 is a pretty decent engine for power.
Of course they could look to some other manufacturer for help too, doesn’t have to be Mercedes, but Mercedes knows how to make cars and they have a working relationship already. But they need a GOOD car that they don’t need to invest tons of R&D into, to boost their reputation and income for a while.
They have completely failed to keep up with their competitors. They were slow to adopt new technology, when they did it was unreliable. When you’re shopping for a car, if you compare a Nissan rogue to a Honda CRV, the Honda just seems a little nicer. The technology works better, and it’s the same goddamn price.
Hey now, Nissan went electric with the Leaf (and had the worst battery solution) faster than competitors, it adopted the (worst) CVT for its lighter duty vehicles early, and rarely, if ever, redesigned some of the most (un)inspiring vehicles around!
Nissan did corner the subprime market like no one else though.
Exactly how I’ve felt for a while now. Nissan hasn’t been doing the R&D investments they should’ve been doing, for decades now. The first and second gen Leafs were their last real contributions to the automotive industry. The first one because it made EVs more mainstream, and the second because it made actually EVs more affordable.
Nissan already gets transmissions for the Z and hopefully some other vehicles from Mercedes. Nissan’s partner Renault uses Mercedes small diesel engines.
What they should do now is badge-engineer a low-end Mercedes like the GLA, GLB, or their electric equivalents, and sell it for less than Mercedes does. If Mercedes is willing. Do what Toyota did with the new Supras and BMW, except do it with the Skyline and Mercedes, the M256 inline 6 is a pretty decent engine for power.
Of course they could look to some other manufacturer for help too, doesn’t have to be Mercedes, but Mercedes knows how to make cars and they have a working relationship already. But they need a GOOD car that they don’t need to invest tons of R&D into, to boost their reputation and income for a while.