As goes ToMoCo, so Ghosn Nissan. Once truck-happy, Nissan is shifting its production away from not-so-good-on-gas trucks and SUVs and is instead building more cars. Nearly alone in the industry, Nissan's sales rose 8.4 percent in May. However, sales of the full-size Titan and Armada were off a 50 percent each. Nissan stayed afloat on the back on the Altima; the CamCord competitor saw its sales climb to 34,428 units (up 43 percent). By shifting around production at its North American plants, Nissan feels it can up production of the hot selling Altima, while decreasing production of the not big boys– without laying off any workers. The shift should yield an additional 2k Altimas a month. It doesn't mean Nissan is getting out of the truck business, though. The Titan will be replaced by a Mexican-built badge-engineered Dodge Ram while Nissan rebadges Frontiers as "Equators" for Suzuki. The plant currently building Titans will start building commercial vehicles.
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"As goes ToMoCo, so Ghosn Nissan." Booooo, Hisssss. Boooooo, Hisssss. Would have been better to go after the "Dogs like trucks" angle, Johnny. Just kidding, keep up the good work.
At least Nissan had products other than SUVs to fall back on. Chrysler, Ford and GM? Not so much.
An automaker with a strong portfolio across multiple segments uses factory flexibility to adjust to market changes. Hmmm, this should be so routine as to not be noteworthy …. but it is.
Landcrusher :
I loved those old Nissan commercials!
One of them mentioned the Nissan Patrol from the 60’s. “Roy Rogers owned one…”
Landcrusher:
“Nissan Hates Dogs”?
Seriously though, agility is a major buzzword in every business. Compare the reactions to these, the times that try automakers souls: the domestics slash (jobs) and burn (cash) while the imports calmly shuffle their portfolios.
Who’s adjusting and who’s in panic mode?
An additional 2000 cars a month. BIG Whoopie!!
That change isn’t even worth mentioning.
Plus, All manufacturers small cars are selling better and trucks are down. Nissan’s “advantage” is their truck and SUV sales were never that good so they had a lot less to lose.
Juniper – very true. Nissan’s trucks and SUVs never quite made the grade but their cars are better than what the “domestics” have to offer right now. If GM, Ford and Chrysler had a good small and medium car product portfolio to fall back on then they wouldn’t be in the mess they are now.
How come nobdoy wished GM luck when they shifted production from trucks/SUV’s to cars?
Very telling….
gawdodirt: Oh no! You figured out our vast anti-Detroit conspiracy!
Er, or… I didn’t write the post about GM switching, etc.
The Titan will be replaced by a Mexican-built badge-engineered Dodge Ram
Alternatively ‘The Titan will be replaced by a Nissan built on tooling acquired from a bankupt Chrysler.‘
Jonny,
That was figgered out long ago. I even got a personalised “Pass Go, Do NOT Collect $200,’ from the jefe.
Good thing that GM is selling great everywhere else! Maybe THEY don’t read TTAC!??!
NickR :
June 10th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
The Titan will be replaced by a Mexican-built badge-engineered Dodge Ram
Alternatively ‘The Titan will be replaced by a Nissan built on tooling acquired from a bankupt Chrysler.‘
LOL! Kind of.
Nissan’s trucks and SUVs never quite made the grade but their cars are better than what the “domestics” have to offer right now. If GM, Ford and Chrysler had a good small and medium car product portfolio to fall back on then they wouldn’t be in the mess they are now.
It’s not as simple as to just say “The big three should have had better small and medium sized cars.” They should have had a better product portfolio, period. Not only did they jettison the small cars, but the minivans and compact trucks as well. And they’re all feeling the burn for those decisions. The Chevy Colorado still limps along at the bottom of its class. Why? Trucks are what Chevy is supposed to do right. It’s embarrassing. Uplander? Good God. Ranger? Don’t get me started.
Had it not been for Ghosn, Nissan would have been DOA in the nineties partly because its large trucks and SUVs were awful. If a company can’t make all of its customers happy it fails as a corporate entity. It’s as simple as that.