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Nissan ReviewsThe Nissan name was first used in 1933, but the company's history goes back much further. Originally known as Kwaishinsha Motorcar Works, the company produced its first automobile, the DAT, in 1914. DAT later became Datsun (son of DAT) in 1931 and Datsuns went on to become the first mass-produced vehicles in Japan. Americans got their first look at the Datsun in 1958 - the 1200 Sedan. The Datsun 240Z was released as a 1970 model and it became the best selling sports car in the world, selling 500,000 units in less than 10 years. |
Automotive News Europe [sub] spotted a new trend in Tokyo: Daredevil CEOs:
“On Nov. 27, Toyota boss Akio Toyoda wowed a crowd of spectators in Japan by racing through a lineup of Lexus LFA supercars in the new Toyota 86 sporty coupe. One day later, Honda CEO Takanobu Ito hopped on a Honda MotoGP racing motorcycle and blasted around the company’s Twin Ring Motegi racetrack.” Read More >
Yesterday, you had your private tour of the Tokyo Motor Show, and you could not find a more competent and entertaining tour guide than Nissan’s head designer Francois Bancon. (Officially, „Deputy Divisional GM for Product Strategy.”) The former Renault man has seen the world. He was a Frenchman of the first hour at Nissan.
If you want to see the Japanese market through European eyes, then please tag along for part deux of the tour, where Bancon talks about Suzuki, Honda, and Daimler. Listen closely to what Bancon says about Daimler. Renault/Nissan and Daimler have an alliance, and Bancon knows where it is heading
Executive summary for the video-impaired: Read More >
Checking out the competition has a great tradition at auto shows. Executives usually try to avoid doing it in front of rolling cameras. They don’t want to end up like Volkswagen’s Winterkorn, who immortalized himself in his “Da scheppert nix” candid camera video, while admiring the non-rattling steering column of the latest Hyundai.
Now imagine the dropped jaws at Nissan when the crew at Nissan’ Global Media Center floated the crazy idea to have their own walk around of the Tokyo Motor Show, and to – gasp – say good things about the competition? Read More >
Toyota will still be #3 in cars made this year, but in terms of profitability, it has become an also-ran. Toyota shares that fate with their Japanese peers at Nissan and Honda. The Nikkei[sub] tabulated yen-denominated group earnings of 10 major automakers worldwide for the July-September quarter and comes to the conclusion: Read More >
The car business is tuning into a mutual admiration society. Volkswagen wants to be like Toyota, Toyota wants to learn from Nissan. Now, GM wants to learn from Volkswagen. GM’s Vice Chairman Stephen Girsky says that the new benchmark for GM is Volkswagen. Read More >
Before the Tokyo Motor Show, we were told that the Juke Nismo on display there is a prototype only, to gauge customer reception. If customers react positively enough, the car will be made. If not, forget about it.
Apparently, Nissan’s Chief Creative Officer Shiro Nakamura heard nothing but positive remarks because … just watch the video until the end and hear what he says.
In Once Upon a Car, Bill Vlasic artfully employs quotes gained through over 100 interviews to make readers feel like they’re “in the room.” Assuming that Vlasic has accurately reproduced the original dialogues, we learn how senior executives really talk… (Warning: Graphic language after the jump.) Read More >
Over the last few weeks we traveled to South Korea, Sweden, Canada and Romania. It’s been a while since we haven’t been to Africa, so this week I have decided to stop in South Africa.
If lions, rhinos and zebras are not exactly your thing, that’s ok, I’ve prepared 159 additional countries for you to visit in my blog, so click away!
South Africa is a production hub, and this has an impact on the best-selling cars there, on either side of the scale…
Some claim the Japanese don’t import enough cars. After what happened on Sunday near Shimonoseki, Japan, high value imports should experience a sudden blip.
On a freeway in southern Japan, at least 10 supercars were involved in what The Telegraph calls “likely to be the most expensive car crash outside of a car racing track.” Total damage is estimated at around $4 million. Read More >
It looks like Carlos Ghosn is tired of talking about the inaction of the Japanese government with regards to the killer yen. He told his people to start packing. The Nikkei [sub] reports today that Nissan will stop making in Japan newly developed cars for export from Japan. New cars will be produced at overseas plants.
“Under current foreign exchange rates, there can be no shipments from Japan of totally new projects,” Nissan’s COO Toshiyuki Shiga said. According to the report, anything with a new chassis that is intended for foreign markets will begin its life in those foreign markets. Says The Nikkei: Read More >
The checkered flag waved, the sun went down, the traditional delivery of lost bumpers and mufflers got dumped off the safety truck in front of LeMons HQ, and the Buttonwillow paddock went into the usual LeMons Saturday Night party mode. With the top five teams all grouped into a three-lap spread, there’ll be a long night of beer-fueled bench racing ahead. Read More >
Regular Vehicle Sales Japan November 2011
| Manufacturer | Nov ’11 | Nov ’10 | Change | FYTD’11 | FYTD’10 | Change |
| Daihatsu | 296 | 257 | 15.2% | 2,874 | 5,621 | -48.9% |
| Hino | 3,068 | 2,540 | 20.8% | 30,792 | 26,617 | 15.7% |
| Honda | 32,777 | 32,294 | 1.5% | 347,587 | 457,669 | -24.1% |
| Isuzu | 4,185 | 3,270 | 28.0% | 37,802 | 40,591 | -6.9% |
| Lexus | 3,795 | 1,938 | 95.8% | 40,123 | 31,752 | 26.4% |
| Mazda | 10,879 | 7,050 | 54.3% | 135,236 | 166,853 | -18.9% |
| Mitsubishi | 4,550 | 3,026 | 50.4% | 51,505 | 64,885 | -20.6% |
| Mitsubishi Fuso | 3,159 | 2,059 | 53.4% | 24,448 | 22,669 | 7.8% |
| Nissan | 39,470 | 31,486 | 25.4% | 411,811 | 474,380 | -13.2% |
| Subaru | 4,841 | 4,396 | 10.1% | 66,959 | 73,958 | -9.5% |
| Suzuki | 6,080 | 3,948 | 54.0% | 71,007 | 54,483 | 30.3% |
| Toyota | 120,305 | 96,874 | 24.2% | 1,056,105 | 1,453,901 | -27.4% |
| UD Trucks | 955 | 559 | 70.8% | 7,593 | 7,510 | 1.1% |
| Other | 17,876 | 13,549 | 31.9% | 183,272 | 169,161 | 8.3% |
| Total | 252,236 | 203,246 | 24.1% | 2,467,114 | 3,050,050 | -19.1% |
All things are relative: Now that we are comparing with absolutely dismal numbers in the preceding year, November car sales in Japan look downright healthy. Sales of new cars, trucks and buses were 252,236 units, up 24.1 percent from a year earlier in November, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association says. The numbers do not include sales of separately reported minivehicles. Read More >
It’s too early to tell exactly how much the market for new cars rose in November, but it’s looking like double digit growth going into the holiday season. And while some brands seem to have been naughty last month (Subaru, Porsche, Lincoln, Buick and Cadillac all saw sales drop year-over-year), November couldn’t have been nicer for the Volkswagen and Chrysler Groups, which grew their volumes by 40 and 45 percent respectively. The Chrysler brand alone improved its volume a whopping 92 percent over last November’s admittedly weak numbers… Fiat, on the other hand, is still on the train to Flopsville. GM, meanwhile, has run into some trouble, growing a mere 7 percent, as declines by Buick and Caddy were only barely offset by modest growth at Chevy and GMC. Lincoln continues to freefall towards oblivion, dropping 18 percent to a mere 6,305 units, but strong Ford brand growth brought the Blue Oval’s result up to 13 percent year-over-year gain. Hit the jump for our evolving sales chart. [UPDATE: Chart now complete]
We’re all aware that buying a first-year car can be risky, especially early in its production run. But how soon does the risk go away? Conversely, a new car model can initially seem problem free, only to have a common problem pop up once the cars have a few thousand miles on them. To cover both scenarios, TrueDelta promptly updates its car reliability stats four times a year, not just once a year after a half-year delay. Our recently updated reliability stats over owner experiences through the end of September 2011.
Put another way, the stats you’ll find elsewhere cover the same time period TrueDelta’s did two updates ago, back in May. How much difference can half a year make? In the case of some new Fords, quite a bit. A year ago the Fiesta had a reported repair frequency of 130 repair trips per 100 cars per year, about three times the average. Six months ago this had improved to 102, still much worse than average but heading in the right direction. With the latest update it’s 66 and within the range we consider “about average,” if still a little on the high side. Our earliest data for the 2012 Ford Focus suggested that it might similarly have a buggy launch, but after including more recent months its stat is 42 repair trips per 100 cars per year, very close to the average. Ford appears to have fixed the early bugs very quickly. But not quickly enough: other sources, using survey data from last spring, will report “worse than average” for at least the next year.
Yesterday, first media day at the Tokyo Motor Show, the press corps was chased from press conference to press conference in 15 minute intervals. Today, the Fourth Estate was looking forward to lazy strolls through the halls, snapping pictures of attractive ladies cars, when an urgent email, followed by urgent telephone calls disturbed the peace: Come to the Grand Pacific Le Daiba at 4pm, when Toyota and BMW will hold a joint press conference. The local gang knows: When these short notice calls come, drop everything and show up, it will be interesting.
Toyota AND BMW? Let’s go! Read More >
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