Troubled Japanese automaker Nissan says it is selling its headquarters building in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, for $630 million as part of its revival efforts.
Also Thursday, Nissan reported a 221.9 billion yen ($1.4 billion) loss for the fiscal first half. It recorded a 19.2 billion yen profit during the same period a year ago.
What the fuck happened to their sales ? Did China kill it ?
Nissan, at least here in Europe, only makes uninspiring crossovers and not one of them is better than the uninspiring crossovers made by their competitors.
In some markets they have their big-ass SUV, the Armada/Patrol, but the latest generation of that came out this year or last year depending on market and it lost the V8 (already no appeal to the type of people who would’ve bought them). Now the twin turbo V6 supposedly has great drivability characteristics, but is barely any more fuel efficient than the V8 behemoth that came before it… And of course the V8 sounded good.
In August this year they cancelled their only “cool” car, the Nissan GT-R which hadn’t had a true second generation, only facelifts, over 18 years of production.
Someone I knew, had either a 2016 or 2018 Qashqai, I forgot the exact year. After more than one engine repair, they decided it wasn’t worth repairing anymore. This was about 2-3 years ago. The car barely had kilometers on it. I’ve owned numerous cars over 15 years old and even over 20 years old with multiple times the mileage, which gave me less problems, and I’m talking about cars from manufacturers reputed for building problematic cars. Audi, BMW, etc…
The new Leaf has better specs on paper than the old ones, but it looks really cheap inside and why the hell do we have yet another front-wheel drive “SUV”? I think even Hyundai and Kia EVs feel more premium at this point, and it’s not like the Leaf is much cheaper. The Ariya has good specs on paper, but looks less practical than the Ioniq 5 and my god, why is everything a capacitive touch button on a flat surface? Just make real buttons ffs.
There’s not a single Nissan I’d buy right now that’s available for me on the market. The Z is cool, but not available in Europe unlike its predecessors. The GT-R was a dream car for me as a teenager, but now that I could even start approaching GT-R affordability territory in a few years if my ex hadn’t ruined everything for me financially, it’s being discontinued. Maybe I’ll own a second-hand one in 10 years, unless they start going up in price like R34s. Even the Navara, which actually wasn’t the absolute worst pick-up truck, has been discontinued.
Nissan’s just fumbled everything. I know there’s a place for uninspiring crossovers. Hell, SUVs saved Porsche. But Porsche knew how to make an SUV fast, comfortable and able to off-road well. Nissan just knows how to make a crossover that looks like shit, has no power, isn’t comfortable, breaks down fairly early compared to even European rivals, let alone the other Japanese companies… I think their ONLY saving grace is that X-Trail is not too bad off road? Unless the latest generation changed that too. And the kicker? None of these vehicles are cheap anymore. The prices of every manufacturer have gone up, so at this point Nissan’s not a lot cheaper than some entry-level Škoda that (and it pains me to say this, because I hate Škodas) is a much nicer vehicle.
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.
What the fuck happened to their sales ? Did China kill it ?
Nissan, at least here in Europe, only makes uninspiring crossovers and not one of them is better than the uninspiring crossovers made by their competitors.
In some markets they have their big-ass SUV, the Armada/Patrol, but the latest generation of that came out this year or last year depending on market and it lost the V8 (already no appeal to the type of people who would’ve bought them). Now the twin turbo V6 supposedly has great drivability characteristics, but is barely any more fuel efficient than the V8 behemoth that came before it… And of course the V8 sounded good.
In August this year they cancelled their only “cool” car, the Nissan GT-R which hadn’t had a true second generation, only facelifts, over 18 years of production.
Someone I knew, had either a 2016 or 2018 Qashqai, I forgot the exact year. After more than one engine repair, they decided it wasn’t worth repairing anymore. This was about 2-3 years ago. The car barely had kilometers on it. I’ve owned numerous cars over 15 years old and even over 20 years old with multiple times the mileage, which gave me less problems, and I’m talking about cars from manufacturers reputed for building problematic cars. Audi, BMW, etc…
The new Leaf has better specs on paper than the old ones, but it looks really cheap inside and why the hell do we have yet another front-wheel drive “SUV”? I think even Hyundai and Kia EVs feel more premium at this point, and it’s not like the Leaf is much cheaper. The Ariya has good specs on paper, but looks less practical than the Ioniq 5 and my god, why is everything a capacitive touch button on a flat surface? Just make real buttons ffs.
There’s not a single Nissan I’d buy right now that’s available for me on the market. The Z is cool, but not available in Europe unlike its predecessors. The GT-R was a dream car for me as a teenager, but now that I could even start approaching GT-R affordability territory in a few years if my ex hadn’t ruined everything for me financially, it’s being discontinued. Maybe I’ll own a second-hand one in 10 years, unless they start going up in price like R34s. Even the Navara, which actually wasn’t the absolute worst pick-up truck, has been discontinued.
Nissan’s just fumbled everything. I know there’s a place for uninspiring crossovers. Hell, SUVs saved Porsche. But Porsche knew how to make an SUV fast, comfortable and able to off-road well. Nissan just knows how to make a crossover that looks like shit, has no power, isn’t comfortable, breaks down fairly early compared to even European rivals, let alone the other Japanese companies… I think their ONLY saving grace is that X-Trail is not too bad off road? Unless the latest generation changed that too. And the kicker? None of these vehicles are cheap anymore. The prices of every manufacturer have gone up, so at this point Nissan’s not a lot cheaper than some entry-level Škoda that (and it pains me to say this, because I hate Škodas) is a much nicer vehicle.
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.