I love cars and so a part of me wants every brand to thrive if only so they last long enough to produce some kind of extremely niche product that appeals only to the people who make and/or read this website. Call it the “Pontiac G8 ST Effect.” I’m still sore about Steve Rattner killing Pontiac before we got our neo-El Camino.
High on the list of brands I’m worried about is Nissan. The company is in poor shape and its survival is not guaranteed. There’s a bright spot, however, in that I think the brand is starting to recognize that it’s hosed and is starting to make the right moves to avert disaster.
Is this a hopeful edition of The Morning Dump? Sure, let’s do it. If Nissan can turn it around so can Volvo. The automaker got caught flat-footed by EV market disruptions but still managed to beat profit forecasts. Stellantis is rumored to be fleeing to Mexico with its Ram 1500, though the company insists it’s just preparing for when it runs out of production space in the United States. That’s 18 different kinds of wishful thinking right there.
And, finally, the Department of Energy thinks it’ll be able to rush a lot of money out the door for EV plant conversion… just in case.
Nissan Realizes It Can’t Celebrity Itself To Success
I distinctly remember having a conversation in early March about my daughter’s birthday party. There were rumors of COVID-19 popping up in our community and we wondered if getting a bunch of kids and grandparents in the same room might, in fact, be a bad idea. We ended up cancelling the party.
Around this time Nissan launched an ad with Brie Larson called “Compromise” which is a pro-feminist message about, well, not compromising. This was to sell Nissan Sentras because those, too, were not compromises. Predictably, there was a modest online backlash to the perceived wokeness of the ad and, it seems, Nissan has entirely memory-holed the event by removing all of its press releases and YouTube videos of the ad. Thankfully, a copy of it is still on Facebook and I’ve embedded the video below.
While I’m generally sympathetic to the message, it’s clunky as hell. I have no issue with wokeness and often find people complaining about it to be telling on themselves but, yeah, this is truly terrible. It’s preachy, didactic, and all in the service of making people money. I think the best word to describe it is: cringe. It’s extreme cringe.
I’d actually forgotten about this whole timeline because a few days after this ad was released the entire world shut down and I was too busy worrying about keeping my daughter from seeing the biohazard-suited EMTs taking my dying neighbor out of her apartment to have opinions on Brie Larson.
The whole debacle is indicative of the journey Nissan has been on since 2018, when CEO Carlos Ghosn was arrested in Japan for alleged corporate malfeasance. Since then the company has been lost, trying to divorce itself from Renault while also failing to attract new customers. In the United States, market share has dropped by a third since 2018 and nearly 40% of dealers have reported being unprofitable. I’ve argued that Nissan and Honda should merge.
Nissan had a goal of ending the fiscal year 2024 (which ends in March 2025) with a 6.2% market share. They’ll be lucky to get 5.6%.
To solve a problem you first must acknowledge it and, to its credit, Nissan’s new head of marketing Vinay Shahani seems to understand the issues. He did an interview with Automotive News where he was as frank as you’ll see a marketing exec get about what’s wrong (it helped that Shahani has been at Lexus so it’s not his fault):
Shahani’s strategy to flip old perceptions and draw new buyers targets the rational and emotional impulses in car buying.
Nissan’s new marketing steers away from celebrity-powered advertising. New commercials emphasize vehicle features, technology and the dealership experience.
“The car has to be the star,” Shahani said. “I want to make sure people see all the innovation we have to offer.”
Nissan’s “6 under $30K” campaign highlights the brand’s value-priced sedans and crossovers and is tuned to these times of high interest rates.
“Affordable pricing is more important than ever before,” Shahani said. “Third-party data show a 70 percent drop in new vehicle [listings] priced under $30,000 since 2019.”
So no more Brie Larson, I guess? Focusing on affordability is a great message. But more than messaging is needed. What Nissan probably should do is cut its dealerships like Buick has, but that costs money and Nissan doesn’t have enough money to do that right now.
If there’s any silver lining here it’s that the new product looks much improved. The new Nissan Murano, in particular, could be a winner. Nissan also needs hybrids and needs to figure out some way to get people to care about the Nissan Ariya, but there seems to be some sort of plan to build better cars. [Ed Note: I myself am rather excited to drive the new Kicks, which looks awesome for its price. One thing about Nissan is that it does have a number of sub-$30,000 offerings, which I think is great. -DT].
Volvo Isn’t In Quite As Terrible Shape
Volvo was going to be the next great EV automaker and had a plan to quickly ditch its gas-burning cars in an effort to address climate change (and also increase the company’s value). It turns out that this was the wrong plan, so Volvo is having to quickly readjust.
The slightly good news is that the company’s operating profits in Q3 hit $550 million, up from what the market expected. Will that hold? Volvo is being cautious.
Volvo Cars said it now expects its retail sales to rise by 7-8% this year, down from a forecast in July of 12-15% growth, anticipating no growth in the fourth quarter.
“There’s no doubt that the sector’s getting tougher … We’re starting to see a slowdown in consumer sentiment, driven partly by the high inflation,” CEO Jim Rowan told Reuters.
“A lot of people are taking car loans out in order to pay for their new vehicles, and high inflation obviously affects that.”
The company is in the middle of a product refresh and the new stuff looks good, even if it’s not entirely ready for prime time yet.
Possible Ram Production In Mexico Is Just A ‘Relief Valve’ Says Stellantis Exec
The United Auto Workers union and Stellantis are in a standoff over the future. The UAW is threatening to strike over production commitments while Stellantis is making noises about shifting production to Mexico. What should we call this standoff where both parties have something to lose? A Saltillo Standoff? I’ll keep workshopping it.
Right now Ram 1500s are produced in the UAW-held plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan, but it’s become clear that Stellantis is expanding in its Saltillo, Mexico facility to support more truck production. What’s going on here?
Chrysler brand CEO Christine Fuell told the Detroit Free Press that it’s not a big deal:
Asked why that extra capacity wasn’t added in the U.S., and if the Mexico expansion was an effort to slash spending following a new agreement with the UAW, Feuell said it was not a cost-cutting move.
“The plant in Saltillo does a really good job managing the complexity, and they’re already building pickup trucks down there,” she said.
The future home of the Ram 1500 truck, which is currently built at Sterling Heights assembly near Detroit, is under question given the Mexico expansion.
Sure.
DOE Trying To Push Out EV Conversion Bucks For… No Reason
One of President Biden’s big agendas was to upgrade the nation’s green energy infrastructure in order to counter the threat from China and climate change. One piece of that initiative that’s key is the passing out of grants to convert plants to produce EVs and EV-related parts.
For no reason at all the Biden administration is trying to get those grants out as fast as a government agency can according to Reuters:
U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Tuesday the department is working “as fast as we can” to finalize $1.7 billion in grants to fund the conversion of plants to build electric vehicles and components.
“We are working as fast as we can to finalize as much as we can — to get the commitments in contract with all of those who have been selected,” Granholm said in an interview on the sidelines of a Reuters Next conference. “We have a few months to make sure that we’re doing that.”
What could possibly happen in the next few months that would endanger EV grants? Don’t we all agree that global warming is real and a real threat?
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
I don’t wanna hate on Brie Larson too much, so here’s Brie Larson doing “Black Sheep” in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. It’s good! She’s talented! She doesn’t make me want to buy a Nissan but that’s not entirely her fault!
The Big Question
Let’s remember some great Nissans. What’s your favorite Nissan of all time?
Favorite Nissan: the early 1990s Maxima with the little “4DSC” decals on the rear door window. Love.
And the Infiniti-badged Nissan Pathfinder (the QX4). Why? Because.
For fuck sake, global warming? Chicken Littles in the 70s proclaimed we were experiencing global cooling, half the world’s population was going to die from another ice age. Here we fucking are, earth more populated than ever. It’s the perfect invisible boogeyman to get votes. Just live your life and don’t worry about it. Fuck!
No one actually said we were experiencing “global cooling.” It was once mentioned as a remotely possible result of climate change. Whereas just about every scientist has said we are in the midst of a dire warming scenario that everyone should be worried about.
I really liked the GT-R when it came out. As a very boring kid, I realized that it was a fast car with rear seats and AWD. It was a sexy (in my opinion), and very powerful car that was comfortable enough to go about your boring life in. It just had presence. I remember seeing one in the showroom, and it was a big, imposing car for what it was and what it could outperform. I still see a few in my city running around doing daily duty, and I’m still giddy when I see one.
“What’s your favorite Nissan of all time?”
I think my favourite Nissan is the 3rd Gen Maxima SE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=84jWFSXiZ3I
And I always liked the 1st gen pre-facelift Infiniti Q45.
My mother had a 1999.5 Pathfinder (new body, old 3.3L V6) and honestly, I LOVED that thing. It had a colour-matched brush bar on the front and that was the vehicle I took my driving tests in.
So, going purely off nostalgia, that era of Pathfinder.
Oh, and I suppose the Skylines are cool.
Best time of the day: 510.
“Black Sheep” fucking rules so hard, whether it’s the movie version or Metric’s version.
or the Chris Farley version
I’m really enjoying our current Leaf, it’s a hatchback! It’s electric! It’s an electric hatchback!
Perfect runabout.
Perhaps they should use that Mexican factory to make the Ram 700 (Fiat Strada) and Ram 1200 (Mitsubishi Triton/L200)
Menace II society era Maxima was an absolute banger.
Hardbody all the way. It’s probably my favorite truck ever, and I’m not exactly a fan of trucks.
As for the future of Nissan, doesn’t Renault own Dacia? I know Nissan is trying to get away from Renault, but why can’t I have a damn Dacia already? I think all of their cheap products would absolutely kill it here, and I want a damn Jogger.
I want a Sandero so I can walk up to it and say “Great news!” in my James May voice.
Really the older Nissan’s. I will always love the current Altima’s but only for the meme factor of them racing everywhere at top speed.
But I like the older trucks, of course the Datsun’s (I really like the square bodies from back then)
3rd gen Nissan Patrol with the 3.3 turbodiesel, most capable vehicle both on- and offroad
First gen 2-door Pathfinder is my favorite Nissan, and by extension the hardbody pickup. Those were such good lucking trucks, and IIRC correctly at one point they were available with 31″ tires from the factory.
I’ll also say that I thought the 350Z and G35 were very cool when they came out in the early ’00s.
The Nissan Dealership Experience(tm).
The scene: Salesman in lobby on cell phone reclining in chair.
The salesman pauses his conversation and asks “Hey, are you buying a car today? No, then I don’t want to talk to you, go find someone else.”
Salesman returns to his phone call.
Nissan should be studied by business schools or marketing majors for how easy it is to erode decades of reputation in a short span of time with such cost cutting and running to the bottom of the market.
But the best Nissan ever? Infiniti G35 coupe. Softened the Z just enough to make it livable, available manual, really attractive design.
It’s true. Despite their best (lack of) effort, they still have a lineup of vehicles that’s not too terrible. The CVT issues should have been handled better. And they definitely should have put more energy into hybrids instead of the fancy variable compression engines. But if they could get their shit together, they have a lot more life left in them than Chrysler.
Re: the variable compression. I’ve heard that unit in the Rogues was a disaster. 🙁
I’m perpetually conflicted about Nissan.
My mom had a Maxima that talked, that was awesome, then she had a Sentra they never changed the oil in and it just kept going, even when it apparently ran out of oil.
My Dad’s last car was a Sentra, after his Versa started giving him issues and they upsold him.
The main point is my family was never affluent but neither did Nissan seem to be. And they had some cool cars, the GT-R’s, the Skylines, the Z’s, but they all seemed fairly attainable.
BUT, they did Uzi Nissan(awesome name twice) dirty with the domain name battle, and that’s just not cool. And then the whole Ghosn thing, and the horrible CVTs in everything, and Big Altima Energy. The last decade has not been kind to the makers of the Pao and Figaro.
They need to get their mojo back, make some hybrids, any hybrids! Make a Leaf 3.0 instead of the Ariya, hopefully the new Kicks DT mentioned will be ok. It won’t break my heart if Nissan goes away, but it’d be nice if they figured it out.
My second car was a ’97 Maxima manual. My particular example was kind of crappy by the time I got it, but the VQ30 ran great. I am disappointed for not moving quicker on one of the 00-01s I drove when shopping at the time.
I almost followed it up with a P11 G20 which was still nice to drive despite the power deficit in comparison, but the owner changed his mind on selling it when I went to make an offer, and I ended up in an Accord.
I flirted with the idea of going back to some kind of manual/VQ35 Nissan but timing and availability never worked out, plus shift action was always knocked by the media too, at least for the Altima/Maxima. That was definitely the case in an 02/03 Max I drove.
A 2nd-gen Xterra manual was surprisingly fun to drive. But I don’t really have a use case to pick one up now, especially for the money they go for.
The early bug eye Datsun Z cars will always look fantastic. I’ll also give some love to the Sentra SER for giving the people what we want- cheap horsepower.
Unfortunately for Nissan they have the perception as a company that sells cars with bad transmissions to rental fleets and customers who can’t get financing anywhere else. It will take years of putting out an improved product before they will be able to get rid of that bad reputation. Kind of like how Toyota still gets a pass amongst the normies as a company that never makes a stinker even though the new iForce engine they put in their larger trucks is by any reasonable definition a stinker.
All my favorite Nissans are 40+ years old.
I’m not sure what that says about Nissan but I know what it says about me.
I’ve g̶o̶t̶t̶e̶n̶ o̶l̶d̶ got great taste.
My 2nd car was a 1978 Datsun 280Z 2+2 5 speed purchased used in 1986. In 6 short year that car was already clapped out. No A/C in North Florida made it my least favorite car of my high school years. It burned oil. A failed master cylinder dumping brake fluid almost cause me to have a horrible crash. It had electrical issues and I had to replace the flywheel. The dash lights working at night were a 50/50 prospect. But when it ran it sure was fun.
My favorite Nissan will forever be the R32 GTR, just perfect styling, the right amount of power and tunability, and have I mentioned they’re gorgeous? Too expensive, and any non-GTR R32 I’ve found in the past year seems wildly overpriced for what they usually deliver. It was awfully depressing watching R32 GTRs climb from 25k to 60k over a few years when I had no disposable income.
I have a soft spot for a Hardbody.
The Datsun 240Z of course
Pulsar GTI-R