Carmaker Nissan on borrowed time?

[Nessism1]

I was a big fan of Nissan pre-2002'ish. I quite liked the VG30E. I've had a lot of their stuff over the years.

The VG30 was a nice unit, for it's time. The VQ that replaced it, is much better, though. VQ = world class V6.

The Nissan engine design group is the heart of the company. They aren't perfect, but very good overall. I can understand why they didn't want to be subservient to Honda.

 

[CKN]

The Frontier is the best midsize on the market and the discontinued Titan was much better than it was ever given credit for.

Altimas were objectively a good car ... but discontinued largely because of their image and people not wanting sedans.

You cannot treat someone who is looking to spend 50 large on a pickup truck the same way you treat someone who wants the lowest possible car payment on a Nissan Versa. That was PART OF THE PROBLEM.

 

[CKN]

They offered it for a few years with the Versa Note. No one bought them ...

The demographics of those who want to buy a penalty box did not grow up driving a manual and didn't want them.

 

[Carmudgeon]

The VG30 was a nice unit, for it's time. The VQ that replaced it, is much better, though. VQ = world class V6.

The Nissan engine design group is the heart of the company. They aren't perfect, but very good overall. I can understand why they didn't want to be subservient to Honda.

The VQ was a sweet engine, but lost charm the larger it got.

Nissan's engineering during the 80s and 90s was as good as anyone, and they applied it to the lineup from Infiniti top-to-Sentra bottom. Something for everyone.

For drivers looking for some fun, the Maxima sedan was the obvious choice in the class. SE-R was little budget barn burner, packed with the SR20DE, multi-link and limited slip. 240SX was the affordable sports car, with a proper RWD chassis with multi-link rear. ZX upped the ante for those with the scratch (and had worthy competition in the Supra and FD RX-7; those were good times). Pathfinder was the utility vehicle.

Problem was, the company wasn't profitable, and that is when Ghosn was brought in to save the ship, by cutting jobs, and cheapening the cars by putting in things like beam axles.

Ghosn was far from perfect, and eventually fell due to his own hubris, but the shade the current management has thrown his way is amusing, since they, and the board were there, and thus part of the problem that lead to the current situation.

 

[BrickCity]

The VQ was a sweet engine, but lost charm the larger it got.

Nissan's engineering during the 80s and 90s was as good as anyone, and they applied it to the lineup from Infiniti top-to-Sentra bottom. Something for everyone.

For drivers looking for some fun, the Maxima sedan was the obvious choice in the class. SE-R was little budget barn burner, packed with the SR20DE, multi-link and limited slip. 240SX was the affordable sports car, with a proper RWD chassis with multi-link rear. ZX upped the ante for those with the scratch (and had worthy competition in the Supra and FD RX-7; those were good times). Pathfinder was the utility vehicle.

Problem was, the company wasn't profitable, and that is when Ghosn was brought in to save the ship, by cutting jobs, and cheapening the cars by putting in things like beam axles.

Ghosn was far from perfect, and eventually fell due to his own hubris, but the shade the current management has thrown his way is amusing, since they, and the board were there, and thus part of the problem that lead to the current situation.

Don’t forget the 720 and Hardbody, legendary pickups with super reliability.

 

[Nessism1]

Nissan had a good thing going with the Maxima (4 door sports car) and Pathfinder. Year over year, though, they were always missing something. With each new model release, it was buzz kill. Something always off on the styling and/or product planning. Even though they were good trucks, the Hard Body gave up 75k sales to Toyota in the first year of release, and 75k more the second year. Nissan went from competing head to head with Toyota in the sales of small trucks, to trailing by 150,000 in two years. One of many examples which has led to where we are today.

 

[Ronsant]

Nissan is what happens when a Japanese company gets run by a string of rando non-Japanese MBAs and forgets how to act like a Japanese company.

Shame how far Infiniti fell over the last 20 years.

Nissan used to make some great vehicles. Maxima SE, Sentra SE-R, and Infiniti was supposed to be a sportier Lexus. Sad.

 

[Nessism1]

Nissan used to make some great vehicles. Maxima SE, Sentra SE-R, and Infiniti was supposed to be a sportier Lexus. Sad.

SE-R was just a B15 with a 2.5L engine, and low gearing. Yes, it was fast, for a car of that class, but it was nothing special as a car. Rode like a truck too.

 

[SC Maintenance]

SE-R was just a B15 with a 2.5L engine, and low gearing. Yes, it was fast, for a car of that class, but it was nothing special as a car. Rode like a truck too.

It was 1/2 the price and much faster than the cheapest BMW for its time - which was its point. Compared to what was available back then it was quite impressive. By modern standards, of course not.

 

[Carmudgeon]

SE-R was just a B15 with a 2.5L engine, and low gearing. Yes, it was fast, for a car of that class, but it was nothing special as a car. Rode like a truck too.

The OG B13 was the good, sleeper one. Perhaps the only one as the subsequent models got larger and heavier.

I witnessed first hand how impressed a bunch of BMW CCA track day instructors were with the SE-R. It more than held its own.

Other than the E30 318is, BMW itself hasn't made anything close to the 2002 formula, despite their marketing repeatedly trying to convince otherwise.

(Add: I "misremembered" -- it was the G20/Primera that had a multi-link suspension, not the Sentra)

 

[Ronsant]

SE-R was just a B15 with a 2.5L engine, and low gearing. Yes, it was fast, for a car of that class, but it was nothing special as a car. Rode like a truck too.

I beg to differ. I had a 1992 SE-R and it was awesome. 7K rpm redline. Suspension was near perfect and some of the best sport seats ever made. Car and Driver agreed making it a multiple time 10 best winner. Smooth manual transmission and not offered with an automatic ( as it should be with special enthusiast models).

 

[Nessism1]

Well, apparently, my memory is failing me. I do remember the G20 with SR20 engine. That was a fun car. Forgot about B13, though. I was thinking B15. That model didn't impress me, at least not the SE-R. I actually bought a B15 S model w/1.8 and AT, and drove it for many years. It was not noteworthy in any way, though.

 

[Ronsant]

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1992-nissan-sentra-se-r-9/ This is like the one I had. I put just under 200K miles on that car, sold it to a friend, and he sold it with 300K, still running fine.

 

[duck__dodgers]

Wouldn't surprise me at all about Chinese companies, or even the Koreans. I hope it doesn't happen. Nissan under pure Japanese leadership I think has a chance. Nissan run by committee - I doubt it.

Trying to salvage GM Korea (old Daewoo, remember them?) is going to keep Korea busy. No Nissan for them.

The world has too many car brands, Chinese companies have the deepest pockets; every country wants to keep their version of Peugoet.

Grab some beer and chips and watch everyone try to square that circle, lol

 

[svtrit]

I really don’t understand the hate for Nissan. I think it’s people who haven’t owned one.

I’ve said it here many times that my family has 5, with 4 of them being Rogues. No issues

I had a Rouge that went 150k miles. No issues.

My parents have a Lincoln that needed Cam phasers within the first 20k miles and I know of people with Ecoboost F150’s in the same boat.

Don’t get me started on Chrysler, and I own both a Town and Country and a Wrangler.

Toyotas and Nissans are the only cars I have or had that have had 0 untimely or major issues in my ownership.

I don’t get the hate for Nissan.

 

[dogememe]

I really don’t understand the hate for Nissan. I think it’s people who haven’t owned one.

I’ve said it here many times that my family has 5, with 4 of them being Rogues. No issues

I had a Rouge that went 150k miles. No issues.

My parents have a Lincoln that needed Cam phasers within the first 20k miles and I know of people with Ecoboost F150’s in the same boat.

Don’t get me started on Chrysler, and I own both a Town and Country and a Wrangler.

Toyotas and Nissans are the only cars I have or had that have had 0 untimely or major issues in my ownership.

I don’t get the hate for Nissan.

The only Nissan I've owned was a Leaf I had for two weeks. Got it for almost free as it had degraded to about 20 miles of range. Got it as a curiosity more than anything. Nissan was an early mover in the EV space but they failed epically. No liquid cooling for the battery meant hot weather or frequently DC fast charging killed the battery. They're selling the same basic vehicle still in 2025, with the same Chademo DC fast charging port that nobody uses anymore. They should have gone from Chademo to CCS and added liquid cooling in 2018 when they did the refreshed one. But nope, they didn't, because they're Nissan. Meanwhile GM has done liquid cooled EVs since 2011 when the Volt came out.

Then there's the Ariya. We test drove one. It's a decent looking car on the outside but they made some really weird choices for the interior. Climate control is a haptic touch bar on the dash... Possibly the worst HVAC setup ever. Instead of center console storage, the center console has a motor that can move back and forth. Just, why!? Then you have the completely flat front floor. Cool until you realize anything that falls on the floor on the passenger side can roll to the driver side and end up under your brake pedal. Oh, and don't get me started on the software... the map looks like it came out of a 20 year old car. And for route planning/charging, well, it is so bad it's basically unusable, and there is a GAS STATION hotkey... in an EV. Out of Spec YouTube posted more details about how bad the software is... from a company that's been making EVs for over a decade. Sad, because like I said, it looks good from the outside, and it actually drives really well too.

My ex also had a Nissan Kicks he bought brand new. From day one, the rear brakes squealed in reverse. He brought it back repeatedly and they basically blew him off. He's a much nicer person than I, and it was never resolved. He traded the car in on the Equinox EV at like 50K miles... with the brakes still making the same noise.

My coworker has a 2015 Maxima. He loves his car, but it hasn't exactly been trouble free. I don't know the details, but it's left him on the side of the road multiple times in the few years I've worked with him. And he's amazing with the maintenance and drives very gently.

Overall, Nissan could disappear off the face of the earth, or at least completely withdraw from the US market, and nobody would care. The low credit buyers could get Dodge Hornets at 20K off MSRP or something instead.

 

[PandaBear]

Nissan is what happens when a Japanese company gets run by a string of rando non-Japanese MBAs and forgets how to act like a Japanese company.

Shame how far Infiniti fell over the last 20 years.

I think their problems started long before foreign MBA CEOs. Mitsubishi is also in the same ship where other related businesses in failing Mitsubishi group dump their incompetent managements to retire in.

Nissan should have taken the offer to be a subsidiary of Honda but they refuse to be a side kick and dump their own managements. The managements in Nissan have chosen themselves instead of the company.

 

[rijndael]

I really don’t understand the hate for Nissan. I think it’s people who haven’t owned one.

I've had a Datsun, Xterra, Maxima, and a couple of Altimas. I do not think highly of them today.

The Altimas let me down multiple times. Here are some of those reasons:

cam/crank sensors had it die on the highway at speed.
An auto transmission died, it left me stranded an hour from home at a wedding.
A clutch went under 2K miles.

The Altimas also had multiple QC issues on the interior. Broken cup holder doors. Sequaking from the sun roof. Etc.

 

[tcp71]

I really don’t understand the hate for Nissan. I think it’s people who haven’t owned one.

I’ve said it here many times that my family has 5, with 4 of them being Rogues. No issues

I had a Rouge that went 150k miles. No issues.

My parents have a Lincoln that needed Cam phasers within the first 20k miles and I know of people with Ecoboost F150’s in the same boat.

Don’t get me started on Chrysler, and I own both a Town and Country and a Wrangler.

Toyotas and Nissans are the only cars I have or had that have had 0 untimely or major issues in my ownership.

I don’t get the hate for Nissan.

We rented a Rouge in California around 2015. It was the noisiest, roughest, rubber band (drivetrain with the CVT) powered vehicle I've ever driven. Got it up to 80mph once and I thought it was going to self destruct. They've probably come quite a way since, but that exposure remains in my mind.

 

[Dborch41]

The Frontier is the best midsize on the market and the discontinued Titan was much better than it was ever given credit for.

Altimas were objectively a good car ... but discontinued largely because of their image and people not wanting sedans.

I have a 2014 Frontier and had a 2011 Altima, both have proven to be solid, dependable vehicles...CVT and all.
The Frontier is my wife's daily, it replaced the Altima that was handed down. It's been an absolute workhorse, my only complaints being the soft brake pedal and dirigible-grade turning radius. Even the Altima with its notorious transmission was still going strong with over 150K miles and no failures other than a head gasket, but that was courtesy of my own dumbassery. The CVT was still working when my daughter-in-law finally handed it over to CarMax, even in extreme Texas heat.
I think the main difference was due to my strict maintenance protocol and avoiding cheap parts and consumables, although that hasn't been too effective with my much newer Silverado. So far not so good with that thing, but at least it's not a 6.2.