Has anyone noticed that whenever journalists talk about the "import scene" Nissan is suddenly being included along with Honda and Acura? At first it was just Honda/Acura but it seems as tho ever since The Fast and the Furious showed a Maxima, 240SX and Skyline (probably more) weve been included.

 

I dunno. I've got several issues with Nissan.

1) They continue to move their cars upscale. Why? They have Infinity to do that with. When Nissan starts competing with Infinity (and they do that now) they have a marketing problem. (Compare this to Toyota/Lexus.) Max's are one of the most expensive "Family" sedans out there right now, only to become worse in 2K2.

2) The upcoming Z car is a porker. I thought they learned from their late model 280's and early model 300's.

3) I don't think they're learning from other's mistakes. Look at several other car's histories. MR2. RX7. Supra. 240/260. Small, cheap, fun-to-drive cars. (Miata's aren't even cheap anymore.) They eventually all moved so far up the scale that they moved themselves out of existance. Mucho horsepower is nice, but it costs money. Not only the initial outlay, but in terms of maintenance, insurance, etc.

4) I don't think we've seen the complete influence of Renault yet, either. Hopefully, we won't.

The whole point of this, is you can get all the "respect" in the world from the press, but if no one buys your cars, you're still screwed. (I seem to remember Alfa-Romeo getting a lot of good press too, just before they left the US entirely...)