Nissan

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PRESS RELEASE: 2020 Nissan Pathfinder

The 2020 Nissan Pathfinder continues as an exceptional way for families to turn up the adventure, around town or off-road. It has a unique combination of rugged design, powerful performance and seven-passenger comfort and utility. Adding to Pathfinder’s long list of standard and available innovative features and advanced technologies is the special Pathfinder Rock Creek Edition, available on SV and SL grades, in 2WD and 4WD configurations. The special value option package offers unique exterior and interior treatments that emphasize the rugged Nissan Pathfinder heritage. Two additional Rock Creek equipment packages and a choice of seven available exterior colors allow buyers to customize their Pathfinder to their precise tastes. The Rock Creek Edition name was chosen to connect the vehicle

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2020 Nissan Titan: new, improved, still struggling

Nearly 20 years ago, someone decided on the not-so-keen idea of naming a full-sized pickup truck after a mythological Greek god. It’s been a curse for the Nissan Titan. Perennially low-selling in the country’s best-selling vehicle segment, the Titan has had only two generations since 2003 and none since 2016. The Titan had the poorest sales of any mainstream full-sized truck last year, losing nearly 38 percent of its share from a year earlier. Refreshing the truck for 2020 was the least Nissan could after only 31,000 Titans were purchased last year. The brand finished an unlucky 13th and at the bottom on the sales list. Nissan Titan tries to rebound The Nissan Titan was never bad; its rivals are

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2020 Nissan Sentra, a new hipster nearing 40

Nearing its 40th birthday, the Nissan Sentra has endured weird names and different marketing strategies. Once a sub-compact, it’s now a compact or small sedan. Its peculiar names in different countries include Tsuru, Sylphy and Almera. It’s also a direct descendant of the Datsun B210. The 2020 Nissan Sentra, available in the United States, isn’t named after a crane, a slender young woman or a princess. Its moniker is a variant of sentry, which also isn’t quite right. But guardian or protector-on-wheels is workable. The Sentra has adapted and remains strong in an ever-crowded marketplace. Key Takeaways Eighth-generation redesign targets hipsters instead of rental fleets: A two-tone Monarch Orange body with Super Black roof and black wheels signals the biggest

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Takata airbag issues affect 250,000 Nissan vehicles

The Takata airbag issue won’t go away. This time, the Japanese supplier of safety equipment to many domestic and international brands is facing a recall from Nissan SUVs, trucks and vans. The Nissan recall covers about 250,000 Nissan NV Cargo and Passenger vans from 2012 to 2017, the 2013 to 2015 Nissan Titan pickup and Armada large SUV, and the 2011 and 2012 Infiniti QX56 SUV. Projectile shrapnel is the problem. The vehicles have airbags with volatile ammonium nitrate that can explode with too much force. The airbags have a moisture-absorbing chemical that was supposed to make them safe. Takata faulty airbags prompt shrapnel Documents posted by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) detail that the company packed

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2020 Nissan Versa: Still cheap, worthy and vastly improved

Nissan worked hard for more than a decade for an unusual honor. Its Versa, named after an acronym for versatile space, was the cheapest new car available in the United States. Not many years ago, the subcompact’s base price was just under $10,000. The Versa’s designation was via price only, not a rap on its quality. It was likely the best new car a buyer on a tight budget could purchase, and served its clientele well.  Key Takeaways Third-generation redesign ends the Versa’s cheapest-in-America title: The $15,625 base price now sits behind the Chevrolet Spark and Mitsubishi Mirage, but the Versa arguably delivers the most substance at the bottom of the new-car market. 122-hp 1.6-liter four-cylinder gains 13 hp over

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Nissan concept EV defines brilliantly bizarre city car future

Concept vehicles are polarizing, preposterous and brilliant, and sometimes simultaneously. Nissan has added to the wacky category with its new, all-electric IMk. Designed with the ideas of Japanese “city cars,” the IMk has been defined by Nissan as a chic vehicle and with the clever marketing phrase, “reduces driver stress.” What car has ever reduced driver stress? Built on a new electric vehicle platform, the IMk features ProPILOT advanced driver-assist technologies and seamless connectivity features. The carmaker reports the concept “gives a glimpse at what urban-oriented cars might look like and feel like in the near future.” The design and proportions of the IMk are meant to reflect a minimal aesthetic drawing on the Nissan design philosophy called Timeless Japanese

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2019 Nissan Titan: tough competitors, tough road ahead

Pickup trucks for many years have topped annual sales charts. With their sport utility vehicle cousins as co-conspirators, several manufacturers did what seemed unfathomable — abandon their sedan lineups. Poor gas mileage, difficult entry and exit and sometimes clunky rides don’t matter. Masculinity and versatility reign in new automotive purchasing. The top six best-selling vehicles in the United States in 2018 were either pickups or SUVs. Good reasons abound. In many instances, pickups are luxurious small apartments. The Nissan Titan is among the few trucks struggling. Sales slipped to just over 50,000 in 2018, a loss of nearly 5 percent from a peak year in 2017, according to Kelley Blue Book, the automotive research company. The manufacturer is trying to

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2019 Nissan Armada: powerful, safe, guzzles gas

The Nissan Armada is a well-adjusted teenager. It’s positioned firmly in the mix of large sport utility vehicles that remain popular with their massive engines, family comfort, safety and putrid fuel efficiency. The 2019 edition is the vehicle’s 16th year, and its technically and oddly named after a fleet of warships but used in the singular form. It’s also the third year of the Armada’s second generation after Nissan introduced the current model in 2017. Sales doubled. With an unyielding variety of SUVs entering the market as crossovers and other large SUVs improving, the Armada’s sales fell a few thousand last year. Yet there’s still a solid corps of buyers who don’t seem concerned about driving a vehicle that weighs

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2019 Nissan Pathfinder blends into SUV crowd

With nearly every other automobile on the road a sport utility vehicle, it’s often hard to differentiate brands. The 2019 Nissan Pathfinder is the mid-sized SUV’s 32nd year and it blends into the crowd. It’s been a tough go for the Pathfinder in recent years. United States yearly tallies peaked in 2013 when nearly 89,000 of the family haulers sold. With ever-increasing options from domestic and foreign manufacturers, the Pathfinder stumbled to 67,500 sales last year. The current generation debuted in 2013 and has had several upgrades and makeovers. The Pathfinder received a stronger engine and a higher towing capacity in 2017. Automatic braking was added as a standard feature last year. A few safety features have been tweaked for

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#57, Jeep gets depreciation honors, Nissan Leaf falls

Depreciation isn’t often the top priority for car buyers, but it’s particularly important for consumers who keep their cars for many years. The online automotive search engine iSeeCars.com recently released its survey of vehicles with the most and least depreciation. The site analyzed more than 4.3 million new and used vehicles to identify models with the lowest and highest depreciation after five years. Julie Blackley, communications manager for iSeecars.com, is our guest on episode #57 of TheWeeklyDriver podcast. Co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia discuss with Blackley the trends of the survey’s data, including result variance in different geographical areas of the country. According to iSeeCars.com, sport utility vehicle and trucks retain the most value after five years of ownership.

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2017 Nissan Titan improved, but still trails truck pack

The automotive landscape is dominated by large trucks. The Ford F-Series, Chevy Silverado and Ram pick-ups are perennially the country’s top-selling vehicles. So what are the other guys supposed to do to sell trucks? Nissan, which launched the Titan in late 2003, decided it needed to regroup. Except for a V8 diesel, the Titan wasn’t available as a 2016 model. It’s back in 2017 with a new look and an expanded warranty. Nissan’s goal is optimistic. It hopes the Titan can challenge the Big Three. Last year, Ford sold 820,799 F-Series trucks, led by the F-150. In 2005, Nissan sold 86,945 Titans, its best year. Sales haven’t reached 35,000 in any year in the last decade. With its 2017 model,

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2017 Nissan Rogue Hybrid: Nice try, can’t match SUV stars

The Nissan Rogue is a decade old. It arrived in late 2007 as a 2008 model and joined the quickly expanding crossover SUV segment. It was oddly named because it didn’t offer much to differentiate itself from well-established competitors. The 2017 Rogue continues the improvement in recent years of the five or sevenn-passenger crossover. It has strong craftsmanship, ample interior space, lots of trim options and it’s fairly priced. But with the car-buying public further enamored with the versatility of SUVs and sales of many top brands improving, where does the Rogue fit in? Where is its market share versus the segment’s best — the Honda CR-V, Subaru Forester and Mazda CX-5? Nissan’s approach to finding more buyers for its

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Nissan goes to the dogs with luxury, safety plushness

Nissan has gone to the dogs, but it’s all good. With the belief that while traveling dogs should be as safe and comfortable as their owners, the new, elaborate “Rogue Dogue” project vehicle prototype debuted at the New York International Auto Show. “For all of the dog lovers at Nissan, the Rogue Dogue is so much fun – the equivalent, I guess you could say, of riding with your head out the window if you were a dog,” said Michael Bunce, vice president, Product Planning, Nissan North America, Inc. “Of course, we also take pets’ safety very seriously, which is why the Rogue Dogue includes secure leash fastening attachments in the second row and rear cargo area – along with

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Nissan legacy: small sedans, SUVs, super cars

Approaching its 85th birthday, Nissan has endured ownership changes, collaborations and mergers and has emerged as the manufacturer of a varied collection of popular cars and trucks. Shortly after debuting in 1933 as the Jidosha Seico Co., Ltd., the company merged with another Japanese company and was renamed Nissan Motor Company. It manufactured cars under the Datsun brand and those vehicles, like the Datsun 100, were first available in the United States in 1958. Another merger later, the Datsun 510 sedan was unveiled and proved a hit. But it was outdone by a sibling, the arrival of the first in series of edgy sports cars, the Datsun 240Z. It was a revelation for the era, equipped with an inline six-cylinder

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Ford F-Series trucks, siblings dominate 2016 sales

The number is staggering — 17.4 million new cars and trucks were purchased in the United States in 2016, dominated by sport utility vehicles and pick-up trucks. The Ford F-Series again paced the industry surpassing 800,000 in sales and about 250,000 more than the runner-up Chevrolet Silverado. Twelve of the top-20 best-selling vehicles in the U.S. in 2016 were either SUVs or pickup trucks. The reason: a combination of versatility and lowering gas prices. The sale of pickups has increased for years. Only six manufacturers are represented in the marketplace, but the combined sales were more than 2.2 million. The 2016 car market had two surprising results. Compact-car sales fell 6.1 percent in 2016 and midsize vehicle sales fell 11.2

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Recall madness: Nissan, GM, Ford, millions of fixes for all

The auto industry is on pace for another banner year, for all the wrong reasons — recalls. After dubious yearly records of 50.99 recalls in 2014 and 51.22 million recalls in 2015, recent recalls by Nissan, Ford and Fiat Chrysler, among other automakers, are rapidly boosting this year’s totals. Nissan recently announced the biggest of the latest recalls worldwide. It’s recalling 3.53 million vehicles equipped with passenger-side airbags may not work properly because vehicle sensors may malfunction. The recall includes the 2013-2017 Nissan Altima, Leaf, Maxima, Murano, Pathfinder, Sentra, Rogue, NV200, NV Taxi, Infiniti JX35/QX60, and Q50. It also includes the 2013-2017 Chevrolet City Express built for General Motors by Nissan. Nearly 3.2 million of the recalled vehicles are in

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