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We should have known better, but we just couldn’t bring ourselves to believe the rumors. For over two years now, we’ve heard whispers of Nissan’s plan to introduce a convertible version of its Murano crossover, but the idea seemed so far-fetched that we just couldn’t wrap our gray matter around it. We managed to fall sleep at night by dismissing the notion as yet another silly bit of industry rumor-mongering, the sort of fodder serially dished out by British auto weeklies that splash absurd future product predictions on their covers (generally accompanied by fanciful artist’s renderings) to sell more paper at the newsstand.

We doubted it, but we should have known better. Nissan has shown real design bravery lately, as well as an unquenchable desire to fill any and all white space in its portfolio. Remember, it was Nissan’s product planners who conceived of a car designed exclusively with a T-square, throwing in a bit of asymmetrical glass and a patch of fake grass atop the dashboard – just in case anyone thought the resulting box was too boring. The automaker then announced that it was making a big bet on a brilliant but funny-looking $33,000 five-dooronly capable of driving 100 miles before having to have its e-umbilical cord reattached. It followed this up with a tiny yet oddly lovable space-age hatchback-crossovery thing wearing a Kabuki mask. In retrospect, we shouldn’t be questioning Nissan’s wisdom in lopping the top off its mid-size crossover to create a ragtop – we should be wondering what’s taken it so long.

As we stand around looking at the CrossCabriolet at its sun-drenched San Diego launch, we can’t help but be confounded. By all rights, the CrossCabriolet ought to look like a SEMA refugee. You know the type: four doors, shadetree roofectomy by Sawzall, a frumpy and ill-fitting top and a targa bar straddling the passenger compartment to keep the whole thing from collapsing in on itself. Amazingly, in person, the Murano convertible doesn’t look anything like this. Nissan has clearly expended a surprisingly large amount of styling and engineering resources on the project, and the resulting vehicle looks more cohesive than it has any right to.

The 2012 Nissan GT-R is already out destroying pavement and causing saliva stains on the t-shirts of slack-jawed enthusiasts. The engine produces 530 horsepower, the launch control system propels the car forward like a runaway bullet train and the styling continues to polarize those who stare at its lines. Now Nissan has prepared a more luxurious GT-R for the people and it’s called the Egoist.

All the details surrounding the GT-R Egoist have not yet materialized, but a plethora of pictures has made its way to the web. We know the interior will feature upgraded leather and carbon fiber materials and that a multitude of additional color choices will be available. No word yet on the cost for this super luxury coupe.

If you’re a potential buyer of the Nissan GT-R Egoist, stop staring at yourself in your Rinceaux full-length mirror and check out the gallery of your future ride. If you can’t find the scratch for the 2012 Nissan GT-R Egoist, you can still click through the gallery and enjoy the opulence.

 

Source:Autoblog

In the U.S., the pecking order among Japanese automakers looks like this: Way out in front is Toyota, followed by Honda and Nissan respectively. On a global scale, however, Nissan has finally leapfrogged Honda for second banana status. Torque News reports that Nissan’s global sales soared 21 percent in 2010 due in part to exploding business in China. All told, Nissan moved 4.08 million units during the calendar year.

Honda also saw increased sales, but it managed only a five percent gain. That’s 3.56 million vehicles sold, or about 500,000 fewer units than its rival. 2010 was a very solid year for Nissan, as well its alliance partner Renault, which also fared very well. Together the two automakers combined to sell 7.3 million cars and trucks. That’s more than Ford or Volkswagen, though Renault-Nissan sales aren’t officially counted together when the final rankings are tabulated at the end of the year. Toyota led all automaker sales for the year, followed by General Motors and VW.

Source:Autoblog

The Nissan Leaf is a technological leap in that it is a mass-produced electric vehicle with a range of up to 100 miles on a single charge. Unfortunately for Nissan, its quirky EV hit the market at the same time as the prize-hungry Chevy Volt, which has already taken home the North American Car of the Year and Motor TrendCOTY awards.

But while the Volt has taken the hardware here in the United States, the Leaf can now sport its own prestigious award: the 2011 European Car Of The Year. The 58 voters gave the Leaf the nod over more conventional offerings like the Volvo S60 and the Opel Meriva. Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn is quick to point out the fact that the Leaf is the first EV to win the Europe COTY award, but he also stresses that the Leaf “is an appealing, competitive car, with no compromise on style, features, safety, performance or handling.” Hit the jump to read over Nissan’s brag-tastic press release.

Nissan seems to be on a war path to fill every last ounce of white space in the automotive spectrum. The company has unleashed a barrage of vehicles that range from playful to downright confusing. At first blush, the 2011 Nissan Juke would seem to fit into the latter category. With styling that’s two shakes away from robo-reptilian, the small crossover packs plenty of power, a tall ride height and a small footprint into one sub-$20,000 package. If you can avoid pigeonholing the Juke, you’ll find that the engineers at Nissan secretly managed to bring their own interpretation of the hot hatch to market without raising the ire of the company’s accountants.

We wouldn’t blame you for thinking we’re one stud short of a lug pattern on this one, but point your peepers to a few specs and you’ll see what we mean. The Juke weighs in at less than 3,000 pounds in front-wheel-drive guise and packs a turbocharged, direct-injection 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine that’s good for 188 horsepower. For reference, the company’s own Sentra SE-R hits the scales with an extra 88 pounds on its waist and 11 fewer ponies at its command. Opt for the manual gearbox in the Juke, and things get even lighter. Intrigued? We were too.

The speed-hungry fiends at Nismo have taken the time to unveil a new hardcore race version of the Nissan GT-R at this year’s Tokyo Auto Salon. This machine is built for tangoing in the world’s most brutal endurance races, and the engineers behind it took the time to rip out every last unnecessary bit of weight and install all the hardware it needs to go fender to fender with other race-bred bruisers. That includes a set of stoppers capable of bringing the globe to a halt, a full roll cage and a more menacing suspension.

There’s even an onboard jack system and a huge 31.67-gallon fuel tank onboard to minimize time in the pits and maximize the number of seconds that the car can stay out on track. Nismo calls this terror the GT-R RC for Racing Competition, and if you like what you see, you better call your CPA. Nissan says that the race-bred GT-R will command a ¥20,790,000 price tag when it goes on sale – a shave over $250,000 at current exchange rates.

The GT-R obessives at NAGTROC managed to secure a copy of the 2012 Nissan GT-R owner’s manual and discovered that Nissan has reinstated the formerly verboten Launch Control feature for the 2012 model. But this time it’s called something different.

The new name is R Mode Start Function and the screen cap on the right lists off what you need to do to click of 0-60 mph runs in the low three-second range – or even the high twos, according to some preliminary reports.

After several reports of transmissions and half-shafts grenading themselves soon after the GT-R hit U.S. shores, Nissanremoved the L.C. feature for the 2011 model year. This revised system seems to do the exact same thing, although the 4,000 rpm rev-limit is significantly higher than the last version and the ECU limits the start function to four consecutive runs before its disabled to protect the GT-R’s twin clutches and the rest of the transmission’s oily bits.