In the UK, Nissan faces a crisis.
The brand sells hundreds of thousands of cars a year, which for a car manufacturer is the whole point. The brand also lacks any inspiring, aspirational or exciting cars whatsoever.
Nissan is the representation of a brand that is simply existing: it lacks soul and excitement, and a halo.
Please don’t confuse this with the idea of Nissan being a bad car maker. It is far from it.
In terms of cars as personal transport; as devices to safely transport a family from point A to point B in relative comfort, Nissan’s cannot be faulted. The current model line-up in the UK consists of the Leaf, Ariya, Juke, Qashqai and X-Trail. Each of these cars are best described as worthy but dull. Each is a perfectly capable machine for getting around the place; cars distilled into their most basic ingredients.
Behind each of these machines is some serious engineering prowess. Yes, it’s not glitzy headline-grabbing engineering, but each model is an improvement on its predecessor. These are boring but – in the real world – appreciable improvements, think: more rear legroom, a bigger boot, lighter bodyshell and improved interior quality. But each of these gains requires clever and inventive engineering – it’s just a shame that all of that prowess results in such dullness.
As you look across the range, the story is the same. The Juke is a runaway sales success, and has been since it was introduced in 2010 but apart from the Nismo and Nismo RS (which themselves always felt a bit like an ironic joke that was probably very giggle worthy initially, but as Nissan engineers got close to making the car a reality, became less and less funny, resulting in a dull warm hatch), there has been very little to write about.
The Qashqai is much the same. Very safe, very cheap to run but boring as sin. Most models featuring a CVT for ultimate “get in and just drive”. The X-Trail is again much the same, except this car is dogged by Japan’s obsession with unnecessary sports sub-models; in Japan, the original X-Trail was available as a limited-edition AWD SR20DET powered X-Trail GT. But, like all niche Japanese sports models, the X-Trail GT was only available in Japan.
This blandness is a real shame, as Nissan has often squandered its best vehicles due to a lack of foresight and complacency. Take the Nissan Leaf for example: it was the first mass-production (relatively) cheap EV on sale in the UK. The car was clever, advanced and yet it arrived too early. There was very little EV charging architecture at the time and owners were often limited to home charging only. With a large market share, Nissan rested on its haunches and was soon left behind.
Instead Nissan should have been furiously developing better versions of the Leaf, or an EV Juke/Qashqai. It should have been doing all it could to exploit its early position in the market, yet it failed to exploit this and now is so far behind the bleeding edge of EVs.
Another model that has been mismanaged is the venerable GTR. Now the GTR as a car is so unique, so capable, so Japanese. Yet, as we speak, Nissan has revealed yet another facelifted version for sale in Japan and the USA. This represents the third facelift of a car that has been around since 2008. The technology that made the GTR ground-breaking back in 2008 now defines it as almost quaint and ‘old school’.
Again, this speaks of a company that is confused. Nissan should’ve brought out at least one successor in this time, and again gone for a technological tour-de-force. Fast car tech has moved so far beyond the GTR that if an R36 GTR ever comes about, it will have to be seriously, seriously advanced to even make a splash.
What makes this painful, is that Nissan has such a great history of cars. There is admittedly, a lot of boring stuff in its back catalogue, but the good stuff, from the original Hakouka Skyline and Z-cars of the 1970s, through the eighties and the glory days of the 1990s, all seem like distant memories. Car culture worships these cars, but it seems Nissan of 2023 is determined to distance itself further and further away, almost as if it is trying to be something different entirely.
Now Nissan exists on a precipice. It does sell cheap, and good-value cars, but cheapness is no longer the asset it used to be. As more and more car buyers turn to finance, and premium brands introduce accessible cheaper models to meet them; Nissan risks becoming redundant, much like how Vauxhall was upended from its position as the provider of dull workhorses in the early 2010s.
Perhaps Nissan’s participation in the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance has caused this. All three manufacturers are shadows of their former selves, content to keep piecing together anonymous and dreary cars that sell well, but lack even a hint of passion.
Compare this to Toyota, which has always been lumped with a reputation for building boring crap. Toyota have instead worked hard to reinvent its cars as dynamic, interesting and desirable, all without catering to the lowest common denominator. If anything the firm’s recent GR models, the GR Yaris, Supra and GR86 have all given Toyota such a massive cache of goodwill amongst car fans, that their future is guaranteed, and they have a drove of loyal fans who are eager for the next car that rolls of their production line.
Can Nissan say the same?
Kerbside 