Nissan embarrasses Ferrari

[OriginalWheelman]

I can't stop laughing about this.

http://jalopnik.com/nissan-perfectly-tr ... 1630461865

In case you aren't aware, Deadmau5 is an EDM (Electronic Dance Music, or 'Techno' if you're over 25) artist. For a cross country race, he responded to the internet's suggestion that he wrap the car in Nyancat. He did, and even had 'Purrari' badges made that parodied the Ferrari badge.





Ferrari sent him a cease and desist letter, ordering him to remove the badges. This comes after he slammed Ferrari repeatedly for bad service. He likes to post pics of his Ferrari being serviced at Canadian Tire, where he says the service is much better.



Nissan has jumped in to troll Ferrari, with this.



And even threw in a special badge for him.



Well played Nissan, well played.

[flohtingPoint]

Because 1 owner's bad experience with a car manufacturer is affirmation...

Lets just do some quick math here.

Ferrari:
Most wins all time in Formula 1
Most Constructors Championships all time in Formula 1
Most Drivers Championships all time in Formula 1

Nissan:
Crickets chirping
Crickets chirping
1 poor entry into WRC that went no where

Nissan isn't capable of embarrassing anyone. They're one of the least successful car manufacturers in their own country (Toyota, Honda, Mitsu, Subaru, Mazda all have major accolades), let alone the world. Seriously, this would be like me sending a scathing tweet to Michael Schumacher and saying "I embarrassed him"...

[RicerX]

Because 1 owner's bad experience with a car manufacturer is affirmation...

Lets just do some quick math here.

Ferrari:
Most wins all time in Formula 1
Most Constructors Championships all time in Formula 1
Most Drivers Championships all time in Formula 1

Nissan:
Crickets chirping
Crickets chirping
1 poor entry into WRC that went no where

Nissan isn't capable of embarrassing anyone. They're one of the least successful car manufacturers in their own country (Toyota, Honda, Mitsu, Subaru, Mazda all have major accolades), let alone the world. Seriously, this would be like me sending a scathing tweet to Michael Schumacher and saying "I embarrassed him"...

You have completely missed the point of this whole charade.

While "embarrasses" isn't the word I would pick for this particular situation, you have to admit it shows that Ferrari is taking themselves far too seriously in this deal.

And least successful in what category?

[flohtingPoint]

Because 1 owner's bad experience with a car manufacturer is affirmation...

Lets just do some quick math here.

Ferrari:
Most wins all time in Formula 1
Most Constructors Championships all time in Formula 1
Most Drivers Championships all time in Formula 1

Nissan:
Crickets chirping
Crickets chirping
1 poor entry into WRC that went no where

Nissan isn't capable of embarrassing anyone. They're one of the least successful car manufacturers in their own country (Toyota, Honda, Mitsu, Subaru, Mazda all have major accolades), let alone the world. Seriously, this would be like me sending a scathing tweet to Michael Schumacher and saying "I embarrassed him"...

You have completely missed the point of this whole charade.

While "embarrasses" isn't the word I would pick for this particular situation, you have to admit it shows that Ferrari is taking themselves far too seriously in this deal.

And least successful in what category?

There are three sides to every argument. "Blah blah's" side, "blah blah blah's" side, and the truth. Seeing as how this is a jalopnik article (probably the worst place for anything car related if you're looking for non-bias information or knowledge, it's the 4chan of car stuff...), I'd say to ignore it...


Um, all things motorsports... You dont have to break it down to one category, they fail across the board. Nissan's endeavors are basically Junior Varsity level at best. Even the small potatoes stuff that they accidentally (or unknowingly) are credited with, isn't even Nissan themselves, it's usually a privateer team. Nissan has done exactly nothing so far (which is sad considering it's probably 90% budget related). Look how many WRC accolades Toyota/Mitsu/Subaru have. Look up how many F1 wins/championships were won using Honda motors. Even Mazda "whoopsie'd" their way into a LeMans victory. These are bigtime accomplishments...

[Kompresshun]

No one ever brought up Ferrari's lack of accolades or success in motorsports history

This is about poor customer relations over what an owner did to his personal vehicle. He wrapped it with something silly and had some custom badges made up. It's none of their business what he wants to do with it after he purchases it, so Ferrari sending a a cease and desist letter was definitely a pretty s*** move on their part.

Nissan DID embarrass/troll/make fun of Ferrari in this situation, because in the public eye Ferrari looks ridiculous in this situation and I can promise you that the people watching the situation unfold don't give two flying f*** about Ferrari's racing pedigree right now. Will it hurt them? I highly doubt it. It just show's that a high class brand name like Ferrari doesn't really have much class at all.

[numbnuts240]

what relevance do motorsport accomplishments have here?

privately owned street car is decorated by owner in a way that he saw fit.
ferrari says "oha noa. youa can'ta doa that toa the ferrari."
owner says "unce unce unce"
nissan says "check out our sick photoshop skillz"

[Bubba1]

No one ever brought up Ferrari's lack of accolades or success in motorsports history

This is about poor customer relations over what an owner did to his personal vehicle. He wrapped it with something silly and had some custom badges made up. It's none of their business what he wants to do with it after he purchases it, so Ferrari sending a a cease and desist letter was definitely a pretty s*** move on their part.

Nissan DID embarrass/troll/make fun of Ferrari in this situation, because in the public eye Ferrari looks ridiculous in this situation and I can promise you that the people watching the situation unfold don't give two flying fornicates about Ferrari's racing pedigree right now. Will it hurt them? I highly doubt it. It just show's that a high class brand name like Ferrari doesn't really have much class at all.

I think if you viewed it from Ferrari's perspective, their response was understandable. I honestly believe Nissan did not embarrass Ferrari at all by wrapping a GT-R in a similar style. Though Nissan did display more of a sense of humor than Ferrari. Unlike Nissan, Ferrari is a marque that spent decades developing/cultivating its reputation as the ultimate sports/grand touring car. And unlike Nissan, Ferrari's are widely considered among the world's more coveted cars. That's one of the reasons that Ferrari's entire annual production is already sold. So one can certainly understand Ferrari wanting to sik their legal beagles on those they feel disparage or cheapen their reputation. We all know it's highly unlikely Ferrari would ever win a case like that, but I think they pressed the issue simply as a gesture to defend their reputation. Personally I could care less if someone decorates a new Ferrari in a weird way, its their car. They paid for it. As someone who has no intention of buying a new Ferrari, (unless I hit the powerball). I think it's much ado about nothing. Really really silly stuff. BUT when you have customers that are willing to shell out a quarter million dollars for a frigging base model car, oh yeah, you're gonna take stuff like this very seriously. Sorry guys, that ain't embarrassment, that's passion.

I agree with Jim that Jalopnik is not exactly unbiased. They insert a lotta opinion, which is a disturbing trend in most media reporting these days. But I also disagree a little bit with him about Nissan in racing. There is this guy named Sebastian Vettel who's done pretty well in an Infiniti powered F1 car...

[OriginalWheelman]

First of all, it's not one owner's experience. A lot of owners have been speaking out about problems with their Ferrari's cars, their dealers, and their heavy handed legal tactics to keep owners with problems silent.

Second of all, the cease and desist letters came AFTER the car was unwrapped and put up for sale.

Thirdly, motorsports or not, Ferrari has some terrible customer service. When they aren't silencing owners about their cars catching fire, they are silencing owners for speaking out about dealerships. Deadmau5 was one of them, hence the Canadian Tire pictures. Yes, he's new money. He's just a guy from Toronto that made some music, and people loved it. He's not afraid of Ferrari or Disney's legal teams.

Fourthly, Nissan did embarrass them. They flouted that a car company does not need to be so uptight about it's cars. Nissan made them look uptight and old fashioned. I say bravo.

Fifthly, so what it's Jalopnik? It's an article about a twitter post, not a f*** scientific study.

Ferrari can win all the races they want. I refuse to like a company that treats it's customers like the enemy.

[Kompresshun]

^That.

/thread

[sx moneypit]

+1

[SX APPEAL]

But I also disagree a little bit with him about Nissan in racing. There is this guy named Sebastian Vettel who's done pretty well in an Infiniti powered F1 car...

Not arguing any of your points, I love Nissan making Ferrari look old fashioned and uptight, but the Red Bull F1 cars are powered by Renault engines. Infiniti is just a title sponsor. In F1 its not uncommon for a car company to be the title sponsor of a team without actually building the car/engine. It was really confusing a couple years ago when we had the Lotus Caterham team (Lotus power cars) and then the Lotus Renault team (Renault factory team, sponsored by Lotus) wtf right?

[OriginalWheelman]

Renault/Nissan/Infiniti are all the same company, mostly.

[Bubba1]

First of all, it's not one owner's experience. A lot of owners have been speaking out about problems with their Ferrari's cars, their dealers, and their heavy handed legal tactics to keep owners with problems silent.

Second of all, the cease and desist letters came AFTER the car was unwrapped and put up for sale.

Thirdly, motorsports or not, Ferrari has some terrible customer service. When they aren't silencing owners about their cars catching fire, they are silencing owners for speaking out about dealerships. Deadmau5 was one of them, hence the Canadian Tire pictures. Yes, he's new money. He's just a guy from Toronto that made some music, and people loved it. He's not afraid of Ferrari or Disney's legal teams.

Fourthly, Nissan did embarrass them. They flouted that a car company does not need to be so uptight about it's cars. Nissan made them look uptight and old fashioned. I say bravo.

Fifthly, so what it's Jalopnik? It's an article about a twitter post, not a f**king scientific study.

Ferrari can win all the races they want. I refuse to like a company that treats it's customers like the enemy.

Im sure there are some bad apple Ferrari dealers out there. But think about, there are NICOnauts that wrote about some awful Nissan dealer experiences. I'm sure those complaints were all true, but does that mean all of Nissan sucks because of it?

[OriginalWheelman]

No, Nissan doesn't suck because of a few bad dealers. Nissan also never sent me a gag order for my thread about Autonation. That's a pretty significant difference. I'm not blaming Ferrari for their dealers, I'm blaming them for covering it up.

[SX APPEAL]

Just because Nissan/Infiniti and Renault own some shares in each other (15%-43% respectively) and share a couple of architectures doesn't mean that Infiniti has ANYTHING to do with the engineering of the Renault power unit in the RB10. Anyway that's not the point of this thread, sorry I brought it up.

[Bubba1]

No, Nissan doesn't suck because of a few bad dealers. Nissan also never sent me a gag order for my thread about Autonation. That's a pretty significant difference. I'm not blaming Ferrari for their dealers, I'm blaming them for covering it up.

Do you have any other information about the gag orders/cover-up aside from that one guy? From what little I've read about those fires 4 years ago, Ferrari recalled all the 2010 458's to retrofit/reattach rear wheel arch liners with rivets instead of glue (the glue was the root cause of the fires). It also appears Ferrari offered to replace any 458s damaged by those fires.

Just curious, do you also hate GM? The reason I ask is If the Ferrari allegations are true, (which I agree would be inappropriate), then is Ferrari asking their customers to keep mum about the problem publicly as bad as GM not telling anyone, literally sweeping the ignition switch problem under the rug despite knowing the problem contributed to several fatalities?? I'm not excusing Ferrari, but it appears GM behaved far worse.

[flohtingPoint]

No one ever brought up Ferrari's lack of accolades or success in motorsports history

This is about poor customer relations over what an owner did to his personal vehicle. He wrapped it with something silly and had some custom badges made up. It's none of their business what he wants to do with it after he purchases it, so Ferrari sending a a cease and desist letter was definitely a pretty s*** move on their part.

Nissan DID embarrass/troll/make fun of Ferrari in this situation, because in the public eye Ferrari looks ridiculous in this situation and I can promise you that the people watching the situation unfold don't give two flying fornicates about Ferrari's racing pedigree right now. Will it hurt them? I highly doubt it. It just show's that a high class brand name like Ferrari doesn't really have much class at all.

I think if you viewed it from Ferrari's perspective, their response was understandable. I honestly believe Nissan did not embarrass Ferrari at all by wrapping a GT-R in a similar style. Though Nissan did display more of a sense of humor than Ferrari. Unlike Nissan, Ferrari is a marque that spent decades developing/cultivating its reputation as the ultimate sports/grand touring car. And unlike Nissan, Ferrari's are widely considered among the world's more coveted cars. That's one of the reasons that Ferrari's entire annual production is already sold. So one can certainly understand Ferrari wanting to sik their legal beagles on those they feel disparage or cheapen their reputation. We all know it's highly unlikely Ferrari would ever win a case like that, but I think they pressed the issue simply as a gesture to defend their reputation. Personally I could care less if someone decorates a new Ferrari in a weird way, its their car. They paid for it. As someone who has no intention of buying a new Ferrari, (unless I hit the powerball). I think it's much ado about nothing. Really really silly stuff. BUT when you have customers that are willing to shell out a quarter million dollars for a frigging base model car, oh yeah, you're gonna take stuff like this very seriously. Sorry guys, that ain't embarrassment, that's passion.

I agree with Jim that Jalopnik is not exactly unbiased. They insert a lotta opinion, which is a disturbing trend in most media reporting these days. But I also disagree a little bit with him about Nissan in racing. There is this guy named Sebastian Vettel who's done pretty well in an Infiniti powered F1 car...

I appreciate you stepping in as the voice of reason here Joel, but make no mistake, Seb won with a Renault motor. The motor in his car was a RS27, v8s were sealed for years with little dev wiggle room allotted. The Infiniti badge on the car was just garnish =) Infiniti has never been an engine supplier for F1.

For the folks who think motorsports pedigree has nothing to do with a car manufacturer, I'm disappointed...

[Jesda]

If you want to talk reputation management (or an example of a reputation problem), look at Lamborghini. Management have hinted that they may have an issue with their owners, not for engaging in lighthearted pranks but for being collar-popping cologne-drenched middle-east oil barons hated by most of the world.

So yeah, Ferrari is overreacting and making a small issue into a much bigger one. I, for example, would never have heard this story if Ferrari didn't bring it to everyone's attention, however unintentionally. Their behavior tarnishes my respect for the brand just a tiny bit.

[RicerX]

For the folks who think motorsports pedigree has nothing to do with a car manufacturer, I'm disappointed...

[themadscientist]

Ferrari has a long history of treating customers badly.

[AZhitman]

For the folks who think motorsports pedigree has nothing to do with a car manufacturer, I'm disappointed...

Equally disappointing is comparing the motorsports pedigrees of an Italian supercar manufacturer to a company that, statistically, makes appliances.

Ferrari's PR people acted like douches, and this is the result. Will it affect sales? Not likely.

BTW, the relevance of motorsports success isn't the end-all, be-all - You of all people should know, considering the C-chassis hasn't exactly been impressive in the record books.

Slipping in the "company-sponsored" vs "privateer" caveat makes it even more one-sided... C'mon, that's just silly. Just because a car isn't corporately-backed, its wins don't count?

To reiterate: IDGAF how many races Ferraris have won - this is about douchebaggery, and in that category, they just leapfrogged a few rungs.

[lne937s]

Just because Nissan/Infiniti and Renault own some shares in each other (15%-43% respectively) and share a couple of architectures doesn't mean that Infiniti has ANYTHING to do with the engineering of the Renault power unit in the RB10. Anyway that's not the point of this thread, sorry I brought it up.

I think that there are more shared resources than many people realize. However, Nissan will never be in Formula 1. The companies have decided not to compete against each other in motor sports. F1 is a very expensive endeavor that has a largely EU following, so it makes sense Renault is there. Nissan is the lead engine supplier in P2 class at Le Mans, where no Renault competes. The lack of F1 victories for Nissan is completely irrelevant. It's like saying that because Chevrolet never won an F1 championship Corvettes must suck.

And Nissan does have some historic wins. BRE Datsuns dominated Trans Am in the 70's. Nissan dominated Camel GT in the late 80's and IMSA GTS in the early '90's. Won at Le Mans. They also dominated Australian Supercars until a rule change kicked them out. Back in Japan they have won many Super GT championships. And Nissan has won a slew of off road racing championships around the globe...

[Bubba1]

To reiterate: IDGAF how many races Ferraris have won - this is about douchebaggery, and in that category, they just leapfrogged a few rungs.

yes and no. I think when you add strong passion to the equation, common sense sometimes plays a less active role. But one really can't deny Ferrari's many wins over such a long time helped fuel passion for Ferrari. it's certainly not the ONLY reason, but it is one factor. To illustrate, the Dallas Cowboys and NY Yankees are among the most hated franchises outside their own markets, yet their many championships over the years helped them develop among the biggest fan bases nationally in their respective leagues.

Wins aside, I think passion was the root problem in this case. I think passion is what drove Ferrari to do what was most of us Americans would view as douchebaggery. Though I think you all might be surprised how many passionate Ferrari fans support what Ferrari did, especially in Europe.

For the record, I'm a long time Ferrari fan and I thought they behaved douchey too, but not bad enough to change my opinion of their fine cars.

[flohtingPoint]

For the folks who think motorsports pedigree has nothing to do with a car manufacturer, I'm disappointed...

Equally disappointing is comparing the motorsports pedigrees of an Italian supercar manufacturer to a company that, statistically, makes appliances.

Ferrari's PR people acted like douches, and this is the result. Will it affect sales? Not likely.

BTW, the relevance of motorsports success isn't the end-all, be-all - You of all people should know, considering the C-chassis hasn't exactly been impressive in the record books.

Slipping in the "company-sponsored" vs "privateer" caveat makes it even more one-sided... C'mon, that's just silly. Just because a car isn't corporately-backed, its wins don't count?

To reiterate: IDGAF how many races Ferraris have won - this is about douchebaggery, and in that category, they just leapfrogged a few rungs.

The Vette hasn't been impressive? I'm fairly certain a whole stack of GTS championships beg to differ... I could be wrong, but they've won something like 10 of the last 12 or 13 years in GTS. I have a friend who did FSAE design in college for UMD's championship winning car, who now works for P&M, I'm sure he could verify the dominance of the C*R.

It's a jalopnik article... I cant stress that enough. It is probably the worst car website on the internet. It's written by trolls, for trolls. It's articles are just biased kindling for flaming. You're only getting one side of a very slanted story...

They also dominated Australian Supercars until a rule change kicked them out.

That was a privateer situation, not Nissan. And do you know how many cars get bounced from classes in all branches of motorsports? Happens ALL THE TIME, EVERY YEAR, EVERYWHERE (hell, I was going through that this year with the class I was racing in...). Sometimes a car just gets misclassified and folks go "whoops, we messed up...". That GTR story about how it "dominated and they had to change rules" blah blah blah, it's stuff that happens constantly for a lot of cars, or modification rules... Yea, it's a story that gives GTR fanboys a big wood, but folks who follow racing (or actually race themselves) look at that situation and just shrug and say "Whats new..."

Also, if you know racing, you'll know that NOTHING good comes from having an overdog in a class. It makes for very boring racing, low attendance, low viewership, etc. Of course a car is going to get moved if if it was accidentally put somewhere that it doesn't belong...

[RicerX]

[lne937s]

Also, if you know racing, you'll know that NOTHING good comes from having an overdog in a class. It makes for very boring racing, low attendance, low viewership, etc. Of course a car is going to get moved if if it was accidentally put somewhere that it doesn't belong...

If you know anything about racing you will also know that many manufacturers plan racing dominance through political BS manipulation of racing rules. P2 would crush mid-engined NASCAR (aka Daytona Prototype) in Tudor if it wasn't hobbled in the name of "competition".

Hobbling technology does not improve racing. Fans are attracted by technological innovation and competition as much as driver competition. Why else would people like you point to manufacturer racing wins-- if that is just the result of lobbying to dumb-down the superior vehicle in the name of making the racing more "competitive", then your original point is completely meaningless.

And it loses fans. Look at what happened when they dumbed-down Indycar racing compared to the ratings when Marlboro Team Penske had the technological advantage (and the Indianapolis 500 was the most widely watched race in the US). Look at what happened to Camel GT/IMSA GTP of the 80's and eary '90s when it was widely watched and Nissan had a string of wins followed by Toyota Gurney Eagles... they dumbed down the cars to appease certain manufacturers and sportscar racing has never fully recovered in the US. Look at what the standardized Car of Tomorrow did to NASCAR ratings....

[flohtingPoint]

Also, if you know racing, you'll know that NOTHING good comes from having an overdog in a class. It makes for very boring racing, low attendance, low viewership, etc. Of course a car is going to get moved if if it was accidentally put somewhere that it doesn't belong...

If you know anything about racing you will also know that many manufacturers plan racing dominance through political BS manipulation of racing rules. P2 would crush mid-engined NASCAR (aka Daytona Prototype) in Tudor if it wasn't hobbled in the name of "competition".

Hobbling technology does not improve racing. Fans are attracted by technological innovation and competition as much as driver competition. Why else would people like you point to manufacturer racing wins-- if that is just the result of lobbying to dumb-down the superior vehicle in the name of making the racing more "competitive", then your original point is completely meaningless.

And it loses fans. Look at what happened when they dumbed-down Indycar racing compared to the ratings when Marlboro Team Penske had the technological advantage (and the Indianapolis 500 was the most widely watched race in the US). Look at what happened to Camel GT/IMSA GTP of the 80's and eary '90s when it was widely watched and Nissan had a string of wins followed by Toyota Gurney Eagles... they dumbed down the cars to appease certain manufacturers and sportscar racing has never fully recovered in the US. Look at what the standardized Car of Tomorrow did to NASCAR ratings....

Preaching to choir here dude... I'm well aware that racing is political. I've fought my own battles with it in the SCCA.

Example: how-important-are-tires-t582148.html Dedicated a whole day of testing on my own dime for a cause I was fighting for.

[OriginalWheelman]

Nissan sent Joel a GT-R.

http://instagram.com/p/slRUCjuxzs/

[RicerX]

Nissan sent Joel a GT-R.

http://instagram.com/p/slRUCjuxzs/

You win +1 admin award for bringing this thread back on topic.

[flohtingPoint]

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140 ... -car.shtml

Another side to the story...

Honestly, this whole thing is dumb on all sides that I can see. Fact of the matter is, you probably wont get the real story, just whatever is being sold to the public.

Here is the the real problem I have with it; Car manufacturers should be above trolling. It doesn't bestow confidence anytime any of them do it (see Audi trolling Porsche over LeMans). Let your vehicles do the talking, not stupid gamesmanship and buffoonery.