Nissan Responds to "Boring" criticisms with boring Midnight package.

[RicerX]

I'm too lazy to link you to an article about it - it's everywhere as the "big reveal" for Nissan at the Chicago Auto Show.

Short version - you can pay $1500 + to get a package that puts black accents on wheels and random other body parts. Yes, in today's automotive world where people pay $150 to wrap these pieces themselves and $8 to plastidip the rest that can't be wrapped, Nissan injects VALUE into their cars at an average price of $2,000 across the available trims.

That means your Pathfinder can look like a Stormtrooper right out of the box! So can your Altima, Sentra, Maxima, Rogue, and Murano! The core of Nissan's dystopic view of the automotive future.

This package, dubbed the "Midnight Package," is available now as an addition to the six core Nissan models when selected with an exterior color of white, silver, gray, red, or black. So yes, you can get a "murdered out" Maxima ten years after it was cool to murder out your car.

My "Nissan Doomsday Clock" is getting its own Midnight package as we speak.

[centralcoaster33]

...I see some red trim and I want it painted black...

At least black-lights and break-dancing are still cool!

[MinisterofDOOM]

Are these guys sharing the Toyota Kool Aid or what? Did I miss the engineering whitepaper on the new discovery that all vehicle dynamics ultimately come back to how edgy your styling is?

[AZhitman]

Grrrrr. Dammit, Renau... I mean Nissan.

Knock it off and quit patronizing millennials, and remember that cars are for DRIVING.

[float_6969]

I wish I knew where they got the idea that millennials don't want cars that you can enjoy to drive. I've had a half a dozen of them knocking on my door wanting to by my S14 in the last 3 years.

[lne937s]

It's not that bad: Sentra is a $480 package up to $1200 for the Murano. The more expensive packages tend to include things beyond styling, like remote start. According to Nissan, the packages end up at a reduced price compared to if you were to add all the accessories separately (although I have no doubt that these packages are still very profitable).

http://nissannews.com/en-US/nissan/usa/ ... pathfinder

I personally don't put too much concern into a new trim package... Waiting to see some new products: like the new 3l Turbo Z, a new Juke, roll-out of the variable compression turbo engine, and hoping they bring something like a Gen5 Micra with an MR16DDT to the US.

[RicerX]

If you look at what's required to get the package, it gets worse the higher up the model range you go.

For the Murano and Pathfinder, yeah it's $1400, but you're required to get the Platinum trim to get it, which is an $8,000 pricing premium over the base model (average). That sounds awfully "pricing optimized" for an afterthought color accent package.

But the target market is buying the piss out of mediocre from Nissan, so expect more of it I guess. I don't know why I b**** anymore.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Honestly, I don't have a problem with the package. I think Chevy's current blackout packages for the Silverado look great, for example. But then again, the Silverado itself looks good to me, where Nissan's cars look like directionless messes.

It's this mentality that a car's entire character stems from how "cool" it looks that makes me want to scream. Let's take a dose of reality here: some of the most un-boring cars in all of automotive history have been boring if not horrible to look at. Miata, Most Lotuses, every Porsche ever made except the 928 and 926, pretty much anything, most non-Ferrari supercars, hordes of Japanese, British, and Italian sports cars...I could go on for ages.

Anyone foolish enough to conflate styling with excitement is not going to be very successful at making exciting cars. Like anything else, a car should DO first, and show second (if not third or fourth or 34th behind a long list of other things). Looks might mean a lot when the car has nothing else going for it, but by that same token there's no amount of "cool" that can make up for a car that has nothing else to offer.

THE ONLY WAY TO BE LESS BORING IS TO MAKE A BETTER CAR.
That's all I'm hearing from Nissan and Toyota: we don't want/know how/have the balls to make better cars, so we're instead going to try to skirt around that by making them LOOK like they might be better cars. To which I respond: if you want to make boring cars, be my guest. But quit wasting oxygen talking about how great they are.

Palette swaps and predator-mouth bumpers won't change anything. All they do is make you look pretentious, confused, and stupid.

These cars that are being accused of being boring are so accused because they lack CHARACTER.

Saying you're going to make a car less boring by adding more black trim is like saying you're going to raise your IQ by getting a boob job

[BusyBadger]

Here's the blackout package I'm currently shopping...



...'bout 2-3k less than Nissan is asking for the Nismo version of the 370Z. Even when Nissan can manage to make something that doesn't bore the hell out of me they price it well above its punching weight, while Chevy has the V6 Camaro 1LE beating everything in its price range at the Lightning Lap and matching a couple of heavyweights in sections, finishing a mere half second behind the Hellcat.

Meanwhile, its big brother, the 1LE trimmed SS, was only bested in it's bracket by Ford's pricier, freak-of-nature GT350R and finished on the heels of the more expensive Cayman GTS & within earshot of the far more expensive M4 GTS.

Lightning Lap 2016 Full Results & Historical Times

[AZhitman]

Exactly why I have a C5 and not a 4, 6 or 7.

Well-said, amigo.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Ford SEROUSLY needs to do a TT2.7 Mustang to compete with the V6 Camaro.

I wouldn't buy one, because I don't do pony cars, but it would be the first Mustang since 1968 that I wouldn't consider to be a complete waste of space.

[float_6969]

Dude, that Camaro is frigging amazing. The thing that impressed me the most was the Historical Lap times. That V6 Camaro comes in 80th of all time. If you look at it's class (basically cars under $35K), The next closest vehicle in lap time is 141st w/a 2011 V6 Mustang!!!! That thing must have AMAZING handling. Hell, even the cars that it's beating at any price range is amazing. Hell, it's faster than a 2007 911 Turbo!.... I want a Camaro. A sentence I've never uttered in my LIFE. EVER. Go Chevy!

[BusyBadger]

Dude, that Camaro is frigging amazing.

Sadly, after some measuring and geometry calculations, it won't get up my drive, due in large part to the front splitter length.

I don't even think it'll do it even after I install a set of Bridjit curb ramps (which I'm getting in any case).

[MinisterofDOOM]

So back in to the driveway.

[BusyBadger]

So back in to the driveway.

And rip the splitter off driving down it forwards?

You don't know the layout of my drive, there's really only one way to pull in and out from the garage. If I tried to turn around I'd look like a new driver making a three point into a 15 point turn. I back down in the Z and still have to hit the curb one wheel at a time to keep from dinging the exhaust tips.

Maybe I can get one of those Batmobile turntables!

[MinisterofDOOM]

That's honestly what I do. I live on a moderately busy road and have to left-turn into my driveway, so I can't always position for a proper back-in. So I pull in, flip around in the driveway, and back into the garage. Just do the reverse of that and you're set. Totally worth it for a fun car!

[float_6969]

Dude, that Camaro is frigging amazing.

Sadly, after some measuring and geometry calculations, it won't get up my drive, due in large part to the front splitter length.

I don't even think it'll do it even after I install a set of Bridjit curb ramps (which I'm getting in any case).

All I hear is that your priorities are all wrong. I don't hear anything that a rented jackhammer and mini-excavator won't fix, LOL!!!