The President is Dead

[brucepelletier]

Browsing through the March issue of the Japanese new car spy magazine Mag X yesterday I came across a small b & w photograph of what looks like the current model Cima/Q45 with an upright rectanagular grill and a hood ornament.

I got a rough translation from a Japanese guy standing next to me. It states that this is the new Japanese domestic market President based on a stretched wheelbase Cima, going on sale in September of this year.

Coupled with the fact the the old President based on the original 1990-96 Q is no longer on the Japanese Nissan website leads me to conclude that any immediate hope for a real new Q is lost.

It seems like Nissan is throwing in the towel in its home market and not planning to compete with Toyota for the domestic luxury market. Maybe they plan to radically upgrade the Cima chassis in the next iteration? Who knows what Renault is thinking?

[greg_atlanta]

Japanese economy isn't exactly hot. I bet orders fell off drastically and producting the President was no longer profitable.

Maybe they'll come up with something new in a few years.