Z article on the front page

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Desert Rat
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Bravo, Greg. Very well written. It covers the points, and I hope the brass is watching. You've captured pretty much exactly the mood most of us current and former Nissan junkies have towards their new products.

I've had about a dozen Nissans over the years, along with dozens and dozens of other makes of vehicle, including 5 Z cars....a 240Z, a pair of 280ZXTs, a Z31, and my current '14 370Z. While it's a great car, it makes its own market niche nowadays because the cars it was designed to compete with have continued to develop and left the poor Z far behind. That said, it's not a fire breathing V8 muscle car. It's sad that Nissan cares so little about its image that they want to be known as the company cranking out the cheapest car in America rather than lean on their performance heritage.

And they can stick their CVTs you know where. Yes, I've even owned a couple of those in the form of Muranos. Ok for transportation. But it is what it is: An Altima with a lift kit.

I don't think your article will change anything. The general mood in this forum has been pretty much the same as the mood of your article. Nissan will still attract buyers, but they won't be enthusiasts. Nissan's targeted audience has become those seeking a transportation appliance, and when the enthusiasts finally weed themselves out of the mix and move on to other brands, the brass may wake up one day and realize they pissed away their heritage so they could sell more Versas.

Goodbye Nissan. We'll all remember the good old days fondly.


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AZhitman
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Thanks brother!

One of our staffers got an email today from NNA asking who my 'source' is. My response:

1) Ask me. I'm not hard to find.
2) I don't throw confidential sources under the bus.
3) Stop shooting the messenger - Give me something positive to report.
4) Piss off. :)

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Desert Rat
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You could have skipped 1-3......

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RicerX
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AZhitman wrote:
Tue Nov 13, 2018 8:56 pm
Thanks brother!

One of our staffers got an email today from NNA asking who my 'source' is. My response:

1) Ask me. I'm not hard to find.
2) I don't throw confidential sources under the bus.
3) Stop shooting the messenger - Give me something positive to report.
4) Piss off. :)
I love it.

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Ozzie
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AZhitman wrote:
Tue Nov 13, 2018 8:56 pm
One of our staffers got an email today from NNA asking who my 'source' is. My response:

1) Ask me. I'm not hard to find.
2) I don't throw confidential sources under the bus.
3) Stop shooting the messenger - Give me something positive to report.
4) Piss off. :)
Quoting to reiterate point #3.
They have a lot of history to draw inspiration from.
Fill a hole in the current market with something they used to do well.
Build a fast hot hatch (new GTIR)
Build a small, RWD, turbo something, with a manual box. (Retro-tech 510, new evolution of the 240SX)
Build a new Skyline, with a straight 6, cheap but tasteful interior, and make it light/fast, and handle well. Keep it simple and cheap, not bloated, fussy, and boring.

Just build something for consumers to get excited about (not executives, accountants, or shareholders.... actually the shareholders would get excited by booming sales because YOU ACTUALLY BUILT SOMETHING PEOPLE WANT TO BUY!)

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AZhitman
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Desert Rat wrote:
Wed Nov 14, 2018 12:01 pm
You could have skipped 1-3......
:rotfl

Love you guys.

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Dattebayo
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Maybe I'm just being slow, but as a response to the question, #1 has me a bit confused?

Help me out here!

Edit: Oh yeah. They asked your staffer, not you. :gapteeth:

I guess you must've been right on the money.

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Woodnutz78
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Greg, couln't agree with your article more... although perhaps there will now be a shake-up of sorts at Nissan with the news that Mr. Ghosn appears to be heading out the door. Regardless as to how that plays out, you did hit the nail on the head. Even though I haven't been a brand enthusiast for too long, it's not difficult to see a relatively stale product line. I'm in a similar industry, just not as publicly known, but we've had the same type of issue until we had some new leadership come in to realign the company focus. It's easy to play the numbers game and be continually diven by only the bottom line, but I've seen that simply result in a lackluster product offering. Things get routine... it happens. What's not often realized is that when you loosen the purse strings on a project or two and indulge some of the hopes of the sales guys and open up the dreams of the engineers, you can end up producing something exciting. When a company takes that plunge, it tells the public there are new and cool things going on within the company and it has the possibilty to stir up interest for the whole brand. I've seen it happen where I work - and I've been on the other side of it too, asking, "Why are we doing this? The payback on this project will take forever...." only to see customers get exited that we're doing something new/different and in turn taking a stronger interest in other models.

Pardon me if I started to ramble there a bit, but your article struck a chord with what I see in a daily basis. It would be awesome if Nissan could take the leap into something truly exciting. Nice job on the article - it was refreshing and a pleasure to read. Have a great Thanksgiving!

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darylzero
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I have to admit I never go to the front page of Nicoclub.com. I have my bookmark set to the forums.

Having said that, I do need to check it often.

That was a very well written article. Nice job!

Sadly for the last 10 years Nissan's strategy has been to produce low-cost cars, increase EV's, and increase sales. That is their strategy. Unless the next person to take over the company does a 180; this company is going nowhere in the automotive market.

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AZhitman
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Thanks guys - I had plenty of help... from several of your Mods, Admins, and of course our insider at Corporate.


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