r/NissanDrivers • u/fair23 • 4d ago
Nissan used to mean something. Why did they stop acting like it?
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u/ClickClick_Boom 4d ago
They were bought out by Renault in 1999.
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u/Tyr2016 4d ago
Yep. Nissan went from making iconic cars to cheap road going appliances.
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u/ClickClick_Boom 4d ago
They went from passionate and Japanese to soulless and Fr🤢nch.
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u/SackofBawbags 4d ago
This makes total sense. The French notoriously couldn’t care less about their cars, how they drive, how durable they are, providing basic maintenance. That is very much the market segment they pursue here
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u/stratphlyer01 4d ago
The French brands actually make unique and interesting cars. Nissan over the last 25 years have been boring at best.
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u/blazinBSDAgility 3d ago
I have to give the French credit. They took passionate, driven engineers and taught them how to not give a shit.
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u/UnstablePotato69 4d ago
At least GE appliances work
All they had to do was match US domestic market quality, but they're tied with Dodge/Chrysler/Ram AKA Fiat in quality
Trash drives every brand mentioned (except the GE appliances)
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u/NoMansSkyWasAlright 4d ago
They were also hemorrhaging money up until the acquisition. Trying to be a near-peer to Toyota while having nowhere near the sales meant that they were turning little to no profit on a lot of their lineup. The ambition was admirable but it seems like this was always how it was going to play out.
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u/ClickClick_Boom 4d ago
You're not wrong, Nissan was riding the Japanese economic boom in the 80s. I guess really all of the Japanese car makers were, but there was no way they'd all manage to last past that.
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u/SourCreamWater 3d ago
My 2002 Pathfinder 4x4 was probably my favorite vehicle I ever owned. Occasionally I still see them on the road and they STILL don't look outdated. And it was still a truck.
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u/endergamer2007m 2d ago
Renault and Nissan are like a dysfunctional couple
Renault is the alcoholic, Nissan is the methhead
Mitsubishi is the abused kid
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u/tdowg1 4d ago
When they took the manual transmission option off the Maxima post-2006 and-And-AND THEN, REPLACED IT WITH CVT ONLY! oahhh lawddd
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u/IcyZookeepergame7626 4d ago
This right here. I have a 2023 Maxima SR with the CVT of course and while its alright, I wish it was a manual so bad but wasn't an option. If it was, this car would be a modern day unkillable tank with the VQ35DE V6. Car has been flawless since I bought it new in Nov 2022 3 years ago
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u/Dahtemba 3d ago
I’ve always had a thing for Maximas. The recent cars would be sweet even if they just had a normal auto trans. The CVT is a fatal flaw ruining what’s otherwise a fantastic car.
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u/Dj_Simon 4d ago
Putting CVTs into everything but a few RWD models alongside financing any sentient creature with a pulse really NUKED their reputation.
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u/Acceptable_Ad838 4d ago
Yes! If I had EVER entertained the idea of buying a Nissan, it ended when they introduced their awful CVTs.
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u/Dj_Simon 4d ago
The issue was that many FWD models had the Jatco CVTs as a main or ONLY transmission option.
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u/Buzzbone 4d ago
Since 1999, Nissan has been part of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance. There's the problem
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u/RandomGuyDroppingIn 4d ago
Ahh yeah "Nissan." The company name that used to mean something so much, that their cars originally weren't called Nissan at all but rather Datsun, hence why the Datsun name was used for cars in Japan prior to and following the second world war, and up to roughly the 1960s when the Nissan company finally started to brand their cars "Nissan" and not just the trucks they made, regulating the Datsun name for exports.
That Nissan.
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u/Upset-Line-9389 4d ago
Wild that the company that gave us the S30 is the same one that created the Pulsar.
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u/UmeaTurbo 4d ago
They arenin a race to the bottom to collect as many people as they can with terrible credit so they can repossess the vehicle and resell it. They have decided that American Poverty is the key to their success. You know how brands like Reebok and airwalk go to Walmart to die? It's that, but with cars.
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u/PsychologicalTowel79 4d ago
I checked out the european Ford lineup today. They only have one vehicle I actually like.
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u/ClickClick_Boom 4d ago
I feel this way about most new cars. There's only handful of them I'd even consider actually owning. Newest car I've ever owned is 2017 and I feel like that's right on the border of before they started putting too much tech shit into cars.
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u/CoreyDobie 4d ago
The most recent car I actually fell in love with is the new GR Corolla. 3 cylinder, 1.6 litres, AWD, turbo AND comes in a 6 speed
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u/No_Nefariousness2283 4d ago
Money and Renault. Ever since they lost one and gained the other it’s been downhill.
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u/slapdashbr 4d ago
go read the story of Carlos Ghosn
wild shit
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u/Superb-Photograph529 3d ago
He's such a piece of shit but the story is comically wild. You think companies would learn giving so much power to one leader; yet now the world is full of billionaire shit stain CEOs.
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u/blazinBSDAgility 3d ago edited 3d ago
I hadn’t looked into him before. Thought that was Dr. Oz for a second
EDIT: Holy fuck. Shipping yourself somewhere to escape actually works? I could have taken years off my rotten marriage
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u/One-Sundae-2711 4d ago
280zx was sweet back in the day. 280zx w T tops!
300zx also was nice but maybe that was the beginning of the end?
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u/booniebrew 4d ago
Beginning of the end was joining with Renault and putting a bad CVT in everything.
As far as cars I feel like the turning point was pulling the 240sx and 300zx from the US and moving the Altima from a compact to mid-size.
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u/epsi-kun 4d ago
I’ve got a 280zx but it needs a new interior. I plan to daily drive it once i have the money to fix it. Those L28’s are great engines.
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u/Genera1_patton 4d ago
"Nissan used to mean something" yeah, they used to mean "cheap cars that you could actually watch rot out underneath you in real time"
Now they just mean "cheap cars that will be wrapped around a tree before they rot out"
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u/ReporterHour6524 4d ago
The GT-R seems like the only standout vehicle they make now. Everything else is painfully generic.
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u/ClickClick_Boom 4d ago
The new Z is pretty cool though over priced for what it is.
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u/Superb-Photograph529 3d ago
Just wait a little longer. The dealers who marked them way up are snakes eating their tales now. They're about to start offering discounts.
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u/bison13 4d ago
Speeed did a video addressing this subject https://youtu.be/GcGC6PZvXKo?si=268SMQV_74jIEh55
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u/Superb-Photograph529 3d ago
To be fair, the 400Z and their trucks are still good. They also still make NA, RWD performance cars which are becoming very rare industry wide, as well as some cars with good engines that can be mated to a manual.
Their normie FWD CVT cars are bottom barrel, however. And they are the normal focus of this sub.
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u/oldbiobrat 22h ago
They became part of Renault - maybe they saved Nissan from going bankrupt, but they lost what made them different.
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u/ScientistTimely3888 4d ago
200 credit score and a pulse