Nissan’s newly appointed “car-guy” CEO, Ivan Espinosa, wants to make sure Nissan’s heritage doesn’t get lost. Even though Nissan closed the order books on the GT-R earlier this month Espinosa, who takes the reins of Nissan in April, is reassuring enthusiasts that the GT-R name will not go gentle into the night.
It’s a sad state of affairs at Nissan, which could not formulate a plan for the next GT-R despite the R35 being on the market for 17 years. The newly appointed Espinosa is making the rounds, speaking with media in the US and Japan, to prove that Nissan still has a pulse.
He told Automotive News, “We will continue working on sports cars. This is part of our DNA. I cannot tell you when and how, but of course, the GT-R name will exist into the future.”
Speaking to Japanese press, Espinosa didn’t mention the GT-R by name, but was even more forceful with is words. “There is a lot of debate within the company. It is true that we hear negative comments such as ‘sports cars are not profitable’ or ‘they cost too much,'” he explained. “However, I would like to ask what kind of carmaker Nissan is. There are some things that Nissan cannot afford to lose. In order to not lose Nissan’s identity, we will not stop developing sports cars and specialty cars.”
Espinosa has also stated that his dream is to revive the Silvia. We’re not sure if this is a thing all new top execs must express, because it parallels Toyota CEO Koji Sato’s dream of reviving the Celica. The difference, of course, is that Sato’s dream seems on course to being fulfilled because Toyota is loaded. It’s not clear how Nissan will do so in its current financial state, and whether its new corporate partner will let it do so, but we wish Espinosa the best of luck.
Still, when there’s anything I may keep an eye on, then it starts and ends with a TL;DR right here instead.
I think if Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors were instead facing the same fate as that of Saab and other car manufacturers that have already been gone, then I think if Toyota and Honda had formed a (mainly low-profile) joint partnership with themselves and even have (two of them) not just to acquire and hold shares / stocks in the Renault Group – where the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance is part of as Renault used to own Lada before 2022 – and as well as (Renault’s) fellow European Stellantis – formerly Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and PSA Peugeot Citroen later PSA Group – but also a quadruple entente (referencing Triple Entente) between Toyota, Honda, Renault and the former PSA / Fiat SpA plus AMC-Jeep (now Stellantis as it sounds like the Stalfos skeletons from Legend of Zelda mixed with Lantis as in the Japanese name of Mazda’s 323F) would even have it / them unseat the Germans (Volkswagen / VW plus Czech Skoda and Spain’s SEAT, Mercedes-Benz / MB and BMW) from their position(s) as market leader(s) in Europe’s automotive industry for example. (Remember the Toyota recalls that’s continuing today? VAG’s Dieselgate? anything else? But okay who needs a GT-R if you have GTI as in those used by the former PSA outfit and GTV by Alfa Romeo / AR already, remember it was Nissan who later put Alfa into trouble and then Fiat saved the latter which only later endured with little improvements but except that the Alfa Romeo 159 and Brera were close to Saab because General Motors owned the latter and had deals with Fiat that time.)
In that case, Nissan – which used to be called as Datsun until 1986 – neither has possession(s) of decency nor it (Nissan / Datsun) does the same (possession) with sanity and sensibility, especially when looking at its (Nissan’s) overseas motorsports activities from yore to here and now, then each of them only have limited successes (or records) as one of Nissan’s fewest racing victories abroad were in 1991’s Spa 24 Hours in Belgium – which made Nissan the first and only Japanese car manufacturer to win that event as previous and later editions have been won by European carmakers with BMW and VW’s Porsche having the most victories – and the 1999 British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) so therefore Nissan does not even have anything to score big in international motorsports as of today in contrast to its bigger and (also) senior compatriot Toyota, which not only explains that Toyota is the only (or fewest) Asian (Japanese) representative in World Rally Championship (WRC) and NASCAR – with the first of the latter two also has Hyundai (Motor Company) and it hails from South Korea which is a no-go zone for anything Japanese like cars and their brands – but also Toyota is the only Asian (Japanese) participant of each of the aforementioned major motorsports series (including World Endurance Championship / WEC) that earns much successes despite anything that puts (Toyota) into trouble. (Remember San Remo 1986 and the 1995 WRC season where Toyota tried to max their Group A ST205 / T20 Celica GT-Four until the manufacturer was excluded for 1996 and half of 1997?)
Granted, I believe as implies implied that one of Toyota’s campaigns has had their titles saying “Start Your Impossible”, therefore that quadruple entente (not Triple Entente) of Toyota, Honda, Renault (Nissan alliance) and Stellantis (a former Mitsubishi, Suzuki, Subaru and Isuzu ally as Chrysler owned MMC and then Opel / Vauxhall allied with the last three Japanese makes when they were both part of GM) would have shown and explain that half of the world (partially Asian and other transpacific countries apart from Japan like Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Mongolia plus the Republic of Korea and faraway ones like in Europe such as Brexit UK / Britain, Ireland, Malta and Cyprus) would prefer and enforce themselves to give up / surrender from Japanese cars in favor of embracing and appreciating European cars courtesy of Renault, Stellantis and not the trios of Team Germany (with their British, Czech, Lamborghini and Spanish allies) nor the sole Swede Volvo… (Bottomline, I guess having Toyota and Honda to substitute / alternate them with an exploitation of Renault and the Jeep group aka Stellantis elsewhere overseas now that Trump have already introduced trade tarrifs since recently, thus it would have been like how Japan’s entertainment business instead forced itself to team up with that of Europe and to a lesser extent UK and Australia to remake contents from ROK / SK for ex. like it has mainly Stacy Martin, Kaya Scodelario, Jodie Comer and Lucy Boynton featuring with the majority of cars / vehicles seen there too are only Renault Group and former PSA / FCA-AMC products like how seeing Isabelle Huppert dressed up as Sailor Moon in 2011’s Special Treatment and remind you that Renault would deeply do business with Stellantis even today like sharing blueprints hence the V6 PRV, ES/L successor and other engines etc..)
Yes.
Genda’s response warrants it to be a winner of JNC decals for quite a while, just on length alone. I didn’t read the whole thing but I’m sure it has significant subsidence. I know this isn’t a QOTW, but this detail is next level.
I am curious as to the appeal of the “GT-R” badge with the average enthusiast. It clearly means something entirely different to Nissan than it does to me. For me, GT-R is inextricably linked with the Skyline. It was the aspirational version of a much more attainable car. When they separated the GT-R badge from the Skyline, BOTH the GT-R AND the Skyline lost their appeal to me.
I might be one of the only people that feels this way, but if an enormous amount of people feel as I do, then sports cars not being profitable or costing too much can indeed help Nissan’s identity providing those models are connected with entry level models. If Nissan re-introduced a new Bluebird starting at $29,999, but then had a $100,000 Super Bluebird they took racing, people like me would be interested in the entire Bluebird lineup (providing of course they tickled my needs such as being a lightweight car with optional manual transmission).
… no such thing as fun cars, anymore. Caught up in the romance, hitting a number (e.g., zero-60; a Nordschleife lap time), it’s been evident 40 years, track optimized vehicles make for lousy passenger cars. Having forgotten how to make lightweight, purposeful vehicles motorists can have fun with? Automakers build ass backward, hopelessly overweight halo vehicles, targeting marketing the divorced orthodontists’ driver’s club –