2011 Nissan 370z, Clean Car, Nice Trade In: Call 480-421-4530 on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Nissan may take control of struggling Mitsubishi Motors

Update: The reports were largely correct. Nissan will take a 34 percent stake in Mitsubishi for roughly $2.2b. Read all about it here. Reports say Nissan will buy a controlling stake in Mitsubishi Motors, either 30 or 34 percent, for about 200 billion yen or $1.84 billion. Nissan and Mitsubishi motors are currently part of a joint venture, NMKV, to build minicars together. Nissan is also responsible for reporting fuel-economy discrepancies with cars built under the joint-venture agreement, which put Mitsubishi in its current weakened state. Earlier today, reports surfaced that the fuel-economy issues were wider ranging than originally thought. Mitsubishi now admits that all of its Japanese-market cars sold since 1991 could have had faked fuel-economy data. Shares of Mitsubishi Motors have dropped by about half since the scandal was uncovered, opening the door for a takeover. While Nissan is a much larger company, it can benefit from Mitsubishi's 60-percent share of Japan's minicar market. The two companies also had plans to build electric vehicles together in the joint venture. Japan's Nikkei reports that talks are ongoing between the company and that a decision could be made Thursday by the companies' boards. Related Video: News Source: Nikkei Green Mitsubishi Nissan

Nissan Juke-R [w/video]

The Other Brother
The handler strapped into the carbon fiber race bucket next to me is the only other person outside of yours truly who looks like he thinks this is a bad idea. I've just finished situating myself in the cabin of the very first Nissan Juke-R ever constructed. There are literally thousands of man hours in this single prototype and only four examples of the car total in the entire world. Each one carries a price tag of around $656,400 at current conversion rates, making this both the rarest and most expensive piece of machinery anyone has ever let me get close enough to sniff, let alone drive.
And that's exactly what I mean to do.

'I'm glad he did it': Carole Ghosn slams Japanese justice system

BEIRUT — Carlos and Carole Ghosn, the former first couple of carmaker Nissan, are united again in Beirut. They hold hands in the street and whisper together in a mix of Arabic and French. They kiss. But the pair's most visceral display of unity comes when they talk about Carlos Ghosn's former home. "I'm done with Japan," said Carole Ghosn in an interview with her husband in a private house in Beirut. Two weeks ago, Carlos Ghosn made a dramatic escape from house arrest in Japan, where he was awaiting trial on charges of under-reporting earnings, breach of trust and misappropriation of company funds. He denies all charges. Shortly after Ghosn appeared in Beirut, Japanese authorities issued an arrest warrant for Carole on suspicion of alleged perjury related to the misappropriation charge against her husband. "What they're accusing me of is a bit of a joke," said the 54-year-old Lebanese-American national, who spent many years as a fashion designer in New York and whose children live in the U.S. city.  "I testified for hours and they told me you are free to go, and now, nine months later ... this comes up. They are vindictive. This has nothing to do with the law."   Related: Yamaha warns to stay out of large musical instrument cases after Ghosn escape Ghosn says French ambassador told him: 'Nissan is turning against you'   Carlos Ghosn was even more adamant. "I spent 18 years in Japan; I never suspected this brutality, this lack of fairness, this lack of empathy." Tokyo prosecutors have said his allegations of a conspiracy are false and that he has failed to justify his acts. The plan to flee to his childhood home of Lebanon developed quickly with a small group of people, a "reasonable price" and utter secrecy, he said. "The first rule if you want to do something like is that no member of your family should be aware because they become very anxious," he added. Asked whether she would have dissuaded him from escaping, Carole Ghosn blurted: "Yes!" But then she paused, looked at her husband and added: "No. I mean, actually, let me rephrase. If you told me this at the beginning, I would have said, 'No, of course not. You're going to fight this and prove your innocence.' ... But then, with time, we saw how the prosecutors were behaving ... I said 'Oh my God, my husband is never going to get a fair trial,' and I was desperate." "I'm happy he did it," she said. Japan's justice minister has said Ghosn's escape from his trial could constitute a crime.