2013 Nissan Altima S Sedan 4-door 2.5l on 2040-cars

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Nissan unveils Altima-based V8 Supercars [w/videos]

Good as it is, when we think about the Nissan Altima, the words "V8" or "supercar" are not in our vernacular, but Nissan Motorsports is looking to change all that. After unveiling the race version of its Altima sedan intended for the Australian V8 Supercars series back in October, the four race teams and their cars were revealed yesterday ahead of a preseason test session this weekend.
Two of the Altima racecars will be sponsored by Jack Daniels while the other two will wear Norton (as in Norton Anti-Virus) black-and-yellow livery. The season officially kicks off on March 1, and we'll get to see the V8-powered Altima on US soil from May 17-19 when the V8 Supercars series hits the new Circuit of the Americas in Austin. Scroll down to watch a couple videos and a press release issued for the team introductions.

Renault board names Ghosn stand-ins, as tensions with Nissan increase

PARIS/TOKYO — French carmaker Renault tapped its chief operating officer and a senior board member to fill in for embattled boss Carlos Ghosn, after an investigation by alliance partner Nissan led to his arrest on suspicion of financial misconduct. Thierry Bollore, Ghosn's operational second-in-command, will become deputy chief executive, while lead independent director Philippe Lagayette assumes the function of interim chairman, Renault said after a board meeting late on Tuesday. But the board refrained from firing Ghosn while awaiting more detail on the allegations — in a decision that could also buy more time for an accelerated, permanent succession process. "Mr. Ghosn, temporarily incapacitated, remains Chairman and Chief Executive Officer," Renault said in a statement. "During this period, the board will meet on a regular basis under the chairmanship of the lead independent director." Ghosn, one of the car industry's best-known leaders, was arrested on Monday after Nissan said he had engaged in years of wrongdoing, including personal use of company money and under-reported earnings. The Japanese company plans to remove him as chairman on Thursday. The French government, Renault's biggest shareholder, had begun to distance itself from Ghosn, calling for new interim leadership before the meeting, as the Japanese investigation expanded to include Renault-Nissan alliance finances. "Carlos Ghosn is no longer in a position where he is capable of leading Renault," Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said earlier in the day. "Renault has been weakened, which makes it all the more necessary to act quickly." Statements by Le Maire, Renault and its board all echoed French preoccupations over the future of the alliance first articulated by President Emmanuel Macron within hours of Ghosn's arrest on Monday. Following talks between Le Maire and his Japanese counterpart Hiroshige Seko on Tuesday, the ministers reaffirmed their "shared wish to maintain this winning cooperation." But in a sign that Nissan may now seek to loosen its French parent's hold on the partnership, the Japanese company informed Renault it also had evidence of potential wrongdoing at Renault-Nissan BV, the Dutch venture overseeing alliance operations under Renault's ultimate control, three people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

NYC Taxi of Tomorrow ruled legal by appeals court

The streets of New York City might be filling up with a lot more Nissans in the next few years. A New York appeals court ruled that the city's mandate to replace old taxis with a fleet entirely made up of the Nissan NV200 Taxi of Tomorrow was legal. The decision overturned a previous ruling that decided The Big Apple couldn't force cabbies to all purchase the same vehicle.
Justice David B. Saxe wrote the court's opinion saying the Taxi of Tomorrow is a "legally appropriate response to the agency's statutory obligation to produce a 21st-century taxicab consistent with the broad interests and perspectives that the agency is charged with protecting," according to Bloomberg. The Greater New York Taxi Association, the plaintiff in the case, could still possibly attempt a second appeal.
Nissan originally won the 10-year contract estimated to be worth about $1 billion in 2011, beating out Ford and a Turkish company. Under the Taxi of Tomorrow plan, all New York cabbies would have to switch to the NV200 within three of five years of the van going into service, and it would replace the 16 vehicles previously authorized as taxis. In 2013, the mandate received multiple challenges though, including an attempted ban by cab drivers because the replacement wasn't a hybrid. In a separate case, state Supreme Court judge Schlomo Hagler decided that there was nothing in the city charter that forced a taxi driver to choose a specific vehicle. This was the case that was just overturned. In the meantime, the automaker has been selling the NV200 to New York cabbies at prices around $29,700.