2008 Nissan Titan Xe Crew Cab Pickup 4-door 5.6l on 2040-cars

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Renault-Nissan debuts new Common Module Family for future vehicles

Platform sharing is nothing new for the 14-year-old Renault-Nissan Alliance, but this partnership is set to introduce new modular platform components that will eventually underpin 11 Renault models and three Nissan vehicles by 2020. Rather than being a typical platform, the Common Module Family (CMF) actually represents five segments of a platform that can be used in various applications, and one of the first vehicles to use this architecture will be the 2014 Nissan Rogue (spy shots of which are shown below) when it arrives "in late 2013."
As pictured in the image above (click to expand), CMF is composed of four chassis component, principally the front underbody, rear underbody, engine bay and cockpit as well as a common electrical system. Besides the next-gen Rogue, future Nissan models to share CMF will include the Qashqai and X-Trail, while Renault models will start using the platform next year on vehicles including the Scénic and Laguna. The CMF architecture is expected to help the Alliance reduce the parts cost of a vehicle by up to 30 percent and reduce the entry cost by up to 40 percent. The official press release with more details about CMF, and what it means for Renault-Nissan, is posted below.

Nissan's plan to supply US Mitsubishi dealers with family sedan stalls

Mitsubishi has quietly had some big success recently. The Japanese brand sold 77,643 vehicles in the US for all of 2014, a 24.8 percent jump over 2013. While still relatively small overall (Ford sold 74,355 F-Series trucks just in December, for example), it shows definite growth for the sometimes forgotten automaker. Unfortunately, the latest news might not help the company's future expansion. The proposed partnership of Mitsubishi and the Renault-Nissan Alliance on at least one midsize sedan for the US market is off the table, according to Automotive News. The company informed sellers that the collaboration had fallen through during a National Automobile Dealers Association meeting. "I told them that the plan has stalled," said Don Swearingen, executive vice president of Mitsubishi Motors North America, to Automotive News. "And I said that's really all I can tell you at this time." Under the original partnership, Mitsubishi was supposed to get a D-segment sedan that would have been built at the Renault-Samsung factory in Busan, South Korea. The automakers were also negotiating for Mitsu to get a C-segment four-door as a global model and developing an electric kei car for Japan together, due in 2016. While the sedan is gone, Mitsubishi isn't completely bereft of improved products in the pipeline. The Mirage Sedan is being launched in the US, and the Outlander is supposed to get a redesign for the 2016 model year. According to Automotive News, the Outlander Sport and Lancer are also due for refreshes in 2016, and a new Mirage is on the way.

Deltawing takes out second ad targeting Nissan amidst design lawsuit

Don Panoz isn't a guy shy away from a fight. Since December, Panoz's Deltawing Technologies has been in a lawsuit with Nissan over alleged intellectual property violations with the design of the Zeod RC. The situation went public several weeks ago when Deltawing bought an ad in The Tennessean, a paper near Nissan's US headquarters, and the industry trade, Automotive News, aimed squarely at company CEO Carlos Ghosn.
Now, Deltawing is trying the tactic a second time with an even more scathing ad in The Tennessean on July 11 and in Automotive News on July 14 that calls the Zeod's design out directly. The bulletin puts the two racecars side by side and asks readers compare their similarities.
According to Deltawing spokesperson Gary Fong, the idea for these ads started after mediation between the company and Nissan broke down earlier this year. "We were trying to bring them to settle it amicably," he said to Autoblog. When that didn't happen, Deltawing wanted to fight the misconceptions in the public about the program and lawsuit. The strategy actually worked, too. "We've seen an opinion change," said Fong. He estimates that before the advertisements the attitude was "90 percent against Panoz," but there has been more support since them.