2003 Nissan 350z Touring Coupe 2-door 3.5l on 2040-cars

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Nissan alters all CVTs to act less like a stretched rubberband

Among automotive enthusiasts, no one seems to hold a neutral opinion when it comes to continuously variable transmissions. CVTs are either praised for their ability to boost fuel economy or chided for their occasionally poor driving dynamics. Nissan is among the masters of these un-shifting gearboxes in the US, and it uses them in many vehicles in its lineup. However, for the 2015 model year, several models are getting a software update to make their CVTs a bit more like a conventional automatic.
To give drivers the option of feeling gearshifts while on the road, Nissan is adding its D-Step Shift Logic feature to the CVTs in multiple vehicles. Steve Powers, Nissan's senior manager of powertrain performance, told Autoblog the system forces the transmission to "hold a ratio and then shift" to simulate the way that a traditional automatic would. It's simply a change in software, but the company "can't do it to older CVTs," he said, because it would require changes to transmission logic, as well. According to Automotive News, the upgrade is coming to the 2015 Versa, Versa Note (pictured above), Sentra, V6-equipped Altima, Pathfinder and Quest. "We're rolling it out to all programs," said Powers.
Interestingly, buyer perception appears to be pushing the upgrade. John Curl, a Nissan North America regional product manager, told Automotive News that the decision to add the tech partially comes because some owners are bothered that the CVTs aren't changing gears. According to Powers, D-Step "avoids the rubber band feel," that many drivers didn't like. The different sensation of these transmissions seems like something consumers would notice during the test drive, or that the salesperson would inform them about. The same issue cropped up last year when the company was facing customer satisfaction problems among new buyers customers' unfamiliarity with the gearboxes.

Carlos Ghosn's wife appeals to President Trump to help her husband

LONDON — The wife of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn urged U.S. President Donald Trump to raise her husband's case with Japan's prime minister at a summit of world leaders later this month. "I'd like President Trump to speak to Prime Minister Abe about fair conditions, fair trial conditions and to let me speak to my husband and also to respect this presumption of innocence until proven guilty," Beirut-born Carole Ghosn, who has a U.S. passport, told the BBC. Shinzo Abe is due to host other leaders of the Group of 20 economies in the Japanese city of Osaka on June 28-29. In April Carole Ghosn called on the French government to do more to help her husband. Carlos Ghosn, who holds French, Lebanese and Brazilian citizenship, is facing financial misconduct charges and has said he is the victim of a boardroom coup, accusing "backstabbing" former colleagues of conspiring to oust him as Nissan chairman. Carole Ghosn said she had not spoken to her husband since he was re-arrested on April 4 before being released on bail three weeks later. "They told him one of the bail conditions, the restrictions, is he isn't allowed to speak to me or talk to me, which I find inhumane," she said. "All of this could have been dealt with internally within the company. This didn't need to go this far and on top of it my husband is innocent and time will prove the truth." (Writing by William Schomberg, editing by Louise Heavens) Government/Legal Mitsubishi Nissan Renault

France could reduce its Renault stake to solidify partnership with Nissan

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said France is ready to cut its stake in Renault in order to consolidate Renault's partnership with Nissan, Agence France Press (AFP) reports. Le Maire said Paris, which has a 15% stake in Renault, might consider reducing its stake, if it led to a "more solid" alliance between the Japanese and French firms, the French news agency reported, citing an interview with the minister. "We can reduce the state's stake in Renault's capital. This is not a problem as long as, at the end of the process, we have a more solid auto sector and a more solid alliance between the two great car manufacturers Nissan and Renault," he told AFP. Le Maire had earlier said the French government was open to tie-ups involving Renault as long as French industrial interests were protected, and would consider any Renault deal with Fiat Chrysler that respected the French firm's alliance with its Japanese partner Nissan. Fiat on Thursday abandoned its $35 billion merger offer for Renault, blaming French politics for scuttling what would have been a landmark deal to create the world's third-biggest automaker behind Japan's Toyota and Germany's Volkswagen. The French government had welcomed the merger plan, but overplayed its hand by pushing for a series of guarantees and concessions that eventually exhausted the patience of FCA, sources told Reuters. Renault and Nissan were not immediately available to respond to a request seeking comment. (Reporting by Mekhla Raina in Bengaluru; editing by Richard Pullin and Elaine Hardcastle)