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Nissan will restore Craigslist Maxima, display at headquarters [w/video]

Nissan showed that it had a great sense of humor when it bought Luke Aker's beat-up 1996 Nissan Maxima GLE for $1,400 back in December based solely on the quality of his tongue-in-cheek sales video.
Aker's Maxima had been thoroughly driven. It needed a strap to keep its hood closed, had front end damage, a missing turn signal and shredded leather seats. Of course, like Aker said in his ad, the car was still "fully loaded with an engine, wheels, tires and an automatic transmission." How could Nissan resist?
After buying the car, Nissan teamed up with MotorAuthority to decide what to do with it. The winning idea was to restore the car to its proper condition and display it at Nissan North America headquarters in Franklin, TN, with Aker's video playing nearby. According to MotorAuthority, the car has finally made it there, and its rebirth will begin soon. Nissan is not sure when the car will go on display.

Nissan plans to slash May car output in Japan by 78%

TOKYO — Nissan plans to slash the number of cars it produces at home in May by 78% from last year, as the impact of the coronavirus shakes the troubled automaker which has already been struggling with falling sales. As global automakers reel from plunging sales amid lockdowns imposed in many countries to curb the spread of the virus, the hit is particularly severe for Nissan, whose profitability has been deteriorating as it grapples with the turmoil that followed the ousting of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn. Nissan plans to manufacture around 13,400 vehicles next month, according to documents seen by Reuters, compared with nearly 61,000 units made in May last year. The cut represents a big hit to Nissan's plant in Kyushu, southern Japan, which the automaker plans to operate on a single shift for much of this month and all of next month, due to a lack of demand for the Rogue Sport SUV crossover model, according to the documents, which are not public. Output will decline 70% from initial plans to build around 44,800 units. In June, domestic production will be cut to 33,700 vehicles, a drop from around 63,700 units last year, and down 43% from a previous plan for around 59,300. Nissan declined to comment on its production plans. The automaker has stopped production at its plant in Tochigi, north of Tokyo, since early April, and plans to keep output suspended through the end of May. Periodic stoppages at Nissan's Oppama plant in Kanagawa Prefecture have been common since earlier this month. The coronavirus pandemic has piled urgency on Nissan's efforts to downsize, after two years of falling sales, deteriorating margins and depleting cash reserves has forced the company to restructure. Nissan's management has become convinced that the company needs to be much smaller and its latest recovery plan due next month will likely assume a cut of 1 million cars to its annual sales target, senior company officials told Reuters earlier this month. Automaking partner Mitsubishi, also suffering from a cut to demand for its cars, is planning to slash domestic output by nearly one-third over the next two months. As both Nissan and Mitsubishi struggle with tanking sales, production plans show one bright spot: Nissan is planning an increase in production of the Nissan Dayz minicar model, which Mitsubishi manufactures for Nissan for the Japanese market. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Are you the next Nissan Frontier?

A reader of the Phillippine site Autoindustriya.com sent in what appear to be naked spy photos of the pickup that Nissan recently teased first in photo then in video. The shots, one taken from the front and one from the back, have been found on the Nissan Navara Club Thailand forum. The details in the two photos, one from the front and one from the back, match up with the details we can make out from the teaser video, lending credence to the idea that this is indeed the next Nissan Navara, which is essentially the Frontier in overseas markets. Nissan US has reportedly disavowed this as our next Frontier, though; the mysterious photo on Twitter was put there by Nissan Thailand, supposedly the location of these two trucks.
The only other detail submitted with the images is that there's a 2.5-liter turbodiesel under the hood putting out 187 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque, running through either a seven-speed automatic transmission or a six-speed manual. The reveal is scheduled for June 11, which is when we should know a lot more about the Navara and how much it is or isn't indicative of what we'll get with the next Frontier, a vehicle we're still not expecting for some time.