2009 Nissan Maxima 3.5 S on 2040-cars

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Nissan Concept 2020 Vision Gran Turismo looks awesome in red

As we reported the other day, Nissan has a whole raft of concepts it's bringing to the Tokyo Motor Show this year, but the Concept 2020 Vision Gran Turismo is perhaps the most striking. Or at the most least colorful. Now if you're thinking that we've already seen Nissan's concept for the popular racing sim, you're absolutely right. It debuted last summer ahead of the 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed. But sinister as it looked in gray, this time it's been done up in bright red – Fire Knight red – according to the automaker. And as you can see for yourself in the gallery above, it looks awesome. Of course the Teatro for Dayz is still the main novelty here. Envisioned as a theater on wheels (hence the name), the Teatro packs the company's electric powertrain technology that we've already come to know from the Leaf. The interior is all smooth and white, serving as a sort of blank canvas of sorts – ostensibly allowing for a broad range of personalization. The minicar could point the way towards a successor to the equally quirky Cube that has, in its present iteration, been on the market since 2008. Or it could just be a showpiece for its home-market show, which only comes around every other year. Either way, you can check it out in the second image gallery. While you're doing that, we'll be staring at that red supercar concept for a while longer, and wondering how closely it might presage the next-generation GT-R. Nissan to show Teatro for Dayz, Gripz, Concept 2020 Vision Gran Turismo and more in Tokyo YOKOHAMA, Japan – Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. today released an overview of its exhibit at the 44th Tokyo Motor Show, which will be held at Tokyo Big Sight and open to the public from October 30 through November 8. Among the exhibits will be Teatro for Dayz, an innovative concept that signals a new direction in mobile technology. Designed especially for the digital native generation, this vision of near-future vehicles departs from convention and marks a shift in perception.

2014 Nissan Rogue

When I first started in this whole automotive journalism biz, I held a sort of hodgepodge receptionist/gopher/production assistant role, and each morning as the staff filed in, I'd ask them how they liked whatever car they were assigned to drive the previous night. Most of my colleagues would regale me with anecdotes about how good or bad a vehicle was, but one co-worker, every single morning, would answer my query with the exact same phrase: "It was fine."
I always assumed this was just a brush-off, an "ask me again after I've had a cup of coffee" sort of response. But then I found myself in a similar moment of brevity following the launch of the 2014 Nissan Rogue earlier this week. After returning home, a friend asked me what I thought of the new Rogue, and I replied, word for word, "It was fine."
And, well, it was. Nothing worth wasting exclamation points over, good or bad. Aside from something like the interesting-to-drive Mazda CX-5 or funky-looking Jeep Cherokee, nothing in this class really tries to set the world on fire. And that, right there, is fine. Nissan doesn't need to do anything crazy with its second-generation Rogue. It just needs to offer a well-equipped crossover that's handsome, functional, efficient and priced right - sticking to the same formula that made the first-generation model so successful while offering the latest crop of creature comforts in a more modern package.

Question of the Day: Most heinous act of badge engineering?

Badge engineering, in which one company slaps its emblems on another company's product and sells it, has a long history in the automotive industry. When Sears wanted to sell cars, a deal was made with Kaiser-Frazer and the Sears Allstate was born. Iranians wanted new cars in the 1960s, and the Rootes Group was happy to offer Hillman Hunters for sale as Iran Khodro Paykans. Sometimes, though, certain badge-engineered vehicles made sense only in the 26th hour of negotiations between companies. The Suzuki Equator, say, which was a puzzling rebadge job of the Nissan Frontier. How did that happen? My personal favorite what-the-heck-were-they-thinking example of badge engineering is the 1971-1973 Plymouth Cricket. Chrysler Europe, through its ownership of the Rootes Group, was able to ship over Hillman Avanger subcompacts for sale in the US market. This would have made sense... if Chrysler hadn't already been selling rebadged Mitsubishi Colt Galants (as Dodge Colts) and Simca 1100s as (Simca 1204s) in its American showrooms. Few bought the Cricket, despite its cheery ad campaign. So, what's the badge-engineered car you find most confounding? Chrysler Dodge Automakers Mitsubishi Nissan Suzuki Automotive History question of the day badge engineering question