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Fiat contemplating sub-brand to compete with Dacia, Datsun

You can add Fiat to the admittedly short list of automakers considering a low-cost brand to rival Dacia. The inexpensive Eastern European brand from Renault-Nissan has performed on the balance sheet like a premium model line, and the money the alliance is taking off the table is encouraging other players to deal themselves in. Pretty soon Nissan's Datsun sub-brand will join the Dacia party, going on sale in Russia, Indonesia and India and will claim even more rubles, rupiahs and rupees for the parent company. Volkswagen recently said it will make a decision this year on a budget line for the Chinese market. With the euthanasia of Lancia and plans to move the Fiat brand upmarket, company CEO Sergio Marchionne wonders aloud to Automotive News Europe whether there could be room for a new budget brand underneath Fiat.
We're told that the initiative has been in the idea box for five years and even moved to the stage of name considerations, like Innocenti, but worries about profit kept it from realization. If such a range were to be developed, Marchionne says it couldn't be built in Italy and stay within budget, and the company is "analyzing its manufacturing capacity outside of Europe to see if a low-cost brand is viable."

Datsun expands low-cost revival with new Mi-Do in Moscow [w/video]

Those who were disappointed when Datsun changed its name to Nissan over three decades ago may have been pleased to see the marque revived last year, even as a budget brand. Nissan's counterpart to its ally Renault's Dacia budget brand, Datsun has been steadily expanding its lineup of low-cost transportation for developing markets with the debut of the Go hatchback in India, the Go+ minivan in Indonesia and the On-Do sedan in Russia. And now it has returned to Moscow to reveal its fourth model, the Mi-Do.
Based closely on the On-Do sedan (which itself is based on the Lada Granta) the Mi-Do takes on a five-door hatchback bodystyle but with no more frills. It uses the same front-drive chassis with the same wheelbase as the sedan, but its chopped tail makes it a good foot and a half shorter overall. Into that compact shape, Datsun has fitted dual airbags, ABS and... well, that's about it. It's got a 1.6-liter, eight-valve inline-four kicking out a grand total of 87 horsepower to either a five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic. Bare bones, this is.
While delivery of the first On-Do sedans commences next month (with the first example going to an IT specialist in Omsk), the Mi-Do is set to begin delivery early next year. Scope out the video and press release below from the Mi-Do's reveal at the Moscow Motor Show.

Nissan to expand next-gen Titan with more engines, configurations

Not much has changed with the Nissan Titan in the decade that it's been on the market, but the 2015 model year could move the needle enough to turn the truck from an "also ran" in the fullsize truck market to more of a contender. Edmunds had the chance to sit down with Pierre Loing, vice president of product and advanced planning and strategy for Nissan North America, who indicated that not only will a new truck be coming for 2015, it is also expected to take a bigger chunk of the truck market currently dominated by Ford and General Motors.
For starters, the article quotes Loing saying that the next-gen Titan could sell 100,000 units, which is almost five times the number of Titans and the same number of Toyota Tundra trucks sold last year. To accomplish this, Nissan is planning to offer a wider number of models (including a regular cab version) and more powertrain options; we're sure this means Nissan is considering offering a V6. The addition of a regular-cab, V6 Titan would also allow this truck to be more competitively priced.
Will that be enough to attract buyers away from the Big Three domestic trucks? We'll just have to wait and see...