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Nissan raises base GT-R price to $101,770 for 2014

Nissan has announced a few pricing tweaks for the 2015 GT-R, one of which pushes the most basic variant past $100,000 for the first time. The 2014 cost of entry was $99,590, while the 2015 GT-R starts at $101,770.
The GT-R Black Edition, meanwhile, will demand $111,510, up from 2014's $109,300. The GT-R Track Edition retains the $115,710 asking price of the 2014 car. The price increases on the base and Black Edition come with some additional goodies that should soften the blow to pocketbooks, including a retuned suspension that promises a "more sophisticated ride," while LED headlights come standard. Bose Active Noise Cancellation has also been added to the 2015 GT-R, as has a new interior color option on the base model. For a full rundown of new goodies on the GT-R, check out our original post on the 2015 vintage.
Interestingly, the destination charge for the 2015 GT-R has climbed dramatically, from 2014's $1,000 to $1,595 for the latest car. We've reached out to Nissan to see why there was such a big increase, and will update as soon as we have an update.

2014 Nissan Leaf named overall cleanest car in US

A research firm has named the zero-emission 2014 Nissan Leaf the cleanest production vehicle in the US, and that's figuring in the full, wheel-to-well lifetime impact of the car on the environment. The Automotive Science Group (ASG) studied more than 1,300 automobiles with at least four seats across nine categories, measuring everything from the amount of fuel needed to run the car during its lifetime to the extraction of natural resources to build the thing in the first place to end-of-life processing. ASG calls the process "wildly complex." The battery-electric Leaf, with its 84-mile single-charge range, took top honors overall, but there were other highly ranked vehicles in different categories. ASG also said that the Mitsubishi Mirage, with its sub-2,000-pound curb weight and 40 miles per gallon fuel economy, was the cleanest among gas-powered vehicles, while the Chevrolet Spark had the lowest cast of ownership over five years. Last month, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) put together its annual "Greenest" and "Meanest" (notice: we didn't say "Cleanest") lists and put the Leaf at number three. Topping that list was the Smart ForTwo ED battery-electric, but that was followed up by the Toyota Prius C compact hybrid, so fans of those vehicles can now start a healthy debate. The ACEEE uses data from the Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board to compile its list. We have ASG's press release below. Life-cycle Assessment of 1,300 Models Reveals Best of 2014 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 4 February 2014 [Santa Rosa, CA] – The Automotive Science Group (ASG) conducted a comprehensive life-cycle assessment of over 1,300 automobiles across nine categories to distinguish the BEST model year 2014 vehicles in environmental, economic, social and "all-around" performance. Auto consumers are now equipped with a car buying guide founded on principled facts, a departure from the notoriously subjective test drive "editor reviews" that have long been the industry norm. Using a unique combination of vehicle data inputs that include conventional specifications as well as ground-breaking social, environmental and economic performance indicators, ASG's back-end algorithms are wildly complex, but the front-end results – meaningful vehicle ratings and distinguished awards – are forthright and consumer-friendly. ASG's Automotive Performance Index is for automotive consumers what Google is for web users.

Skyline-powered Nissan Patrol shows Juke-R how it's done

If you had told us a few years ago that people would be shoehorning GT-R engines into Nissan SUVs, we'd have told you you were nuts. But that was before the Juke-R came along. And before the Qashqai-R project followed a similar formula. Well, now there's a third example.
We don't know who made it or who it belongs to, but some our-kind-of-nuts character has shoehorned the 2.5-liter turbocharged inline-six from a Skyline GT-R into a fourth-gen Nissan Patrol sport-ute. And from the sound of it, we gather the engine has also been heavily tuned beyond its 215-horsepower stock specification.
What's even better is that this Patrol-R isn't alone. Check out the second video below and you'll see a whole club of Patrol owners who've shoehorned in Nissan RB engines like the ones that powered generations of Skyline GT-Rs.