Unrequited love

September 7, 2004 - After watching Nissan pull a 360, John LeBlanc ponders: If companies are so damn "global" these days, how come North American car zealots still don’t get the good stuff?

San Francisco - There's been a seismic change in the car business in the last 15 years. One-time rivals Mercedes-Benz and Chrysler have become one big family known as DaimlerChrysler. Ford bought its way into the luxury segment by picking up Volvo, Aston Martin, Jaguar and Land Rover. General Motors owns Saab and has ties to Subaru, Isuzu and Fiat. And the Volkswagen Group now encompasses the Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Seat, Skoda, and of course, Volkswagen brands, with Maserati rumoured to join the flock soon.

Borrowing Marshall McLuhan’s 1960’s view of mass media, this new automotive interdependence should have created a global car showroom. Instead, car manufacturers still see North Americans as just a little too short to reach the higher shelves in the automotive closet. Says who? Despite being the crown jewel in the crumbling Fiat empire, The General denies us Alfa Romeo’s desirable rides and VW holds back its spicy Seat lineup, yet, sends us stale Golfs. Even companies that already have a presence here hold back the good stuff.

BMW’s groundbreaking 1 Series rear-drive subcompact?, Mercedes-Benz’s sophisticated and stylish second-generation A Class?, Smart Roadster?, Mitsubishi EVO?, Honda’s European Accord wagon (our TSX)?, Civic Type-R? Nope, nope, and quadruple-nope.

This current global state of product denial was only made more apparent for eighteen days last June when Nissan Motor Co. flew in more than 500 automotive journalists from over 30 countries —yours truly included—to San Francisco for what it called its first global ride and drive event. The company billed the shindig Nissan 360 to illustrate the complete turnaround of the company, get it?

Quietly conceived and somewhat lost in the end-of-the-millennium celebrations was the March 1999 alliance between Renault and Nissan. Once the ink dried, however, this union would yield the world's fourth-largest automotive group. The positives were Renault's sales strength in Europe and the French company's creative design capabilities (led by longtime design guru Patrick LeQuement) now teaming up with the Japanese firm's market presence in Asia and the United States and Nissan's strengths in production and engine technology. And don't forget what every late-twentieth century automotive merger strategist was gambling on: major cost reductions through the combination of platforms and purchasing.

Skeptics of the French-Japanese marriage frowned on Nissan's quickly eroding U.S. market share, primarily made up of bland sedans and undesirable pickups. Reversing this with new products would be costly. And, as witnessed by the sometimes very public locking of German and American cultural horns over at DaimlerChrysler, how would Nissan's highly conservative culture meld with Renault's je ne sais quoi?

The driving force behind this alliance has been Carlos Ghosn, the Renault executive installed as Nissan's chief executive in 1999. A key component of his revival plan was to produce different products for different markets using a single architecture—admittedly, the same strategy adopted by rival global automakers. Before the alliance with Renault, Nissan had 24 individual platforms. By 2005, the number will be reduced to 15. This is how Nissan can produce the vee-six powered, rear-drive Z car and the vee-eight-powered, all-wheel-drive Infiniti FX45 sport-utility from the same basic bits. This approach helped Nissan get 10 all-new models into showrooms during its 2003 fiscal year, replacing all of those bland sedans and boosting sales by 10.4 per cent worldwide.

In San Francisco, we were reminded that after five years linking with their French amis, Nissan and its Infiniti luxury brand are very much alive, financially healthy and ready to be a true global player in the marketplace. Then they turned around and completely contradicted their global boastings by letting us crusty journos drive a bunch of Nissan products we can’t (and may never get) in North America.

The Nissan PR folks left the keys in the ignition in everything from Nissan-badged Renault baguette delivery vans to the Japanese-market only Moca mini-car. Of the almost 70 Nissans made available to drive on sundry routes throughout the Marin County/Sausalito areas north of San Francisco, here are three Nissan products I drove, that, as a car zealot, you should have your shorts in a knot over the fact that you can’t buy them over here:

Nissan Stagea - Imagine a sports wagon version of our Infiniti G35 with front-end styling looking for all the world like the Sopranos-inspired Ford 427 showcar. Better yet Nissan, create a G-45 with a six-speed stick and all of a sudden the Magnum RT doesn’t look so hot, eh? For those who think the Infiniti’s FX series is too tall and tippy, this Japanese-market only car would fill your boots, if only available here…;

Nissan March 12SR – BMW can’t sell enough MINI Coopers, but what if it had a little competition? This pocket rocket tuned by Atotech Japan Inc. (a Nissan affiliate), has immediate mid-range punch, and a lively chassis which made my drive on the twisty service roads of the Headlands National Park, that sits on the north side of the Golden Gate bridge, way too short. Boy-racer interior accoutrements such as well-bolstered sets and red-stitched leather shifter and steering wheel are standard, er, just not available here;

Nissan Micra diesel– The most impressive of the dozen or so cars I drove—among them a much more powerful Nismo 350Z—was the four-door Micra hatch. Available in Europe and other overseas markets since January 2003, its smooth 1.5-litre turbo-diesel grunting out 136 pound-feet of torque, sophisticated ride and handling and refined interior are well suited to its job as a premium urban runabout. However (all together now!), JUST NOT AVAILABLE HERE!

At least Nissan seems to understand that selling products globally should ultimately include North America too.

At the Montreal Auto Show in January, Mr. Ghosn hinted that the Cube compact car, another product based on the B-platform that underpins the Micra and several other models, may be coming to Canada. "We know that there is a strong demand for more compact and affordable vehicles in Canada," Mr. Ghosn said. Nissan has announced that the next Cube, currently sold only in Japan, will be engineered to be sold globally, but has not committed as to when.

Sooner, rather than later, would be my advice.

Publisher’s note: Send us an email as to which foreign-market cars you wish were sold on our shores. We’ll consider your suggestions for an Unrequited Love category that we’ll be adding to our Straight-Goods for 2005 car ratings. – John LeBlanc