I try not to be biased towards one brand or another as an automotive journalist, but everyone has their favorites. I will give any brand a fair shake, though some brands might get a little more help. My tilt is less historical or geographical and more ideological. Specifically, I root for the underdog.
As is probably clear from reading The Morning Dump regularly, Nissan is an underdog brand. The new company wants to hit 1 million sales by 2027, and one key to doing that will be the long-awaited Nissan Xterra. Dealers have seen it, and they seem to like it.
Everything old is new again, and some internet boys will become the new hosts of The Grand Tour, as widely predicted. And speaking of predicted things, both Jaguar Land Rover and Volvo crashed out last quarter.
Nissan Dealers Have Gone From ‘Angry’ To ‘Hungry’
I suppose the fact that I aided in the purchase of both a Nissan NV200 Taxi and a Murano CrossCabriolet might give you the impression that I’m a Nissan fan. While I’ve had wonderful experiences in both of those cars, the shortcomings of both point to the experience the company finds itself in right now.
The Carlos Ghosn era was not perfect, even by the standards of a modern car company. There was no risk of Nissan ever becoming a Toyota, and a lot of that has to do with the steadying hand of the Toyoda family versus the fractured parentage of the Nissan-Renault alliance. There’s a chance Nissan could have been Kia or Hyundai, maybe.
That dream died with the arrest of former CEO Ghosn and American executive Greg Kelly. From that point on, Nissan was sadly destined to endure some lost years. For dealers, this meant aging products and listless leadership, resulting in a large chunk of them losing money.
The National Auto Dealers Association (NADA) annual convention is going on this week in Las Vegas, and automakers will often take this opportunity to preview new vehicles. Nissan Americas Chairman Christian Meunier told dealers he wanted to see the company get back to its pre-pandemic level of 1 million cars sold each year by the end of 2027.
According to Automotive News, Meunier also said he understood that in 2025 the dealers were “angry” and that this year they’re “hungry” for profits and products. While a lot of what Nissan needs to do is the boring/important stuff like controlling inventory and balancing incentives, none of that works without product.
One of those products was the new Xterra, and, while we can’t see it, dealers were able to share their views with AN:
The electrified off-roader is the first of five U.S.-built models on a new body-on-frame platform. The lineup will include an Infiniti variant and new generations of the Pathfinder, Frontier and Infiniti QX60.
Smith described the Xterra as a “radical-looking,” beefy, full-size truck with big tires, a muscular grille and a no-frills, rugged focus.
Charlie Hicks, CEO of Hicks Automotive Group in Texas, said the new Xterra carries the DNA of the original but has a modern twist.
“There’s an aggression to it,” Hicks said.
Last year, Meunier said he wanted a new Xterra “tomorrow,” but it sounds like it’ll actually be the second half of 2028. That feels like too long to wait. In the interim, a new hybrid Rogue probably helps out dealers and will be coming sooner. Obviously, people have taken it into their own hands to build the Xterra we all want.
I just drove a new Sentra, and a review will come soon. It’s good enough, and generally points to there being a reason for Nissan to exist other than to provide decent new cars for people with less-than-decent credit.
Internet Cars Boys To Replace Old Men On TV Show
The rumors are true, the Throttle House team and the one train guy everyone loves will be taking over The Grand Tour from the original trio of hosts (as announced in this video above).
Ever since Chris Harris translated his internet fame into a Top Gear job, this sort of thing has been expected and probably necessary. It’s not clear yet how different the show will be from The Grand Tour. Even that show changed a lot from its Top Gear–in-a-wig early format to something a little more organic and road-trip based.
While I don’t know the Throttle House guys particularly well, in our limited interactions, they’ve seemed just as friendly and funny as they do on their own channel. If you’re worried about losing Throttle House, don’t worry, James says episodes will continue.
It’ll be nice to see what the fellas can do with a third host and a little bit more money.
Volvo Will Likely Have Its Worst Day In The Market Ever
It’s bad timing to release a negative quarterly earnings report this week, as pessimism towards both Bitcoin and AI seems to be on the rise. That’s just what Volvo did, though, and it smacked the company’s stock price as CNBC reports:
The automaker, which is owned by China’s Geely Holding, posted a substantial drop in fourth-quarter operating profit, citing the impact of U.S. tariffs, negative currency effects and weak demand.
Volvo Cars said fourth-quarter operating income excluding items affecting comparability came in at 1.8 billion Swedish krona ($200.46 million), reflecting a 68% drop compared to the same period a year prior.
“We have a very challenging market, especially in China, very tough competition. All of our European colleagues have the same problem,” Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson told CNBC’s “Europe Early Edition” on Thursday.
He added the discontinuation of EV incentives in the U.S. and China were also contributing to “a very challenging external environment.”
The previous worst day was an 11.5% drop, which makes the current level of about 24% look pretty bad.
Tata Motors Loses $386 Million On Jaguar Land Rover Shutdown
The cyberattack that shut down Jaguar Land Rover production for weeks was so devastating that the parent company, Tata Motors, lost $386 million in the last quarter alone.
As Bloomberg reports, Tata itself was slightly profitable, but its profits were dragged down by JLR:
JLR, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of the Indian parent’s sales, swung to a pretax loss of £310 million ($421 million).
The maker of Range Rover sport utility vehicles has been grappling with the fallout from last year’s cyberattack, which shut down production at all its factories for almost six weeks starting in September. The impact was so severe that the UK government was forced to step in with a £1.5 billion loan guarantee to support struggling suppliers.
Land Rover will probably be fine when all this gets sorted out, as it remains a popular and profitable brand. The future of Jaguar is a little murkier.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Bad Bunny will be playing the Super Bowl this weekend, and the song “Tití Me Preguntó” is one reason. It has over a billion views on YouTube. It’s a jam, and also a reminder that every culture shares one thing: Nosy aunties.
The Big Question
Besides a new Xterra, what else would you like to see from Nissan?
Top photo: NISMO Nick
Maybe they can figure out how to make a car that doesn’t need a $1500 Cat/exhaust manifold that needs to be replaced every 60k without cracking.It’s bad enough the CVT’s aren’t reliable but having to worry about Carbon Monoxide poisoning is just ridiculous.The quality control is just terrible.Take a look under the finishing trim for the license plate of any Maxima or Altima and you will see rust.My brother has a 2025 Titan that had rust forming in the drip rails.Nissan tried to deny repair until he called regional rep.Pay the extra 2k and buy a Honda or Toyota.
I think I just threw up in my mouth a little bit
Arnold in his Conan days wearing a Borat monokini and doc martins?
I can only see this as word salad, using “radical-looking” and “no-frills” in the same sentence. Still, after that I found the announcement of a new Frontier & Pathfinder on the same platform to be reassuring.
“The cyberattack that shut down Jaguar Land Rover production for weeks was so devastating that the parent company, Tata Motors, lost $386 million in the last quarter alone”
Sounds like someone was skimping on having proper online and offline backups.
This reminds me of an issue I’m dealing with right now.
I’m in the midst of a server migration in my company.
And some jackass I’m dealing with from India is insisting to me that “30 days of backups is the standard” when I know full well that having 7 years of backups is the norm… at least in North America. And it has been that way for decades.
And the Jackass-From-India I’m dealing with is acting like it’s completely a new thing.
And I’m wondering if JLR had their own Jackass-From-India tell them that having just 30 days of online data retention for backups was perfectly fine… but they didn’t have someone like me to firmly step in and shut that bullshit down.
And let me tell you, having proper backups costs FAR LESS than $386 million.
Does India just have lower standards for this stuff? I feel like this is something of a trend as far as India and IT is concerned, but that could be nasty subconscious bias of mine.
Let me make all my concessions that I have met and worked with many wonderful Indians stateside but have butted heads on several occasions with remote teams out of India as far as standards are concerned.
Just as the Germans would be horrified by the state of some of the cars that grace our American roads.
“Does India just have lower standards for this stuff? “
I actually have no idea on that. But it wouldn’t surprise me if they did.
It’s not just the Indians who can’t compute straight. Had run ins with many ‘experts’ from IBM, Accenture, DEC, HP and others who should have been fired with enthusiasm for their monumental inexperience and stupidity.
Why is the San so slow. Turns out they spec’d a single HBA for the entire array and other fails too numerous to cite.
Details of the breach – https://treblle.com/blog/jlr-breach-breakdown-analysis
This makes me so so sad.
Volvo is like VW, self inflicted wounds everywhere. They both have bright spots, but have fallen very far from their peaks imo.
develop the iDX 100%. Add a roll down rear window to the Xterra, and I’d consider it over my T4R. Bring me the Juke again with the turbo, variable AWD, and a 9spd auto, and I’d buy one for a 2nd time. Revamp a slightly larger Cube or a NV200 for mini-overlanding. And an aside, I love the three slots re-appearing in the Frontier’s grille.
https://www.hdcarwallpapers.com/nissan_idx_nismo_2-wallpapers
“what else would you like to see from Nissan?”
Nissan would do well to set themselves apart as “The Japanese EV Car Company” – while making Infiniti the sales channel for all ICE & Hybrid vehicles.
So RWD EV everything with optional AWD on the medium and large cars:
Micra 3 and 5 door supermini, Figaro Coupe/Cabrio
Sentra Sedan/Wagon & Pulsar Coupe/Liftback & Rogue SUV
Stanza Sedan/Wagon, Sylvia (2+2) Coupe/Liftback, 240Z (2 seats only), Prairie MPV & Murano CUV
Maxima Sedan/Wagon, Skyline Coupe, Quest MPV & Armada CUV
Throttle House guys are ok, their banter feels weirdly forced, maybe with more money they’ll get better writers. Right now I find them hard to watch, their dialogue is just obvious.
congrats on the hot take
Thanks!
I agree but I think they’ve gotten better lately, and I think having a third will help with their chemistry.
Chinese owned Volvo has “weak demand”? Let’s see, they got rid of wagons, moved to a giant Ipad dash that glitches and the price is also very high for SUVs with no features I can think of that make them stand out. Yup, that makes sense.
In fairness, part of the appeal of Volvo for a long time has been that they didn’t stand out. They were the thinking man’s Toyota Camry, if you will. But there’s a difference between your cars physically not standing out in a crowd, and your brand figuratively not standing out in a crowd.
Nissan kicks Toyota a**, I typed it and i mean it. I have had four Toyotas, three of them needed engines because they blew up, I have three Nissan pickups and they are rock solid other than the 86 Hardbody is disintegrating because of rust.
Nissan for the win.
I know a lot of off road guys that go toyota over nissan just for the aftermarket parts availability not necessarily because of the reliability.
As someone who worked for a Nissan dealer in the early 2000s and has owned Nissans in the past (2003 Frontier King Cab 4×4 SVE & 2016 Sentra S) and currently (2024 Frontier King Cab S 4×4,and looking at a used 370Z to add to the fleet) there are a few things I like Nissan to change.
1. Get rid of the piece of *** CVT transmissions,they damned near ruinated the company. They really need to have a talk with JATCO and their quality control issues.
2.Bring back the Maxima and return it to its roots as a 4DSC(including offering a manual transmission option),which was one of its core strengths. Offer something that differentiates it from the Camry and the Accord.
3. Resurrect the IDx concept and bring it into production,something for those who can be introduced to the Nissan brand now that the Versa is scheduled to be discontinued. The IDx was one of the best looking concepts ever built and brought memories of the Datsun era for numerous customers,including those who didn’t have a license yet. A nod to the company’s history and its future.
The return of the Xterra is a step in the right direction. Offer it as a no-nonsense affordable body on frame SUV. As it’s motto once was: “Everything you need,nothing you don’t!”
Most of the reason that Nissan is suffering is due to the horrid Jatco CVT. Even folks who don’t care much about cars know the reputation of that transmission. Nissan either needs to get Jatco to do better, or find another transmission supplier, or offer a 10/100 warranty on that transmission (which would probably bankrupt them in warranty costs).
For a long time, Nissan was the #2 automaker in Asia. They need to do *something* to get that number back.
I think Nissan could make a leap by just making it very, very clear to their customers that yes, you have to change the transmission fluid fairly regularly.
Those early JATCOs were all shit, but the main issue was having the manual and dealers tell their customers that the CVT was a sealed unit and had “lifetime fluid”. This was obviously, shit, and has nearly doomed the entire company in the US.
Wait, the Xterra is an EV? Why does it have a giant grille then?
Nissan has been lost for a long time, they should have produced the IDX concept from a few years back. We haven’t had cheap RWD sedans in a long time, and Nissan has already been making the best/cheap drift cars forever, so idk why they aren’t moving on that.
As for top gear/grand tour, idk man. Harris was a good choice because he is just a die hard auto enthusiast and super passionate, but I just never vibed with the Throttle House guys; they just never seemed entertaining to me. I’d kind of prefer just going with some new/nobodies vs people that already have a successful channel/brand.
I think it’s a hybrid.
We’ll see what the Throttle House guys are made of. I like their YT channel but they’re entering a whole new world of demands now.
Still, the far better Canada-based duo when compared to those idiots on the Straight Pipes. How old do you have to be before you stop creating vids for junior high kids?
My brother bought a stick shift, Pro4X Xterra new in 2013 or 2014. I remember thinking “Why in the world would you buy this over a 4Runner?” which was just facelifted then. And then I got to drive it. It was so much better than the 4Runner, besides being a bit plasticky on the inside and slightly more cramped rear seats. It drove better, the engine felt more powerful, it was equally as capable. Plus, it was quite a bit cheaper.
Crazy how Nissan somehow couldn’t capitalize of their arguably superior product. Negative brand perception crept in and people kept buying 4Runners and Jeeps apparently.
The biggest objective negative for the Xterra over the 4Runner was it’s payload capacity. 974 lbs vs 1,625 lbs. For every day use, not a big deal. For someone who likes to camp and is a sticker for reading the manual? Huge deal.
That should be in their ads “Nissan, when you can’t afford a Toyota.”
Everyone I know with a Nissan truck didn’t want to spend the extra money to get a Toyota truck.
“arguably superior product”
Eh…strawberry milkshake of death. The extra room and better interior quality of the 4Runner was worth the upcharge to me, and if I’m going to live with an old-school 4.0 liter and 5 speed automatic, I’ll choose the one without the reputation for mixing its engine coolant with the transmission fluid.
The available manual trans in the Nissan would avoid this and add the pep you mentioned, though. So that was a unique selling point.
Weird you mentioned the milkshake of death when he specifically mentioned the manual.
And interior quality was definitely arguable. Materials were harder in the Nissan, but I’m not sure that made them worse.
Why is that weird when the Xterra is being compared to the automatic-only 4runner and Goose is seemingly curious as to why the 4runner continued to sell? Most Xterras were auto.
And the 5-speed in the 4Runner is probably the biggest complaint about the 5th gen. So sure, it’s more reliable, it’s still a garbo transmission (at least tuning and paired to the engine).
The prevention is pretty dang easy. You can bypass it, which sounds sketchy but has good results unless you do heavy towing. That’s basically free. The radiator replacement is also relatively cheap. Or you can just add a separate transmission cooler, so then you can abandon the one in the combined radiator.
It’s only expensive if you actually make it to the SMOD.
Tuning is apparent on the test drive and if you don’t like it you know this before signing the paperwork.
Having to bypass your oem trans cooler and replace the radiator (and perhaps entire transmission if you don’t notice it in time)? Well, too late to back out so it’s time to either get upset or craft the apologetics, depending on your inclination.
I’m aware of that issue, but if you notice, the commenter’s brother bought a stick shift one.
I’ve been reading up on the Frontier issues since it’s in the odd venn diagram of wants that I have: Manual transmission, crank windows, heated seats.
Yeah, I noticed that Mike. But the commenter is comparing overall market success of the 4runner and Xterra, and 100% of the former and probably 85-90% of the latter were automatics.
The radiator in the Xterra was supposedly changed in 2011 to prevent the issue from occurring. Anything post 2011 model year in Xterra and Frontier should not have an issue with mixing.
I had a college roommate who had a supercharger xterra with a stick. I loved driving that thing. What a great vehicle.
Sentra hatchback along the lines of the ’80s Sentra (and earlier Datsun 210) fastback wagons.
What I want to see from Nissan.
Awesome Commercials.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4HQmuNEZak
Full-size seems like it will be redundant, given the existing Armada and the Pathfinder going BoF too. Sure Toyota is saturated that way with their offerings, but they have been continuously there and have more of a reputation.
I get the feeling the Pathfinder/QX60 are going BoF just because Nissan needs to retire some of the old parts but won’t/can’t develop a platform for that size and/or modernize it for the newer powertrain/make a new one. But if it achieves comfort and efficiency goals I don’t think anyone will care either.
2028? I guess remind me in two years that a new Xterra is on the horizon. The new Sentra looks pretty nice for a cheap car.
Nissan Needs to either dip into the nostalgia pool and make a proper Straight six sport sedan series(Skyline) that is priced and spec’d similar to the G70, or maybe they should just use the basic underpinnings to compete directly with all of the Korean G-Wagons.
I would not hate an AWD 2 door GTR replacement, they could use a good halo car, but I don’t imagine they have the expendable cash at the moment.
If minivans circle back to being cool again, reviving the Nissan Quest would be pretty cash money 🙂
I always thought the Quest was one of the ugliest cars on the road.
I was probably Nissan enemy #1 5-10 years ago. Nissans of that era sucked. Sucked super hard. People defending Ghosn seem to forget exactly why the brand is so damaged.
Honestly, right now Nissan is turning out some pretty decent and even somewhat unique cars. I genuinely think the latest Pathfinder is a nice car, and can be had for far less than it’s competitors. The new Sentra gives the compact econobox crowd something inexpensive to buy. The new Kicks seems pretty nice for what it is. The new Leaf has a ton of potential. These don’t seem to be terrible cars. A new Xterra is exactly what they need, a Nissan that people actually want, so that dealers can sell people the Nissans they might actually need.
Nissans on-going turn around has honestly been pretty astounding. I’ve been wishing for something similar out of Chrysler for nearly two decades, and man, it seems like they sparked something but it always fizzles out after just a single model and then they left to stagnant for years.
Nissan at least seems to understand that to dig themselves out of the hole they’re in, they need to design, build, and sell cars. I actually think they have a chance to turn it around.
The design/build/sell strategy seems lost on Stellantis.
“Besides a new Xterra, what else would you like to see from Nissan?”
A return to the scrappy 90s where they made Honda/Toyota alternatives with a bit of driving verve and the quality was still good. Ditching the CVT and variable compression nonsense would be an important start.
Toyota’s stumble on the new 4Runner gives Nissan an opening, but they’re showing up awfully late and their batting average has been poor so I’m somewhat optimistic but ready for disappointment.
As someone who drove an early Gen II Xterra for over a decade as a daily, modified it for off roading and dirt touring, conquered trails in Moab, and basically beat on it like it owed me money every single day – I’m skeptical of Nissan’s claims. For one thing, they are calling it a “full size truck”. The Xterra was the spiritual successor to the OG Hardbody style Pathfinder when that nameplate started to get watered down into what it is today: a unibody, independent suspension, CVT-powered minivan.
The Xterra was always that sweet spot in size, long enough to be stable off road, but short and narrow enough to be nimble on the trail. Tough as an anvil, but civilized enough for a highway road trip.
I’m not saying Nissan can’t do it, but if they are falling into the trap of “more is more” then they have already lost the plot. They need to stick to a mid-size vehicle and focus on getting their VDC system to work off the pavement; that has always been Nissan’s failing in the dirt. Jeep isn’t nearly as reliable, but credit where credit is due, those things absolutely shine in low-traction environments – from the throttle mapping to transmission control all the way to traction control at the wheels. And this is coming from an old-school “Mechanical lockers and no computers between me and the tires” kind of off roader (at least my old Xterra had a true-off button for the VDC).
Fair points, I’m quite curious what this will end up being.
I will oddly defend the Pathfinder for a moment by saying that it in fact has a 9-speed torque converter automatic. No CVT in the current Pathfinder. Thank God.
I stand corrected – but the Pathfinder is still little more than a FWD-based AWD minivan today and an insult to the nameplate.
No arguments there!
But yeah the Xterra took over and the fact that it’s taken Nissan this long to revive it is… well at least they’re finally trying again.
From Nissan?
1600 or 2000 roadster. Friend had one in college.
Excited to see what the Throttle House guys do with a bigger budget. They have great energy together and are genuinely informative.