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
“Besides a new Xterra, what else would you like to see from Nissan?”
Attractive, affordable*, fun to drive, hyper fuel efficient range extended hybrids with knobs, sliders, buttons and switches.
*Affordable = low cash price, not low payments spread over 6,000 months.
Aaaaaand, Nissan dealers will kill the Xterra with insane markups, just like the 400Z.
No one else wants to see a revival of the CrossCab?
I have an idea for Nissan: fill a market void. Not so much a niche, but rather a segment that has been underserved for years. When’s the last time anyone in the US saw a hatchback that was worth buying? Minis are cute, but they don’t have a great reputation for reliability or practicality. The Golf has been the king of the hatch basically since it came out in the ’70s, but VW as a whole has been on the downhill for some time, dragging the Golf down with it. The Corolla hatch is a perfectly good car, but the styling is a bit marmite, and likewise for it’s distant cousins, the Mazda3 and Subaru Impreza. The Civic hatchback gave way to a liftback. The Kia K4 seems intriguing, but it’s not actually out yet. And that’s about it.
Perhaps better still, they could make it an EV. They’d go from having weak competition, to effectively no competition (well, aside from Mini). I know EV sales have softened, but really, how many electric crossovers & pickups were people ever going to buy anyway? They’re big, they’re heavy, and they take a long time to charge. A hatchback that could use a much smaller battery would make a lot of sense for a lot of people.
Good for the Throttle House boys! I love their channel and can’t wait to see the new Grant Tour episodes! Who’s the other guy?
He’s an interesting character, he got big doing a lot of enthusiastic train content wearing a wide angle gopro pointed at his face. I think it’s a good oddball pick to shake up the Throttle House guys, kind of a James May type.
Something basic under the Z to compete with Mazda Miata. Just make it a little bigger so 6’2 humans fit.
Perhaps they could give it a letter name as well… I hear S is available…
It wouldn’t ever happen, but a new Datsun 810 – a midsize RWD coupe/sedan/wagon with a straight six and Coke bottle styling
The new TGT hosts have been an open secret for a while, but having Clarkson do that short, coupled with Thomas and James’ typical humor (Thomas hijacked their IG announcement and made it about an Alfa he purchased) just makes me happy to see it back on.
Throttle House has felt like a spiritual successor to Top Gear to me for a few years now and I enjoy watching those two review cars and do the road trips. I know nothing of the train guy, but people who do tell me he’s pretty funny. I think the show is in good hands, and while it’ll probably take a season or two to find its footing and the three to develop chemistry, I’m excited to see where it goes.
I would like the old V6 in the new Murano with regular automatic.
Am I the only one — after all if the talk on ICE being at the Super Bowl — expecting Vanilla Ice to join Bad Bunny on stage? Perhaps rollin’? In his five-point-oh?
Yup you definitely connected some dots
Sadly it didn’t happen. But that was still one of the best halftime shows to date. Clearly a performer who understood the moment and delivered the goods.
Was driving on the freeway today when my hood latch popped – fortunately the secondary latch (the one you need to open with you hand) held. It was up a couple of inches and catching a lot of wind and chattering. Was able to get off at the next exit and work my way home on surface roads.
A trip to the parts department of a local dealership and 10 minutes wrenching and I’m back in business.
Great job, glad you’re safe and it was so cheap. Did you ever figure out why it happened in the first place?
Thanks, @Space. The spring that applies pressure to keep the latch engaged just gave out after more than a decade . . . this brutal cold spell in the NE is probably doing a number on all things mechanical was the last straw. Plus I’ve been opening and closing the hood lately to hook up the trickle charger.
“Besides a new Xterra, what else would you like to see from Nissan?”
Basically a coherent brand ethos. Are they selling on price? On style? Performance per dollar? Niche’s others aren’t participating in?
Big Altima Energy?
BAE is decidedly not coherent.
You have a point.