Nissan 200SX
The Nissan 200SX has been absent for more than 10 years now. But with the arrival of Toyota’s small sportscar FT-86 concept, there are rumors that Nissan may be reviving the once extremely popular 200SX lineage. Let’s hope so because if they can get some of the GTR and 370Z DNA into the 200SX, Nissan may have another winner. Here’s some concept images that have surfaced through the years.
Have your say in the forum and check out the images below.
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Nissan has an upcoming small car in Europe and they’re aiming at putting some fun and inspiration into the segment. From the images below it’ll definitely put something into the segment, but will it be what drivers would want to buy over the well-established leaders such as Volkswagen’s Golf and Ford’s Focus?
Have your say in the forum and check out the images and Nissan press release below.
 Nissan Juke Teaser Image |
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 Nissan Juke Front View |
 Nissan Juke Rear View |
Nissan Europe Press Release
The Nissan Juke will go on sale from October, following its global public premiere at Geneva Motor Show in March.
The Nissan Juke will inject some much-needed dynamism into the small car segment, offering European car-buyers an alternative to the traditional, uninspiring small hatchback. As the fourth Crossover in Nissan’s European range, “Juke” reinforces the brand’s pioneering Crossover leadership in Europe.
The car was inspired by the Qazana concept car that received such a warm reception at the 2009 Geneva Motor Show, and will fit into the Nissan range between the Note compact family car and the Qashqai crossover.
Nissan’s customer research identified a large proportion of European small and compact car buyers whose needs are not met by what they perceive to be uninspiring and unoriginal options available to them where copycat hatchbacks dominate.
The Nissan Juke has been designed and developed to give customers an alternative to the traditional small hatchback in Europe.
“We know that there are a lot of customers looking for a car which combines striking design, agile handling and driving pleasure, user friendly technology but not at the expense of practicality and convenience. These unique attributes will allow Juke to occupy a unique corner of the European market,” said Simon Thomas, Nissan’s European Senior Vice President for Sales and Marketing.
“Nissan caught the mood of the European car-buying public with Qashqai crossover and we’ve worked hard to study the market in the same way for Juke to be sure we meet the needs of European customers. We’re confident that Juke will bring a new generation of customers to Nissan, in the same way that Qashqai did. Our philosophy of challenging conventions with Qashqai has been a huge success. We’ve just reached the 500,000 landmark and we’re applying many of the lessons learned from Qashqai to Juke. We’re confident we’ll have another success on our hands,” added Simon Thomas.
Juke will be manufactured alongside the Qashqai, Qashqai+2 and Note at Nissan’s state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Sunderland, Great Britain.
With the introduction of Murano in the US in 2003, the Crossover concept was introduced to consumers who were looking for a vehicle that combined the dynamic design and handling characteristics of a passenger car, but with the added benefit of all-wheel drive traction and the improved visibility of a raised seating position, but without the boxy shape of an SUV.
In Europe, the introduction in 2007 of Nissan’s Qashqai, heralded the mainstream introduction of the Crossover concept for the first time, providing an alternative to the traditional C-Segment offering. In just over two-and-a-half years, and with a half-a-million buyers in Europe, customer feedback shows they love its combination of understated, but sophisticated design which combines the lower body robustness of an SUV, but the upper body profile of a passenger car. Such has been the demand for Qashqai that production was increased at the plant in Sunderland, UK, to meet supply. The Qashqai was followed by the introduction of the stretched wheelbase version, the Qashqai+2, offering extra interior space allowing the inclusion of a third row of folding seats to meet the needs of larger active families who need extra space or accommodation.
Before Nissan released the final version of the NV200 Van last month, there was the NV200 concept car that came out in 2007. Heres a few pictures and some information on the theme of the design from Nissan.
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Images courtesy of Nissan
A typical small van is little more than an empty box on wheels: functional, certainly, but seldom innovative or smart. But designers from Nissan Design Center (NDC) in Japan and Nissan Design Europe in the UK had other ideas. In creating NV200, the joint team have devised a concept that could revolutionise the small van market.
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Considering it’s a Fuel Cell Vehicle and probably weighs more than a regular X-Trail, a time of 11 minutes and 58 seconds isn’t that bad. Also it’s the only Fuel Cell Vehicle ever track tested on the Nurburgring. So Nissan and Greenpeace should both be proud – a fast cross-over Fuel Cell Vehicle that’s friendly on the environment!
The X-Trail FCV runs purely on electricity produced by the hydrogen fuel cell stack and so emits zero emissions and runs without so much as a whisper. The regular gas drinking engine has been replaced by an equally powerful electric motor that produces up to 120 horsepower. Although some of the uphill sections were challenging for the X-Trail FCV it was still able to complete the run and clock-in a respectable time to boot. Toyota and Honda may take their own Fuel Cell Vehicles to the track, not wanting to be out done by Nissan.
Nissan, or Mr. Ghosn, may be taking things a little too obsessively and personally with all the “Porsche Killer” hype that Nissan is running with these days. There are rumors circulating that a GT-R based Cross-Over SUV may be in the works to challenge the Porsche Cayenne. The GT-R already beat the 911 Turbo around the Nurburgring, and the upcoming GT-R based Infiniti Sedan may go head-to-head with the Porsche Panamera. And it’s great that Nissan is working on utilizing the GT-R platform for use on future models, but for some it’s just a bit hard to imagine and appreciate an SUV with the looks of the GT-R. The Porsche Cayenne, which is based off of Porsche’s line of potent sports cars, wasn’t exactly met with warm reviews about its’ looks when it came out….and it still isn’t. So imagine a tall and wide SUV with the profile and mug of a GT-R? No thanks, really.
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In what could be the first time a GT-R was redesigned into a Skyline, Nissan is considering a four door GT-R for Infiniti. Previous iterations of the Skyline spawned the GT-R variant – run-of-the-mill Skylines were shortened and added considerable upgrades to turn it into the Godzillas we all loved. But if Nissan pushes through with the plan, it’ll be the first time that a GT-R is the mule for a future “Skyline”.
Maybe it wont be as much a Skyline as the current Infiniti Skyline is. Possibly it will carry a different nameplate and be marketed towards a different crowd. Or it may just be the future replacement of the current Skyline. Whatever Nissan decides on, fanboys all over will be happy if it rolls off the assembly line. And considering the concept art below, a stretched GT-R looks pretty good. Although the first picture sort of resembles the Chrysler 300 – sort of, and is reminiscent of the R34 Skyline sedan.
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