I had suspicious about their future when my dealer tech friend said he'd been "promoted" to remote work.
How does a mechanic do his job remotely? Think of it as a high end helpline. Tech gets stuck and calls him.
But he had more time working for infinity and Nissan than anyone at his dealership, and all the certifications offered since 02 or so.
I should try to reach out to him and see what that looks like for him career wise.
Nissan is selling loans, not cars. cars just happen to be the way to get there. It's like Kay Jewelers, they're not a jewelry store, the're selling loans.
I just had the pleasure(?) of living with a new Altima for a week. It had 500 miles on it when we picked it up from the airport. It was nice enough, and perfectly generic. The only redeeming feature of the car I can think of was the color, a very nice blue. Other than that it was pretty meh.. And the warning lights for when a car is in your blind spot are inside the car where the mirror blank is, instead of out on the mirror like every other car, ever. Damned annoying, my wife hated it. It was perfectly ok, but our 5 year old Equinox pretty much does everything better, and with the CVT issues they've had in the past i can't see myself recommending them to anyone for a purchase.
In reply to 06HHR (Forum Supporter) :
I thought the Nissan blind spot warnings inside the car were pretty clever - they're more likely to be within the driver's vision and easier to see in bright sunlight.
That said, my mom has a 2018 Pathfinder with the explodey CVT (I tried my best to warn her, but she fell in love with one of these big super-bland road-couches from renting one, this one's been pampered by the PO at least) and the worst thing I've noticed about it is the hilariously bad ergonomics, it reminds me of my Samurai in that it seems to have been designed to be driven by someone with the body proportions of a gorilla. If I pull the steering wheel all the way out, put the seat back as upright as I can comfortably make it, and move the seat forward so that my knees barely have a hint of breathing room to the dash (especially near the trans tunnel), the steering wheel is still further away than ideal.
In reply to GameboyRMH :
The brightness was actually part of the problem, especially at night. I did all the driving and pretty quickly got used to it, but for her as a passenger it was a bit disorienting, a flashing yellow light that just pops on and off at random (to her, she's not watching the mirrors) it was annoying at best.
And, the ergonomics were kind of weird, when I had the seat adjusted for my legs I couldn't get the seatback reclined in a comfortable position, the detents were either too far back or up too close, i was leaning forward driving like GRM shifter guy for the whole trip.
I could see how interior blind spot warning lights could be useful (ignoring the too bright aspect) in heavy rain and snow situations, where they of course would be of more critical use.
Steve_Jones said:Nissan is selling loans, not cars. cars just happen to be the way to get there. It's like Kay Jewelers, they're not a jewelry store, the're selling loans.
I never really thought of it that way, but it makes total sense. The people who buy a Nissan bread and butter car (Altima, Rogue, etc...) aren't typically car people. They want brand new transportation and don't have the credit to get a Honda or such, so Nissan puts them in a toaster with a high interest loan.
Steve_Jones said:Nissan is selling loans, not cars. cars just happen to be the way to get there. It's like Kay Jewelers, they're not a jewelry store, the're selling loans.
For a long time, maybe even still today, GM's profit center was GMAC.
aircooled said:I could see how interior blind spot warning lights could be useful (ignoring the too bright aspect) in heavy rain and snow situations, where they of course would be of more critical use.
A lot of those systems don't work when the sensors are covered with snow.
I first encountered this with... a Q60. At least the car's owner was understanding. "It stops working when the sensors are covered with frozen slush... that makes sense." I was geared up to be on the receiving end of a tirade and then he went all reasonable on me 
NickD said:Nissan also jumped out of the full-size truck market, with the Titan being discontinued at the end of this year. Seems like a foolish move, when 1/2-ton trucks are red-hot currently, but they said sales were poorer than the Frontier. Probably not helped by the Titan being a bit of a dinosaur, since the underlying truck dated back to 2016, with a facelift in 2020. And I don't think the weird 5/8-ton diesel Titan XD did them any favors
IIRC, Nissan sold as many Titans in a year as Ford sold F-trucks in a day.
Look up the sales numbers, they're comically bad. Like some years they barely broke 10,000. That's halo-model territory, not mass production.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
It’s close. Just some numbers from 2023 U.S. sales:
Nissan sold 19,189 Titans, up from 15,063 the previous year.
Ford sold more than 750,000 F-Series trucks–so more than 2000 per calendar day and nearly 3000 per work day. 
A year or so ago, one of our local Nissan dealers sold the franchise and remained as a used-only lot. He said it was more profitable to do so. Profit margins on new Nissans were that poor.
Thinking about this some more, I’m a bit surprised that the company that basically gave the world the mass-produced EV has since become such a small player in that segment.
Q3 2024 sales figures for the U.S. market:
In reply to David S. Wallens :
I'm pretty sure that at least 7000 of those 2024s Nissan Leafs ended up in Vermont. I was up in Rutland at the end of September and practically every other car on the road was a new Nissan Leaf. It really shocked me, coming from NY, where I don't think I've seen a Leaf ever. The Subaru Solterras were all over the place as well, but in a Venn Diagram of EV Owners and Subaru Owners, Vermont is just the middle of that graph, so that's to be expected.
Does anyone know if this also effects infinity? My kid just started as a tech at a local Infinity dealer after the ford dealer in town closed.
In reply to No Time :
I can't imagine Infiniti is doing well either. That brand has felt like a rudderless ship practically since it's inception.
NickD said:In reply to No Time :
I can't imagine Infiniti is doing well either. That brand has felt like a rudderless ship practically since it's inception.
The Q45 was cool when they brought that out, what was it, 1989? Since then, there's been the G35, and the, ummm, yeah.
The 1st generation leaf was a bland car that became the poster child for rapid battery degradation.
ddavidv said:A year or so ago, one of our local Nissan dealers sold the franchise and remained as a used-only lot. He said it was more profitable to do so. Profit margins on new Nissans were that poor.
There is $543 between MSRP and Dealer cost (including holdback) on a 2025 Kicks. There is not other "magical dealer money" like some think, if you sell it for MSRP, you made $543, floorplan will eat that up in 90 days
Pete. (l33t FS) said:Steve_Jones said:Nissan is selling loans, not cars. cars just happen to be the way to get there. It's like Kay Jewelers, they're not a jewelry store, the're selling loans.
For a long time, maybe even still today, GM's profit center was GMAC.
GMAC is now Ally Financial, independed of GM. That said, GM is Ally's largest single customer.
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