Luke Aker’s 1996 Nissan Maxima

Film-maker Luke Aker decided to put up his beloved 1996 Nissan Maxima on Craiglist with a humorous video accompanying it - "Luxury Defined" as he put it.



It was so good, Nissan actually decided to buy it and later restored it to it's former glory and will be displayed at their North America’s headquarters.

Nissan came out with an equally funny video to mark the occasion:



Auto companies do have a sense of humour.

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Nissan Datsun Go crash test results

The Nissan Datsun Go car which is aimed at the Indian market was recently tested for safety. The car failed spectacularly getting 0 out of possible 5 stars. The car comes without air bags and looking at the video of the test, it would not have done much good even if the car had been fitted with them. If the car can get this badly damaged at just 40mph speeds, I am just wondering what would happen at UK highway speeds of 70mph.

MNCs need to stop pushing lousy products into the emerging markets. And India definitely needs to have some minimum safety standards put in place.

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Would you like to own a used Olympics BMW?

Some great news for all Beemer fans here in the UK. BMW plans to sell off most of their Olympic fleet cars. This includes the 320d and 700 520d EfficientDynamics as well as the new 1 Series ActiveE electric vehicles, MINI E (electric vehicle) and 5 Series ActiveHybrids.

The great news is that there are more cars then their dealers here in the UK can distribute and more than 50% might go up for auction, where some lucky fellow might be able to get them at a bargain (or maybe not). No cofirmation yet as these are all rumours.

It's about time to upgrade my old car for a new one and a Beemer would be ideal. Not sure whether I can afford the Olympic cars even though they are used. I would love to try out the 1 Series ActiveE electric vehicles or Minie Es.

An electric car is an option I am considering for my daily commute to work as we have free recharging points in our car park. I was really jealous when I learnt that several bloggers in Malaysia had been given Nissan Leaf cars to review for a few weeks. That's another car I would love to try out.

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GE Joins Hands with Nissan

GE and Nissan has announced a joint, two-year R&D collaboration to speed up the creation of a reliable charging infrastructure for electric vehicles like the Nissan LEAF.



They plan to focus their resources on two key research areas:

1. integrating electric vehicles with homes and buildings and
2. investigating EV charging dynamics and the future impact on the electricity grid once millions of EVs are on the road.

I found it really interesting to learn that 25 percent of the world’s electricity is generated or distributed by equipment designed and made by GE,;

For more information read the complete GE Report.

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The Nissan Land Glider

One of my friends who works with Proton, the Malaysian auto maker mentioned that the Peugeot BB1 concept looks like the Nissan Land Glider.

Nissan Landglider at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show

The Nissan Land Glider concept was unveiled at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show. Similar to the BB1, the Land Glider also has a motorcycle-inspired Tandem architecture. The rear view mirrors have been replaced by cameras and monitor. Another innovation was the non-contact charging system that enables it to be recharged at any wireless charging station.

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First Leaf electric car goes to Nashville family

According to a news report, a family in Nashville, Tennessee, US, has become the first family to receive keys to the much talked about full electric car - the Nissan Leaf. This car won the Car of the year 2011 - the World's first electric car to win this award.



Actually the report might be wrong because the first person to get the Leaf in the US is Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, the official spokesperson of Nissan Leaf.

The Leaf will be available in the UK in March next year and will cost £23990 after the £5000 Govt. discount.

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More good news for the British auto industry

Following the news of Jaguar Land Rover announcing a net profit and re-entry of Lotus into F1, there is more good news for the British auto industry.

The British Government recently announced £381 mil. support for Ford motor and Nissan and has extended a £20.7 mil. grant to Nissan. Nissan plans to manufacture their Leaf electric car for the European car market at it's plant in Sunderland here in the UK.

Nissan Leaf at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show: Tennen-Gas

For your info, the Leaf is a five-seater hatchback and said to have a range of 100 miles with top speed of more than 90 mph.

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Nissan Leaf unveiled

Nissan unveiled their much awaited electric car called the Leaf yesterday. In their words, it is the "World's THE WORLD'S first electric car designed for affordability and real-world requirements".

The hatchback will be launched in late 2010. It comfortably seats five adults and has a range of more than 160km (100 miles).


In case you are wondering about the name,

The "LEAF" name is a significant statement about the car itself. Just as leaves purify the air in nature, so Nissan LEAF purifies mobility by taking emissions out of the driving experience.

The car is powered by laminated compact lithium-ion batteries, which generate power output of over 90kW, while its electric motor delivers 80kW/280Nm.

or more information about the car, check out their press release.

However, they failed to actually say how much the car will actually cost.

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Nissan conversion

Roshaizul who blogs at autolure recently sent me some pics of a Nissan Cefiro converted to the Skyline R34 by a young Malaysian car Modifier.




More about the car on the blog post "Nissan Cefiro Skyline R34".

Thanks for the pics Roshaizul.

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The Nissan Z tour

The Nissan Z has developed quite a following and as a warm up to the upcoming launch of the all new 370Z, Nissan is having a rally across the US. You can Follow the Z North American Rally which is currently in Washington D.C.. This will be followed by a stop in Gaithersburg, Maryland on December 11th.

Check out the new Z promo video clip:

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Buying a used car - my experience 1

Buying a used car is a tiring and frustrating task. I have learnt that over the course of thiese few day. Ever since my car broke down along the A14 and I found out that repairing the engine would cost me more than the value of the car, I have been looking for a good used car.

Besides looking at the newspapers (where I didn't find anything I liked) I also went to the Auto Trader site. Initially I looked for private sellers listing their Toyota Avensis but all the good ones (read best prices) had already been sold. It's amazing how popular this model is here in the UK. My next choice was the Nissan Primera because of the good review. I usually refer to Honest John which lists1200 comprehensive car reviews. Coming back to the Nissan Primera, it was my choice because it receives quite favourable reviews. However, every single one I liked on the Auto Trader site was beyond my budget (which is not really much to start with).

A relative living in Birmingham gave me some leads around Birmingham. My friend Ishan kindly consented to drive me around. My first car was a Nissan Primera at a car dealer in Solihul. I didn't like the car the first time I laid my eyes on it. It was in a really bad shape and when I gave it a test drive, it had a really unbearable odour inside. I don't need to tell you my decision.

Next was a 1.8 Turbo Diesel in Birmingham. I really liked it but the guy who was selling it really talked a lot and it was really suspicious because the price was too cheap. He seemed over eager to get rid of the car as well. Never-the-less I decided to buy the car and gave him £70 as deposit after agreeing on a price. However, I just couldn't get rid of this nagging feeling. 

I had passed over the details of the car to my wife and I didn't know it but she had done a check on the car's history on the RAC site. You have to pay £5 but you get to learn some important details about the car. In this case, she discovered that the car had previously been involved in an accident and had been recordered as a total loss by the insurance company. It was listed as a category D "Vehicle damaged but repairable - the insurer decided not to repair". Not all category D cars are bad but I was not willing to take the chance and turned back at once. The guy agreed to give me back my deposit and he looked really miserable and I pitied him, but I had no choice.

Now it was back to the Auto Trader site and I widened up my option. I started looking for Ford Mondeos, VW Passats, etc.

To be continued in next post...

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The Nissan Sylphy

One of Nissan's best selling cars - the Sylphy has finally reached Malaysia. It was launched last week by Edaran Tan Chong Motor Sdn Bhd, Nissan's official distributor in Malaysia.



It features an alluminium MR20DE 4 cylinder engine with continuously variable transmission (CVT).

The 2-litre executive sedan is locally assembled and is priced approx. RM112,800 between and RM116,800 on-the-road. It will be available in 6 colours.

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Nissan to build new model at Sunderland plant

According to latest reports, Japanese carmaker Nissan will build a new compact car at its Sunderland plant in the UK. That is good news as it means more jobs. At present the Sunderland factory also makes the Note.

It also plans to move manufacturing of the Micra to Chennai in India.

According to Carlos Ghosn:

"By delivering on tough commitments, our employees at Sunderland have demonstrated our plant can be a globally competitive centre for the production of high-value products. We are encouraged by the proactive support shown by the British government to decide new products for the Sunderland plant."

Read the full report here: NISSAN ANNOUNCES NEW VEHICLE FOR SUNDERLAND PLANT

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