Nissan Pulsar NX From US Sent to China...

A lonely old Nissan Pulsar NX sitting in the dusty streets of Beijing.  According to the author of the article it appears to be a US (or North American of some kind) produced vehicle due to the size of the license plate mounting hardware.  Additionally the author also dates the Chinese license plate to the early 80s so he believes the car may have been brought over to China some 30 years ago at this point.  Good to see it still running...but why would a Chinese citizen import such a vehicle from the States?? 

Still...its a cool looking little car with an understated spoiler and pop up headlights.  Wish I had one here!

Nissan Pulsar spotted in China...

Nissan Juke Nismo RS to Debut at LA Auto Show

Coming in late November through early December is the 2013 LA Auto Show where Nissan will debut at least two new NISMO vehicles.

The only one confirmed at this time is the Juke NISMO RS.  This now makes four distinct models of the Juke that are available.  You have your regular Juke (in all its associated trim levels), the Juke NISMO, the Juke-R and now the Juke NISMO RS.

The standard Juke, Juke NISMO and Juke NISMO RS are those that are or will be found at your local dealership while the Juke-R is the highly limited production, half a million dollar Frankenstein project that sees the transplant of a GT-R driveline into the standard chassis.  The normal Juke comes with 188hp while the NISMO version saw a bump to 197hp along with a host of suspension and body tweaks to make it stand out.

The NISMO RS to be introduced in LA will take its performance to another level beyond that of the "plain"  NISMO but not anywhere near that of the Juke-R.  Though details are scant, an increase in power to significantly beyond 200hp (in theory to match that of the Mazdaspeed 3 which puts out some 263hp) along with an upgraded cooling system, suspension and aero designs are all likely.  In my dreams they would kit it out like a true stage rally car but I'm betting they still focus on the street handling nature of the platform.  At the very least they hopefully offer a manual transmission to be paired with the AWD version as in the NISMO (non-RS) model the manual transmission is only available with the FWD model leaving anyone wanting AWD relegated to letting a computer row the gates.

Unconfirmed by Nissan is what the second NISMO model will be at the LA Auto Show.  Some say a NISMO GT-R...I say it is a Nissan Versa hatchback with the NISMO label since they already offer a Nissan Pulsar (Versa here in the States) SSS elsewhere in the world and doing some minor tweaks to that version would easily give NISMO another model to its "performance" lineup.  This version would contain the same 1.6L turbo engine seen in the Juke, leading to all sorts of high hp possibilities for the small hatchback.

Finally...

Nissan returned again to the NAIAS this week with a big display.

Nissan introduced the concept vehicle for the next generation Murano--the Resonance, showing off an even more swoopy design with a roof that appears to "float".  The rear looks a bit like the Lexus RX series from the side in my opinion.  The design doesn't look like that much of a departure from the current Murano to turn off may buyers so this looks like another win for Nissan.

Secondly Nissan introduced the new Versa Note.  Just called the Note in other markets this little hatchback will be priced in the low teens, get 40 mpg and be manufactured in Mexico.

The other news is that Nissan continues to confirm the production of a small (read sub-Z, sub-GT-R) sportscar.  It confirmed to Car and Driver that the design will be of a "love it or hate if" variety (something as radical as the Juke it sounds like) and the "concept" upon which the model will be based, will be released in the next twelve months.  Nissan also stated that it would be a "guilt free" car which in Nissan's world means an electric powertrain (or hybrid?).  Personally I can't wait.  A Nissan sportscar that might be cheap enough to convince my wife would be a great next car for me can't be beat.