Nissan faces uphill drive with new sports car

Dan Carney • E-mail

In this age of Internet chat room “discussions” hypothetical debates abound. One that has surfaced lately asks whether the Nissan GT-R — the supercar introduced to Americans at this week’s Los Angeles Auto Show — can circulate the Nurburgring racetrack in Germany faster than a Porsche 911 Turbo.

For car enthusiasts, it’s a question worth debating. The GT-R made its first public appearance this fall at the Tokyo motor show, and buzz has heralded its North American debut this week in Los Angeles, including rumors of remarkable track speeds.

While the question of whether a Nissan is faster than a Porsche will be settled as soon as a car magazine gets hold of a GT-R to do with as it pleases, a bigger question remains: Will supercar customers in America write $70,000 checks to a mainstream, high-volume Japanese manufacturer when the GT-R goes on sale here next summer?

At the heart of the issue is whether the Nissan brand holds any clear meaning for consumers. The company insists that its credible history in sports car racing has established its bona fides as a carmaker for “gearheads,” and Bill Bosley, vice president of Nissan North America, asserts that the automaker is “viewed as a company that has performance as it heritage.” Maybe, but that racing success was always in racing series that were under the radar of most sports fans.

Nissan makes an equally authentic claim that it’s the new force in safety technology, on a par with Volvo. Don’t laugh: Nissan really does have impressive new technologies and a commendable goal to eliminate traffic fatalities in its vehicles. But as much as Nissan is accomplishing here, few consumers — maybe none — would equate Nissan with safety the way they do with Volvo.

Go off-roading with Nissan’s truck experts, and you’ll quickly find that the company’s trucks and SUVs not only have Land Rover-like capability, they also have some actual Land Rover technology used under license. These machines can slog through the nastiest, slipperiest, steepest conditions drivers are ever likely to find, but who imagines the next Discovery Channel documentary on the wildebeest will be shot from the window of a Nissan Frontier instead of Land Rover Defender?

To sell the GT-R in America, someone is going to have to explain to consumers what Nissan stands for. Wanting to be Toyota is not the bedrock on which a company can be built. After trying that approach, Subaru decided to become the outdoorsy all-wheel-drive company and Mazda decided to become the sports car company. Whither Nissan? Whatever the answer, consumers will need to be convinced.

“Everybody thought they would put [the GT-R] in the Infiniti showroom because that is the kind of customer who can pony up the $70,000,” observed Joe Phillipi, president of AutoTrends Consulting, who tracks the automotive industry. “These buyers are going to demand a lot of special treatment.”

When people reach the point that they can afford a dream car, few of them want onlookers to conclude that they have only almost made it big and had to settle for a cheap Asian knockoff. And in addition to the European image, there is the matter of properly deferential treatment by the dealers’ sales and service staffs.

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