NisFan
05-10-2006, 04:08 AM
Link to Autoweek: Nissan Versa (http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060509/FREE/60508009/1024/LATESTNEWS)
Bit Bigger
Nissan's Versa is a slightly larger competitor in the growing B-segment
By LINDSAY CHAPPELL | AUTOMOTIVE NEWS
AutoWeek | Published 05/09/06, 10:38 am et
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LYNCHBURG, Tennessee -- When Nissan North America Inc. began moving its sedan line upscale a couple of years ago, it created room at the bottom for a small, entry-level car at an opportune time.
Enter the Versa. Just as gasoline prices are jumping and the population of young buyers is swelling, Nissan is introducing the Versa for sale in July.
The basics: The Versa is the first U.S. product to arrive from Nissan's global vehicle development alliance with Renault. The car will be based on a small-car platform that is expected to spawn new products for both automakers around the world. The platform already has yielded the Tiida for the Japanese market.
North American product planners requested a version of the Tiida to fill the new hole at the bottom of their product portfolio, created by enlarging the 2007 Sentra to the size of the previous-generation Altima.
But the Tiida was under development for Japan's near-luxury market. To Americanize it, Nissan toned down the content and dropped some of its electronics features, including an on-board navigation system.
Notable features: Toning down content from the Tiida gives U.S. Nissan dealers a $12,000 to $14,000 sedan that is just a bit larger than the competing Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris.
The Versa offers 93.9 cubic feet of interior space, compared with 90.0 in the Fit and 87.1 in the Yaris.
Nissan's American team also kept an array of the platform's already-developed features. Among them: soft-to-the-touch seating and armrests, soft interior panels, keyless entry, curtain and side-impact airbags, Bluetooth hands-free phones and steering-wheel audio controls.
Its 1.8-liter engine, coupled with a continuously variable transmission, boasts a fuel economy of 30 mpg city and 36 mpg highway. The car is expected to come in two versions -- a hatchback that will appear in July and a sedan that follows in January.
What Nissan says: "When we set out to create this segment in North America, we had our pick of any vehicle we wanted," says Orth Hedrick, senior manager for Nissan product planning. "The Versa was under development at the time for the near-luxury market in Japan. But we looked at the size and saw we could position it above the Yaris and still stay in the price range we wanted."
Compromises and shortcomings: The difficulty facing the Versa, and the rest of the small-car segment, is satisfying customers with small engines. Nissan's newly developed four-cylinder engine promises 122 hp. But in the past, U.S. consumers have drifted away from such engines at the first availability of a V-6.
The car yearns for more power when accelerating at full throttle. The CVT smoothes out the edges, making it more comfortable than the jerky shifting of small engines of decades past. But not all automatic Versas will get a CVT. For at least the first year, the CVT supplier will not have adequate capacity, and early automatic Versas will get a standard four-speed automatic.
The market: The Versa clearly is not intended as a muscle car. But Nissan thinks it will be well-received by "echo boomers," the 16 million or so young U.S. buyers who are expected to arrive in dealer showrooms in the next five years.
Attracting those buyers, Nissan contends, begins with adequate legroom and follows with plushly padded, double-stitched seats; multiple airbags; and options such as rear and chin spoilers, fog lights, satellite radio and antilock brakes.
Hedrick says antilock brakes were made optional on the Versa to keep the cost down for young buyers. "We felt that including side curtain and side airbags was more important," he says.
The skinny: Nissan has been down the small-car path before and knows that U.S. customers want more for their money than an econobox. The Versa is an attempt to give them something extra.
Bit Bigger
Nissan's Versa is a slightly larger competitor in the growing B-segment
By LINDSAY CHAPPELL | AUTOMOTIVE NEWS
AutoWeek | Published 05/09/06, 10:38 am et
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Advertisement
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LYNCHBURG, Tennessee -- When Nissan North America Inc. began moving its sedan line upscale a couple of years ago, it created room at the bottom for a small, entry-level car at an opportune time.
Enter the Versa. Just as gasoline prices are jumping and the population of young buyers is swelling, Nissan is introducing the Versa for sale in July.
The basics: The Versa is the first U.S. product to arrive from Nissan's global vehicle development alliance with Renault. The car will be based on a small-car platform that is expected to spawn new products for both automakers around the world. The platform already has yielded the Tiida for the Japanese market.
North American product planners requested a version of the Tiida to fill the new hole at the bottom of their product portfolio, created by enlarging the 2007 Sentra to the size of the previous-generation Altima.
But the Tiida was under development for Japan's near-luxury market. To Americanize it, Nissan toned down the content and dropped some of its electronics features, including an on-board navigation system.
Notable features: Toning down content from the Tiida gives U.S. Nissan dealers a $12,000 to $14,000 sedan that is just a bit larger than the competing Honda Fit and Toyota Yaris.
The Versa offers 93.9 cubic feet of interior space, compared with 90.0 in the Fit and 87.1 in the Yaris.
Nissan's American team also kept an array of the platform's already-developed features. Among them: soft-to-the-touch seating and armrests, soft interior panels, keyless entry, curtain and side-impact airbags, Bluetooth hands-free phones and steering-wheel audio controls.
Its 1.8-liter engine, coupled with a continuously variable transmission, boasts a fuel economy of 30 mpg city and 36 mpg highway. The car is expected to come in two versions -- a hatchback that will appear in July and a sedan that follows in January.
What Nissan says: "When we set out to create this segment in North America, we had our pick of any vehicle we wanted," says Orth Hedrick, senior manager for Nissan product planning. "The Versa was under development at the time for the near-luxury market in Japan. But we looked at the size and saw we could position it above the Yaris and still stay in the price range we wanted."
Compromises and shortcomings: The difficulty facing the Versa, and the rest of the small-car segment, is satisfying customers with small engines. Nissan's newly developed four-cylinder engine promises 122 hp. But in the past, U.S. consumers have drifted away from such engines at the first availability of a V-6.
The car yearns for more power when accelerating at full throttle. The CVT smoothes out the edges, making it more comfortable than the jerky shifting of small engines of decades past. But not all automatic Versas will get a CVT. For at least the first year, the CVT supplier will not have adequate capacity, and early automatic Versas will get a standard four-speed automatic.
The market: The Versa clearly is not intended as a muscle car. But Nissan thinks it will be well-received by "echo boomers," the 16 million or so young U.S. buyers who are expected to arrive in dealer showrooms in the next five years.
Attracting those buyers, Nissan contends, begins with adequate legroom and follows with plushly padded, double-stitched seats; multiple airbags; and options such as rear and chin spoilers, fog lights, satellite radio and antilock brakes.
Hedrick says antilock brakes were made optional on the Versa to keep the cost down for young buyers. "We felt that including side curtain and side airbags was more important," he says.
The skinny: Nissan has been down the small-car path before and knows that U.S. customers want more for their money than an econobox. The Versa is an attempt to give them something extra.