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Yup, just like in computing, it just means paying more money and more subscription based products. I love Honda and Nissan but nothing good can come from this.
It could be a cool merger idk. My personal naive hope is that with Honda’s success in everyday reliability for cars both hybrid and normal, Nissan can use that tech to essentially revitalize the altimas, maximas, sentras and so forth. Then if it becomes really successful, i can see them raking in so much cash that they start putting some money into development and research for cool cars. It would be awesome to see a new GTR or a new silvia, maybe nissan goes all in on honda and they start developing small coupes and sports cars again. Wishful thinking isnt even the term for this but it would be sick af
The funny part is that as a phrase, it doesn't even mean anything. It's just a marketing buzzword. Like, auto manufacturers have already been using simulations to assist with vehicle design for decades now, so you could argue that every modern car on the road today is "software defined".
@@Hanstra It sounds to me like they're talking about cars where the software matters more than the hardware (eg. the car part of the car is irrelevant)
It's ultimately a culture thing. They rather Nissan get absorbed by Honda and stay Japanese rather than go to some foreign car maker or conglomerate. They definitely don't want the Chinese taking over Nissan. Simple as that.
and the problem with that is that Mitsubishi making the 4000gt is like them joining in, it’s not in their interest personally, but it would make the “party”more fun
@AlexMartini. My cruise control works pretty good on my 30 year old truck 🤷♀️ I think it samples throttlebody position rate or simply DRAC input before you turn it on and it will continue to accelerate at a similar rate. The best part is, it's a physical linkage on the throttlebody being actuated by vacuum. That's all it is. Newer cars = ten times the price, poor cost cutting on components, software bugs, computers for computers, cheap bearings and casting/cnc errors, shifting consumer demands and awful regs. I'm pretty sure any stem kid with an OBD interface and an arduino could create smooth, reliable and efficient cruise step matching.
Well, I don’t like new cars anyway so do what you will 🤷🏻♂️ do all the creepy ass software and electric car bs you want… everything I like has already been made. I’m a mechanic and I approve my own message
@@hitechboin Yes, Nissan is 43% owned by Renault. But I think the Japanese government is concerned about losing more or all of it to foreign companies, especially the Chinese. They want to avoid Chinese control of Nissan at all cost for geopolitical reasons.
As someone who works with marketing in the automotive sector: The competition from Chinese manufacturers is real, especially in developing countries. Here in Brazil (6th larger automotive market in the world) it's getting more and more common to see BYD and Chery everywhere, since they're priced competitively and people are losing the distrust towards Chinese brands due to aggressive and expensive marketing campaigns not only in the vehicle segment but everything electronic you can image. 10 years ago people would go out of their way to buy Japanese microwaves, now they do the same with the Chinese ones. Meanwhile Honda pulled back all Civic models but the most expensive one, completely killing more than a decade of strong sales because now it costs the same as a BMW (and nobody is gonna pay the price of a BMW on a Civic, not even here where the Civic is considered a upper middle class car). The company is also still somehow trying to sell the Accord here, which with the growth of the SUV market and the Civic getting so close in price, makes it even more of a flop. Nissan sells a popular small SUV called Kicks and a mid-sized sedan called Versa, both are well-liked, but far from outperforming in their respective segments. Nissan has always been underrated in Brazil, far less known than Toyota and Honda, selling some good commuters but nothing really exciting. We get 4 models and that's it. 1 SUV, 2 sedans and 1 pick-up truck. None of them are as popular as the competition. Mitsubishi was strong here for a long while, with reliable and well-known cars, but after the fumble and being essentially "acquired" by Nissan, it's now a shadow of its former self, letting the brand rot as more and more people forget it once made great cars. And while the Japanese brands are slow to change and adapt to a new market, Chinese ones are investing billions in the country. Now that Xiaomi (a brand that Brazilians already know and like because of its cheap, reliable smartphones) is starting to make cars, it's only a matter of time before Brazil is dominated by Chinese vehicles. To me this partnership between Honda and Nissan is strongly backed by the Japanese government in order to not only secure their local market but also not lose ground in countries like mine, where Japanese companies still sell well but lost ground first to Korean companies more than a decade ago and are now starting to lose to Chinese ones. In 2024 Honda and Nissan were the 8th and 9th most sold car brands in Brazil, followed by BYD and Chery. Toyota is going strong at 5th, but Hyundai is at 4th. That's a battle already lost, people here really like Hyundai nowadays. The same is starting to happen with Chinese brands. For anyone interested to see car sale numbers in Brazil, just search "fenabrave emplacamentos". There's detailed data from every month, divided by segments, brands, etc, going back decades. You can see trends form and die out over time.
The biggest reason these Japanese companies are failing is because they can't accept the fact that they're losing to Chinese and Korean companies while thinking that their products are better, which is not always true anymore.
Good hypothesis as the Chinese government has been aggressively expanding into the auto industry among others, not just with their own brands but with a worldwide vertical acquisition effort of other automakers as well. For example, as an American who worked for General Motors in the past the Chinese Government bought a large stake in the company after GM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy over a decade ago. As of 2019, General Motors had approximately 60% of their operations divested into GM China including manufacturing, distribution, sales, etc. That alone gave the Chinese government a much broader say and capacity in what can be done in the company. Another thing to think about is Geely, another Chinese-state owned company that now has a stake in Mercedes Benz and Aston Martin while owning Volvo, Polestar, Lotus, and so on. I think all of this evidence is more than adequate enough about the aggressive takeover of the auto industry by the Chinese government. Honda doing a merger with Nissan and Mitsubishi is essentially making sure China doesn't procure their brands as well.
@@burningknuckle26Depends on the brand which I can also say for Japan, Europe, and America. The KIA motors I came across as an auto repair tech were actually decent. The only beef I got with them is a bunch of the older KIA and Hyundai models from the last 10+ years had primitive anti-theft systems, making those cars notoriously easy to steal.
Mitsubishi Motors* not Mitsubishi Mitsubishi is the rest of the company they are worth literal billions not to mention they don’t sell well in the US globally they sell well
Toyota is scrambling in the background with a list of broken engines and transmissions to fix while wondering why less people are wanting to pay 80k for a tacoma.
Really? So they aren't going to use any of their EV tech? I wouldn't mind a good Honda EV with the platform that the Ariya is based on. I could care less about their other ICE vehicles.
@@Je11yb3anerawd civic si based lancer evo (can't be the R cause honda will want that to stay the flagship hatchback/sedan) would be my dream for mitsubishi's revival
So sad to see Nissan turn into a pathetic shell of what they used to be. As a Skyline Owner Nissan is also my favorite automotive brand ever , I still think they have the greatest sports lineup of all time between Z’s , S-Chassis and Skylines .
As someone who worked for Mitsubishi Motors for over 3 years - I genuinely don’t understand how this is happening to Nissan before Mitsubishi ESPECIALLY in North America. They have 3 SUVs - 2 which are the same size & archaic. 1 which is a rebadged Rogue & a PHEV version of it. 2025 the Mirage is now gone. No halo car, no sedan / hatch, no full sized SUV - & everyone makes videos about how they suck now - but NOBODY is talking about how they even exist?!
From a European perspective, Nissan has neglected the desires of their customer base and cut back their offerings over and over - it's not really surprising nobody buys them. My family are diehard Nissan fans but mostly have Toyotas these days. Mitsubishi, on the other hand, never really had many products for sale or much market share here. I think those two things are true for many markets. I imagine Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and it's other divisions also subsidises the car side of the business. Even if they stopped selling cars they'd still have trains, air conditioners and such to make money from
This honestly gives me memories of the "mazda ford" merger or the " saab gm" buyout Both companies will try to play nice with each other until they realize that their different standards in quality, design and market will make everything into a minefield
But this is what technically happens with Renault Nissan Renault have Nissan engines etc but not software which killed a lot of the engines in the Nissan on a couple of their models
@@escapade1924 yeah any time I have a problem on my v36 G35 it's never the parts that say Nissan or have a Nissan part number. Always the Bosch, Hitachi, or Renault parts 🤦
When brands collide, the only way it makes sense is when one brand takes over another...How is it a win for Honda if they take over everything from Nissan and with that, what happens to Nissan's legacy?
Have you seen the last 2 gens of Honda. They have lots of issues now and not just the odyssey. They have oil burning and cvt issues. The only upside is Honda charges reasonable prices for parts. On the bright side. There is a small chance Honda can make viable double clutches with Nissan's ip. Nissan related patents was supposedly why Honda dropped it.
I assume the Japanese government is behind this. There's no way Honda would want Nissan unless they were getting leaned on. It's like how in the US large banks buy up smaller insolvent banks to keep the system limping along.
Occam's razor: They merged to decrease competition in order to extract more money from their customers to provide more value for their shareholders. No mystery.
People shit on Nissan, but they made Skyline/GTR, Silvia, Fairlady/Z so I give them a pass for their CVT and the Altima drivers. Gotta pay the bill for R&D on their enthusiast cars. If Nissan and Honda colab or merge it will potentially be the best car manufacturer in the world.
I think toyota will still edge them out, but I think it will be good, as they have both been rivals to toyota for a long time and now they might be big enough to really compete.
"Potentially" is doing some heavy lifting there. But hell yeah, gimme that awd/rwd civic gtr si nismo type r with the twin turbo straight 4/6 (options?) at under 2500 lbs and 40 mpgs plz. If you could add some pop up headlights or a sick taillight cluster thatd be perfect.
Are there others out there like me who just don't trust new cars to be reliable. Automatic transmission; How many five speed transmissions have ever failed you? I broke one by towing trailers. I'm shopping backwards....my next new car will be from the 1990s. tHanks for a great video
There are more CONSUMERS than CUSTOMERS nowadays. Companies realised a few years back that people are caring less about durability and reliability, and acted accordingly. If everyone started getting older, more reliable, models, then perhaps car companies would take a hint.
@@verticalflyingb737 I think it is the chicken and egg argument. Dealerships stopped having five speeds on t heir lots, and then stated that nobody buys five speeds. People buy new car payments, they don't have the cash on hand to repair old cars. I've been watching people drive their cars into the scrap yards, sign over titles and the the few hundred bucks. If the transmission is slipping, they can't afford a rebuild, so the march off and get another payment somewhere.
I’m not going to lie they are like 2 auto gear boxes three they you can definitely trust which are the vag group day/stronic 7 speed upwards / Mercedes 7-9gtronic gearbox and the BMWs/zf gearbox’s cvt is a huge miss just not worth the hassle debatable with Toyota and the pdk so make that 4 most dct are reliable tbf
@@kirara4953Solenoids have to be in the fluid. That's their job to provide pressure depending on the TPS and load. What I don't agree with is putting the TCM in hot fluid. Yes, the Jatco RE5R05 for example has its TCM soaking in hot ATF.
Hope you enjoyed it! I wanted to be quick, but accurate. I needed some more articles to release in Japan before I could connect Foxconn, so I appreciate your patience! PS thanks for being here :)
@@AlexMartini. Quality always, especially the bigger the info like this. We all out there in Internetland appreciate the quality, research, homework, and ideas you and the team bring forward with every video. Loved this one for sure!! Sharing it too 👍
it has happened here in germany many times now. vw and audi merge, lamborghini, bugatti, now porsche too. the global competition is moving local companies together. merging companies with similar markets will help share many resources, parts, etc. maybe more gr86 to come, or a nissan s3000 😉
Honda can acquire their market, and this is an opportunity to identify overlap, and slim down. Keep the nissan brand, perhaps bring back Datsun for some retro, and share technology.
That's a perfect world and I would love that, but do you worry about the speed in which they'd have to execute this? BYD is already knocking on doors and Foxconn will find another manufacturer in a year or so..
@@AlexMartini. I think the consolidation among the Japanese car makers is the only route for Japan to continue to have a car manufacturing industry in the near future. Not dissimilar to what Japan did to the United States in the late sixties early seventies China is going to do to everybody else. Until China stops dumping products or countries react effectively to prevent them dumping there's not much you can do. I have a masters in economics, I hate tariffs for the inefficiency and cost that they introduced. Butt in a market where dumping is taking place then taras are away in the short-term of putting a stop to that.
Nissan and Honda both lost the plot. The coolest thing about owning a Honda wasn't that it was actually fast. It just felt fast. You could rev it to the moon and stay out of trouble. My Prelude has 200 hp. That's just regular traffic. But it revs to over 7k and has really short gears. Plus, you can toss it into a corner, and it complies. It's fun, it feels fast, and at it's 27 years old. That's what made Honda Honda. Nissan built its reputation on cheap RWD fun. Imagine if Nissan put out a super barebones 2.4L 4 cylinder RWD coupe at a smidge under 200 hp that sold for less than the BRZ and 86. But yeah, let's just create Japanese Stellantis. That's worked out well for them. Brand reputation is through the roof at Jeep.
Yeah but the difference there is that Dodge has always been shit no matter who owns them,it’s different for these companies,Nissan has been in trouble for a while but not as bad as Dodge.
@@Whateva67 dodge actually used to make good cars, although it was many moons ago, anything before the mid 70s were decent, and the L-platform cars (omni, horizon) were better than people gave them credit for.
It’s not “weird”, it happens more often than the general public knows. Just not typically on this large of a scale. It’s a trickle down effect if any of these major companies fold. Like any other industry, if you’re in trouble, you find someone who isn’t. I’m a 20 yr automotive professional and worked for the top dawg of the big 3 for years.
Since the market is already saturated with SUVs and crossover vehicles I think it would be ideal for Nissan to focus on trucks, and make a small affordable sports car, or hot hatch from the Versa frame. Mitsubishi needs to get back into making the Eclipse, and Lancer Evo cause that's what they're known for.
Y'all need to look at the products they offer outside of America. Nothing about their lineup is truly bland. Americans just get the short end of the stick.
I don’t think people realize that after BYD’s rise and now taking 2nd place for EV’s in Asia.. Rather than compete with each other and against BYD and Toyota, Nissan and Honda talked about a the merger ONLY TO share platform regularities for EV cars. They’re not going to share anything suspension/internal combustion engine/aero wise. They’re basically scaling up and taking what GM and Honda have been doing (the Honda Prologue is a GM Electric Vehicle) to the next level business wise. Nissan and Honda are going full electric by the 2030’s and their helping each other transition into full EV easier. They’re not even looking at their sports cars, they’re bread and butter comes from family sedans.
Love your content, Alex! Insightful as always! This whole situation makes me ask a number of questions, like "How much power does the Japanese Gov't have to force these two companies to work together?", "At what point do they loop Mitsubishi into the deal to keep that company's interests alive (and their people employed)?", "Where do Isuzu, Mazda, and Toyota stand in all of this, and what does this even signal to these companies from the perspective of profitability, international competition, and government oversight?" and, "What's the Chinese response to all of this?" Side note, a TT V6 S3000 would decimate all!
I work for mitsi in nz and i remember getting the briefing for this news and i thought, theres no way they are partnering to make a new combustion engine 😢
It would be cool if Honda did what they do best... Make incredible engines. Nissan did what they do best, make fun sporty cars. Nissan gets reliability. Honda could use the experimental market that Nissan could bring, in expanding what people never thought they wanted in a car, but would be totally cool. Honda could keep their tried and true market. Nissan could be bold and test new ideas, while using the cover of reliability of Honda power plants and transmissions. If something great materializes from Nissans' creativity Honda would be free to add something similar to their line. The diversity of the race cars that could emerge, would be mind blowing. I am not saying that is what I think will happen... just what would be great for all of us, if it did. Dreaming of the imposable perfect world.
Forget Nissan ..I do remember Honda wanting Mitsubishi but Nissan has good amount of stock in Mitsubishi. It sounds like to much overlap to me Nissan is cutting two more vehicles for 25 which is the Altima and the versa and they are releasing the new Murano.. We will see what 2026 will bring
My opinion is this. As most car companies transition to electric, the adaptability is harsh. The methods, the machinery used to manufacture their line ups for years have to be scrapped/sold off for the ev production. This not only leads to expenses to rise due to experimentation of making ev more efficient. Its harder for car companies that started making combustion vehicles to transition to ev's. Look at Musk, Tesla was always a ev company and it doesn't have these problems other car companies are having. Times are changing for the better or 4 worse.
Fun fact about Nissan and BYD, in my city in Brazil, the dealership that sells both brands are owned by the same company, and they share a building lmao
these topic videos are really awesome. its really difficult to stand out in the car space on YT especially without an insane budget but i enjoy these monologues a lot. your genuine reaction to some of the wild decisions and thought processes these companies and people go through is hilarious. keep up the good work my man!
Really great points on the Japanese government perspective. I'm 27 but went back to college recently major in Economics. Trying to eventually get into business strategy for motorsports. I always choose Japan, Taiwan and china when doing any type of market projection projects (my favorite subject). Each time I dive into economic cause and effect of these country's major companies, I somehow always have to touch on conspiracy theories (which I prefer to avoid).
The merger is bad news. Japanese companies take forever to make a decision to begin with, now they have double the chefs in the kitchen. They’re gonna be revenue driven, and will most likely totally ignore the enthusiast community. Sad day for all.
Could this turn into something like we saw with the frs/brz/86 and find a common platform to build on while keeping their brand name 🤷🏼♂️ So much unknown. Merry Christmas and Happy holidays Alex
I have a 2023 Nissan frontier as my daily and with stuff happening makes wonder if my warranty will have some issues toward the end of it around 2026 when this happens
Truth be said and my wife works in the industry here in Japan high level management and Nissan has less then 6 months before they are dissolved , this merger is just an offer to purchase their factories and IP , it’s actually that simple. In the end Nissan needed another foreigner 😂
I certainly don’t know much about this topic, but I can say that, as someone who has recently switched from Honda to a more luxury brand, I feel like the issue the Japanese car makers made was pricing their cars too high, so it causes consumers to cross shop with entry-level luxury vehicles like a Audi A3, to which they cannot compete competitively
Nissan executives in the 80s and 90s were car guys first then business people, Nissan had waning profits due to overspending on R and D and putting HP and TQ in 300zx at an affordable price. Ghosn takes over and he's an accountant first so he cheapened out with CVTs, bad choices of electing to focus on fleet sales, then cancelling models like the Xterra even though it was the main competitor to the 4runner and was successful. Then he was also part of the decision making to turn the long history of Pathfinder from a truck based 3rd row offroader to a crossover. THEN he embezzles billions then flees Japan with help of former SOF people to a country that doesnt' have an extradition treaty to Japan. Ghosn is the main reason of the downturn of Nissan and killing off my beloved Xterra.
Nissan has been using CVTs since 2007. Not 28 years. Also this is a merger into an auto group. Like VAG. They will share a bank account and maybe some parts but they aren't going to be one brand.
The Foxconn and Mitsubishi thing makes me wonder if they could collab somehow with Rivian at the old Diamond-Star plant in IL. Foxconn still has something going in Wisconsin (although scaled down since the original plan for factories there), so it'd be in a good location for building some sub-components for a nearby Midwestern factory. And who knows if Mitsubishi still retains any prior experience from back when they collaborated with Chrysler at that location? (Would that still be of use?) Just some random thoughts, but not sure if that would make sense. That collab might make more sense for commercial trucks than passenger cars though. (Considering that Rivian also makes the "bug eye" EV trucks for Amazon.)
The auto industry is in a major upheaval, but considering how many drivers are out there and people that generally need a vehicle. The writing is on the wall, these big corps are frothing at the mouth to remove private drivers from the road and implement vehicles as a service they control, rather than a tool and utility we each own access to at our own discretion and desire. So yes, foil hat all the way. Just one more freedom that needs to be removed for the planned changes on the horizon.....
Does this mean we will be seeing the sunset on the 5 speed manual option on the versa and sentra? It makes me so sad that we keep see the sunset on those...
You forgot to mention the nets around the roof of Foxconn to prevent employees from throwing themselves off the roof due to the slave like working conditions.
They’re just getting together for the stock prices to go up, they’ll take the most cost effective strategies from both companies and raise prices to increase their margins, nothing will be better, everything will get more expensive
am I the only one with hope that some absolutely sick/ badazz cars are about to rear up? Definitely would like to see some explosive innovation and new collabs
I think you nailed it! Here's a couple considerations... Honda is globally sooo much more than cars. They are active in various tech areas, aerospace, robotics etc. Its plausible they are intentionally idling their auto market for this reason. They are comfortable, and focusing on other markets with some undisclosed end goal. However, the governments intervention and "forced" collaboration hints at a possible undisclosed sizable government contract Honda has behind closed doors. This could explain why their government is nudging them to help out lil bro. This would also explain why they are being merging despite the noted differences between the companies. Now consider the Foxconn aspect (as you stated). With Foxconn being huge in EV production (and potentially cracking into the American market), and considering how few Japanese EV's Americans are buying, it's possible Japan's government is trying to combine their strengths to give the collective of Japanese automakers a foothold in the EV market? I guess time will tell. Thanks for an awesome brain tease.
It’s pretty simple. The companies were always just warring cartels within the Japanese economy but now they can no longer compete with Chinese and Korean companies so they need to consolidate into a single cartel.
I’m gonna have to bring my prelude to LHT to have them completely restore it so I can drive it in perfect condition for another 200k miles. Gone are the days of a fun MT car. What we have is the best it’s ever going to be.
i agree, i see this business and stake holder interest move. last ditch effort from nissan. i see zero enthusiast vehicles coming to light from this merger.
It could be interesting, think of the possibilities. That said, given it happens time and time again the overall consolidation of a respective market only means higher prices for us so there’s that
Subaru is the confused student that aced a test that they didn't study for. They ended up having the most reliable vehicle in consumer reports with the 2023 Crosstrek.
Assuming the merger is allowed to go through, I think it might allow Nissan to focus on the GTR, Z, Frontier and Titan, and allow Mitsubishi to revive the Lancer Evo and return the Eclipse to what it once was, while their resources those brands had been committing to their flagging mass market models go to cut costs and improve Honda's successful mass market vehicles. And their engineers getting access to each other's technology libraries can only result in good things.
I blame all these new car brands popping up everywhere. They are killing the car industry with an influx of super cheap cars that have zero track record for reliability
I this merger is gonna be an organized consolidation of the 3 brands. -Honda will provide the reliable fwd drive family/commute vehicles. They will also get the bigger SUV frame from Nissan and Mitsubishi (and the AWD technology) - Nissan will provide the more perfomance inspired RWD vehicle. (And will probably go back to the Datsun name as rebranding) -Mitsubishi will do Kei trucks, small vans , and other fleet vehicles
Hey friend---if you like this video would you mind subscribing and hitting the bell button? YT doesn't like showing videos much anymore and it'd mean the world
Ghosn said honda was behind his arrest because honda want to take over nissan, just few months ago on CNBC.
btw it'll be like a parts bin GM car, except Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi will be sharing all the parts,
😂😂
Is this Alex from fitment industries????
We absolutely cannot have Altima drivers with VTEC.
Hondas don't even have VTEC. Honda has been phasing that tech out the last 10 years.
@ it’s a joke
@@michaelw6277😂
@@SimbaTheGreatUhm… the Accord, Civic, Pilot, Passport, and HR-V all have VTEC?
Accord and Civic drivers ARE basically Altima drivers with Vtec
"Software defined vehicles" is just about the worst phrase I've ever heard in my life.
Yup, just like in computing, it just means paying more money and more subscription based products. I love Honda and Nissan but nothing good can come from this.
It could be a cool merger idk. My personal naive hope is that with Honda’s success in everyday reliability for cars both hybrid and normal, Nissan can use that tech to essentially revitalize the altimas, maximas, sentras and so forth. Then if it becomes really successful, i can see them raking in so much cash that they start putting some money into development and research for cool cars. It would be awesome to see a new GTR or a new silvia, maybe nissan goes all in on honda and they start developing small coupes and sports cars again. Wishful thinking isnt even the term for this but it would be sick af
You don't understand. The NPCs will love it. They're going to steal so many Kia Soul customers.
The funny part is that as a phrase, it doesn't even mean anything. It's just a marketing buzzword. Like, auto manufacturers have already been using simulations to assist with vehicle design for decades now, so you could argue that every modern car on the road today is "software defined".
@@Hanstra It sounds to me like they're talking about cars where the software matters more than the hardware (eg. the car part of the car is irrelevant)
It's ultimately a culture thing. They rather Nissan get absorbed by Honda and stay Japanese rather than go to some foreign car maker or conglomerate. They definitely don't want the Chinese taking over Nissan. Simple as that.
Honestly, that's pretty fair I can get behind that, same idea and not selling American brands to the ccp and wanting to keep it American
Can’t help but respect that either.
Stellantis is just waiting on the wings to add Nissan to their portfolio.😢
Japanese hate Chinese
But they should have and in 4 years will wish they did let it go.
Mitsubishi in the hotel corner chair is SO accurate
Stealth setup for the 2025 revival of the Lancer with all it's racing glory! Announced by Jackie Chan. I want to believe 😎
Option 6143 on how this turns out is awd civic SI based lancer evo (i just want good mitsubishis back 😭)
@@r5obiwan Here here 🥂
Mitsubishi: Oh, you like it when I watch you liking it
-Probably
and the problem with that is that Mitsubishi making the 4000gt is like them joining in, it’s not in their interest personally, but it would make the “party”more fun
So are we getting the NSX GT-R or nah?
Fingers crossed for My RWD Honda civic Type R VR4. FINGERS CROSSED
@@AlexMartini. Lol
Civic Nismo and Z Type-R.
Look up Nissan Mid4
yes with Nissan famous cvt
“Software defined vehicles” nope. Don’t like the sound of that.
We can't figure out smooth adaptive cruise control in a Murano and we're off trying to make self-driving cars..
Basically a cheaper tesla. 😅
@AlexMartini. My cruise control works pretty good on my 30 year old truck 🤷♀️
I think it samples throttlebody position rate or simply DRAC input before you turn it on and it will continue to accelerate at a similar rate. The best part is, it's a physical linkage on the throttlebody being actuated by vacuum. That's all it is. Newer cars = ten times the price, poor cost cutting on components, software bugs, computers for computers, cheap bearings and casting/cnc errors, shifting consumer demands and awful regs.
I'm pretty sure any stem kid with an OBD interface and an arduino could create smooth, reliable and efficient cruise step matching.
No offense. The japanese has always been weak when it comes to software. So yeah this collaboration will be a dumpster fire
Well, I don’t like new cars anyway so do what you will 🤷🏻♂️ do all the creepy ass software and electric car bs you want… everything I like has already been made. I’m a mechanic and I approve my own message
My theory is also that the Japanese government forced Honda to save Nissan. The merger just doesn't make that much sense to me.
Isn't Nissan owned by a French company
@@hitechboin Yes, Nissan is 43% owned by Renault. But I think the Japanese government is concerned about losing more or all of it to foreign companies, especially the Chinese. They want to avoid Chinese control of Nissan at all cost for geopolitical reasons.
Your theory is not theory but actually true.
@@AoCabo Renault pulled out from Nissan. This is why Honda is getting involved with Nissan now in the first place.
@@AoCaboIt’s understandable!
I wouldn’t like it either!
It should stay in Japanese hands! 🇯🇵
As someone who works with marketing in the automotive sector: The competition from Chinese manufacturers is real, especially in developing countries. Here in Brazil (6th larger automotive market in the world) it's getting more and more common to see BYD and Chery everywhere, since they're priced competitively and people are losing the distrust towards Chinese brands due to aggressive and expensive marketing campaigns not only in the vehicle segment but everything electronic you can image. 10 years ago people would go out of their way to buy Japanese microwaves, now they do the same with the Chinese ones.
Meanwhile Honda pulled back all Civic models but the most expensive one, completely killing more than a decade of strong sales because now it costs the same as a BMW (and nobody is gonna pay the price of a BMW on a Civic, not even here where the Civic is considered a upper middle class car). The company is also still somehow trying to sell the Accord here, which with the growth of the SUV market and the Civic getting so close in price, makes it even more of a flop.
Nissan sells a popular small SUV called Kicks and a mid-sized sedan called Versa, both are well-liked, but far from outperforming in their respective segments. Nissan has always been underrated in Brazil, far less known than Toyota and Honda, selling some good commuters but nothing really exciting. We get 4 models and that's it. 1 SUV, 2 sedans and 1 pick-up truck. None of them are as popular as the competition.
Mitsubishi was strong here for a long while, with reliable and well-known cars, but after the fumble and being essentially "acquired" by Nissan, it's now a shadow of its former self, letting the brand rot as more and more people forget it once made great cars.
And while the Japanese brands are slow to change and adapt to a new market, Chinese ones are investing billions in the country. Now that Xiaomi (a brand that Brazilians already know and like because of its cheap, reliable smartphones) is starting to make cars, it's only a matter of time before Brazil is dominated by Chinese vehicles.
To me this partnership between Honda and Nissan is strongly backed by the Japanese government in order to not only secure their local market but also not lose ground in countries like mine, where Japanese companies still sell well but lost ground first to Korean companies more than a decade ago and are now starting to lose to Chinese ones.
In 2024 Honda and Nissan were the 8th and 9th most sold car brands in Brazil, followed by BYD and Chery. Toyota is going strong at 5th, but Hyundai is at 4th. That's a battle already lost, people here really like Hyundai nowadays. The same is starting to happen with Chinese brands.
For anyone interested to see car sale numbers in Brazil, just search "fenabrave emplacamentos". There's detailed data from every month, divided by segments, brands, etc, going back decades. You can see trends form and die out over time.
The biggest reason these Japanese companies are failing is because they can't accept the fact that they're losing to Chinese and Korean companies while thinking that their products are better, which is not always true anymore.
@@Woolong-ql1jh Most of their products are better and last longer. Chinese cars just cost less. koreans? they dont have good reliability yet.
Good hypothesis as the Chinese government has been aggressively expanding into the auto industry among others, not just with their own brands but with a worldwide vertical acquisition effort of other automakers as well. For example, as an American who worked for General Motors in the past the Chinese Government bought a large stake in the company after GM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy over a decade ago. As of 2019, General Motors had approximately 60% of their operations divested into GM China including manufacturing, distribution, sales, etc. That alone gave the Chinese government a much broader say and capacity in what can be done in the company.
Another thing to think about is Geely, another Chinese-state owned company that now has a stake in Mercedes Benz and Aston Martin while owning Volvo, Polestar, Lotus, and so on. I think all of this evidence is more than adequate enough about the aggressive takeover of the auto industry by the Chinese government. Honda doing a merger with Nissan and Mitsubishi is essentially making sure China doesn't procure their brands as well.
@@burningknuckle26Depends on the brand which I can also say for Japan, Europe, and America. The KIA motors I came across as an auto repair tech were actually decent. The only beef I got with them is a bunch of the older KIA and Hyundai models from the last 10+ years had primitive anti-theft systems, making those cars notoriously easy to steal.
type r is pretty dope though
My theory is, the Japanese government will quietly bail out Honda from the acquired debts of Nissan and Mitsubishi.
I think you're right. The Japanese govt tried to get Honda to do this acquistion/merger years ago. But Honda said hard pass lol.
HOW?
makes no sense. just bail out nissan. we did it with ford gm and chrysler and theyre all still around
Mitsubishi Motors* not Mitsubishi Mitsubishi is the rest of the company they are worth literal billions not to mention they don’t sell well in the US globally they sell well
@@drewdevon2009Because Nissan management is just incredibly incompetent.
Toyota in the background snacking on some popcorn
Toyota is scrambling in the background with a list of broken engines and transmissions to fix while wondering why less people are wanting to pay 80k for a tacoma.
@@whois3581 and yet they still number 1😎
@@burningknuckle26statically they never came close to number one small size pick up.
@@Chumbucketsecretwhy you talking about small pick up? Lmao youre a dudu
Toyota still having post-nut clarity after its 3-way with Subaru and BMW...
Honda Employee here. The real reason for the merger is that Honda wants Nissan’s truck frames to compete with Ford and Toyota. Thats about it.
That's would be awesome
I want a Honda frontier
Really? So they aren't going to use any of their EV tech? I wouldn't mind a good Honda EV with the platform that the Ariya is based on. I could care less about their other ICE vehicles.
@@alexdhallthe Honda prologue shares a frame & battery with chevys equinox ev.
@@Chumbucketsecretthat relationship is a one night stand. Not doing it again. They need another ev bedmate
Buddy, you fixed your sleeves 82 times in under 11 minutes. Love that for you
glad you counted that, i wondered
Did you check out my forearms though?
*moderately sized*
@ that’s my favorite size
There's a little bit of the spectrum in this one!😂
I don't say "That'll never happen" anymore, I just say "I guess we'll see what happens".
It's news that I was not prepared for, that's for sure!
PS thanks for being here :)
literally, never say "never".
@@AlexMartini. Happy to be here.
Pick a side Humpty
If Nissan becomes the RWD division of Honda I'm so down. Rwd Civic becomes new 240sx, rwd Prelude becomes new Z, ect
I was thinking the same, maybe the a rwd accord becomes the new Gloria.
And if they do bring in Mitsubishi then that could mean a new evo since Honda already has a boosted 4 cylinder
This right here. Also, Nissan and Mitsubishi has bigger suv frame which they can provide to Honda
@@Je11yb3anerawd civic si based lancer evo (can't be the R cause honda will want that to stay the flagship hatchback/sedan) would be my dream for mitsubishi's revival
Unfortunately no, everything is going electric. 😢
So sad to see Nissan turn into a pathetic shell of what they used to be. As a Skyline Owner Nissan is also my favorite automotive brand ever , I still think they have the greatest sports lineup of all time between Z’s , S-Chassis and Skylines .
s15 dream sports car
Agreed, sad to see. I love Nissan as a brand. My Titan is hands down the best overall vehicle I've ever owned.
one drove past me yesterday and I so wanted to own that car or any s15 even a cabrio non turbo, auto . @@rs7_von
my mom owns an infiniti G35 also
As someone who worked for Mitsubishi Motors for over 3 years - I genuinely don’t understand how this is happening to Nissan before Mitsubishi ESPECIALLY in North America. They have 3 SUVs - 2 which are the same size & archaic. 1 which is a rebadged Rogue & a PHEV version of it. 2025 the Mirage is now gone. No halo car, no sedan / hatch, no full sized SUV - & everyone makes videos about how they suck now - but NOBODY is talking about how they even exist?!
Nailed it
Chrysler is another one. Literally their entire lineup consists of 3 trims of Pacifica
doesn't Nissan essentially own Mitsubishi now?
From a European perspective, Nissan has neglected the desires of their customer base and cut back their offerings over and over - it's not really surprising nobody buys them. My family are diehard Nissan fans but mostly have Toyotas these days. Mitsubishi, on the other hand, never really had many products for sale or much market share here. I think those two things are true for many markets.
I imagine Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and it's other divisions also subsidises the car side of the business. Even if they stopped selling cars they'd still have trains, air conditioners and such to make money from
Lol because mitsubishi makes other stuff other than passenger vehicles
This honestly gives me memories of the "mazda ford" merger or the " saab gm" buyout
Both companies will try to play nice with each other until they realize that their different standards in quality, design and market will make everything into a minefield
But this is what technically happens with Renault Nissan Renault have Nissan engines etc but not software which killed a lot of the engines in the Nissan on a couple of their models
@@escapade1924 yeah any time I have a problem on my v36 G35 it's never the parts that say Nissan or have a Nissan part number. Always the Bosch, Hitachi, or Renault parts 🤦
I really hope this doesn’t mean that Honda’s quality and reliability goes down
When brands collide, the only way it makes sense is when one brand takes over another...How is it a win for Honda if they take over everything from Nissan and with that, what happens to Nissan's legacy?
Have you seen the last 2 gens of Honda. They have lots of issues now and not just the odyssey. They have oil burning and cvt issues. The only upside is Honda charges reasonable prices for parts.
On the bright side. There is a small chance Honda can make viable double clutches with Nissan's ip. Nissan related patents was supposedly why Honda dropped it.
@@AlexMartini.Similar path to mitsubishi? They had legacy until they fucked up so bad that Nissan had to by them
Where have you been?
Honda needs to go back in technology by 25 years, and then they will be top quality.
I assume the Japanese government is behind this. There's no way Honda would want Nissan unless they were getting leaned on. It's like how in the US large banks buy up smaller insolvent banks to keep the system limping along.
The Altima models featuring type R badges were onto something significant long before we recognized it.
big altima energy will reach new levels
Occam's razor: They merged to decrease competition in order to extract more money from their customers to provide more value for their shareholders. No mystery.
People shit on Nissan, but they made Skyline/GTR, Silvia, Fairlady/Z so I give them a pass for their CVT and the Altima drivers. Gotta pay the bill for R&D on their enthusiast cars. If Nissan and Honda colab or merge it will potentially be the best car manufacturer in the world.
I think toyota will still edge them out, but I think it will be good, as they have both been rivals to toyota for a long time and now they might be big enough to really compete.
can only hope bro
"Potentially" is doing some heavy lifting there. But hell yeah, gimme that awd/rwd civic gtr si nismo type r with the twin turbo straight 4/6 (options?) at under 2500 lbs and 40 mpgs plz. If you could add some pop up headlights or a sick taillight cluster thatd be perfect.
Are there others out there like me who just don't trust new cars to be reliable. Automatic transmission; How many five speed transmissions have ever failed you? I broke one by towing trailers.
I'm shopping backwards....my next new car will be from the 1990s. tHanks for a great video
You don't trust solenoids swimming in hot fluid!?
There are more CONSUMERS than CUSTOMERS nowadays. Companies realised a few years back that people are caring less about durability and reliability, and acted accordingly.
If everyone started getting older, more reliable, models, then perhaps car companies would take a hint.
@@verticalflyingb737 I think it is the chicken and egg argument.
Dealerships stopped having five speeds on t heir lots, and then stated that nobody buys five speeds.
People buy new car payments, they don't have the cash on hand to repair old cars.
I've been watching people drive their cars into the scrap yards, sign over titles and the the few hundred bucks.
If the transmission is slipping, they can't afford a rebuild, so the march off and get another payment somewhere.
I’m not going to lie they are like 2 auto gear boxes three they you can definitely trust which are the vag group day/stronic 7 speed upwards / Mercedes 7-9gtronic gearbox and the BMWs/zf gearbox’s cvt is a huge miss just not worth the hassle debatable with Toyota and the pdk so make that 4 most dct are reliable tbf
@@kirara4953Solenoids have to be in the fluid. That's their job to provide pressure depending on the TPS and load. What I don't agree with is putting the TCM in hot fluid. Yes, the Jatco RE5R05 for example has its TCM soaking in hot ATF.
Whenever they say "merger" what they really mean is one company is going to buy and blow up the other. Who is buying who?
Merry Christmas, Alex. Thanks for posting
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays sir! Thanks for being here and hope you enjoyed the vid!
Honda's fatal flaw was not offering a coupe version of their Type R...
Yeah for some reason they stopped that in 2018 or 19.
Smaller and lighter with the exact same power plant and drive train underneath
90% of the market couldnt care less about coupes lol
Your new direction is enjoyable. Full length videos, investigative, informative, or simply fun. Post more often. Cheers
Thank you, means a lot! Trying to find a space and I really like this one. Appreciate hearing this!
Been anticipating this video since the news broke of what was going on. Never clicked play on a notification so fast before. Here we go!
Hope you enjoyed it! I wanted to be quick, but accurate. I needed some more articles to release in Japan before I could connect Foxconn, so I appreciate your patience!
PS thanks for being here :)
@@AlexMartini. Quality always, especially the bigger the info like this. We all out there in Internetland appreciate the quality, research, homework, and ideas you and the team bring forward with every video. Loved this one for sure!! Sharing it too 👍
it has happened here in germany many times now. vw and audi merge, lamborghini, bugatti, now porsche too. the global competition is moving local companies together. merging companies with similar markets will help share many resources, parts, etc. maybe more gr86 to come, or a nissan s3000 😉
Acura Maximus VR-4 Starion! oh yeah triple turbo reverse-intercooled Wankel!
I think BYD is a bigger threat when it comes to EVs. Their cars are actually made well and a fraction of the cost.
Honda can acquire their market, and this is an opportunity to identify overlap, and slim down. Keep the nissan brand, perhaps bring back Datsun for some retro, and share technology.
That's a perfect world and I would love that, but do you worry about the speed in which they'd have to execute this? BYD is already knocking on doors and Foxconn will find another manufacturer in a year or so..
Datsun is still present as a supbrand in niche and cheap markets
@@AlexMartini. I think the consolidation among the Japanese car makers is the only route for Japan to continue to have a car manufacturing industry in the near future. Not dissimilar to what Japan did to the United States in the late sixties early seventies China is going to do to everybody else. Until China stops dumping products or countries react effectively to prevent them dumping there's not much you can do. I have a masters in economics, I hate tariffs for the inefficiency and cost that they introduced. Butt in a market where dumping is taking place then taras are away in the short-term of putting a stop to that.
If this happens then honda would finally have a real pickup truck
Nissan and Honda both lost the plot. The coolest thing about owning a Honda wasn't that it was actually fast. It just felt fast. You could rev it to the moon and stay out of trouble. My Prelude has 200 hp. That's just regular traffic. But it revs to over 7k and has really short gears. Plus, you can toss it into a corner, and it complies. It's fun, it feels fast, and at it's 27 years old. That's what made Honda Honda.
Nissan built its reputation on cheap RWD fun. Imagine if Nissan put out a super barebones 2.4L 4 cylinder RWD coupe at a smidge under 200 hp that sold for less than the BRZ and 86.
But yeah, let's just create Japanese Stellantis. That's worked out well for them. Brand reputation is through the roof at Jeep.
Yeah but the difference there is that Dodge has always been shit no matter who owns them,it’s different for these companies,Nissan has been in trouble for a while but not as bad as Dodge.
@@Whateva67 dodge actually used to make good cars, although it was many moons ago, anything before the mid 70s were decent, and the L-platform cars (omni, horizon) were better than people gave them credit for.
It’s not “weird”, it happens more often than the general public knows. Just not typically on this large of a scale. It’s a trickle down effect if any of these major companies fold. Like any other industry, if you’re in trouble, you find someone who isn’t. I’m a 20 yr automotive professional and worked for the top dawg of the big 3 for years.
Since the market is already saturated with SUVs and crossover vehicles I think it would be ideal for Nissan to focus on trucks, and make a small affordable sports car, or hot hatch from the Versa frame. Mitsubishi needs to get back into making the Eclipse, and Lancer Evo cause that's what they're known for.
Y'all need to look at the products they offer outside of America. Nothing about their lineup is truly bland. Americans just get the short end of the stick.
Nissan needs to focus on making reliable vehicles
Yup Toyota and Ford messed up Honda with Toyota could come in and crush it.
We need a new Nissan Leaf... with CCS and a more reliable battery.
Eclipse and evo and sports cars don't sell. Boring family car sales.
Mfg can sell sports cars from using money from boring family car.
I love it when you break down big news in the automotive industry
I don’t think people realize that after BYD’s rise and now taking 2nd place for EV’s in Asia.. Rather than compete with each other and against BYD and Toyota, Nissan and Honda talked about a the merger ONLY TO share platform regularities for EV cars. They’re not going to share anything suspension/internal combustion engine/aero wise. They’re basically scaling up and taking what GM and Honda have been doing (the Honda Prologue is a GM Electric Vehicle) to the next level business wise. Nissan and Honda are going full electric by the 2030’s and their helping each other transition into full EV easier. They’re not even looking at their sports cars, they’re bread and butter comes from family sedans.
SUVs*. Not sedans.
There are few upsides for Honda, aside from acquiring 5th in class fullsized trucks that are already canceled.
They phasing out the second fastest car in the world. RIP Altima
Right next to your first GF in a Hyundai Elantra back in college 😂
FR she got hired to do the camera car for one the Bugatti top speed runs. Had the front bumper delete and bungee'd radiator for the aero boost
Love your content, Alex! Insightful as always! This whole situation makes me ask a number of questions, like "How much power does the Japanese Gov't have to force these two companies to work together?", "At what point do they loop Mitsubishi into the deal to keep that company's interests alive (and their people employed)?", "Where do Isuzu, Mazda, and Toyota stand in all of this, and what does this even signal to these companies from the perspective of profitability, international competition, and government oversight?" and, "What's the Chinese response to all of this?"
Side note, a TT V6 S3000 would decimate all!
I work for mitsi in nz and i remember getting the briefing for this news and i thought, theres no way they are partnering to make a new combustion engine 😢
people hating but this gonna be a fire partnership. just watch. we gonna get some badass cars in the future.
as long as there's no cosworth engines, it's only logical to dream. Unfortunately Europeans still have many secret weapons to contend
Datsun B210 little pick-up in Hawaii with a machine gun turret optional. Awesome little truck with many options. I'll order the Mad Max option.
It would be cool if Honda did what they do best... Make incredible engines. Nissan did what they do best, make fun sporty cars. Nissan gets reliability. Honda could use the experimental market that Nissan could bring, in expanding what people never thought they wanted in a car, but would be totally cool. Honda could keep their tried and true market. Nissan could be bold and test new ideas, while using the cover of reliability of Honda power plants and transmissions. If something great materializes from Nissans' creativity Honda would be free to add something similar to their line. The diversity of the race cars that could emerge, would be mind blowing. I am not saying that is what I think will happen... just what would be great for all of us, if it did. Dreaming of the imposable perfect world.
Forget Nissan ..I do remember Honda wanting Mitsubishi but Nissan has good amount of stock in Mitsubishi. It sounds like to much overlap to me Nissan is cutting two more vehicles for 25 which is the Altima and the versa and they are releasing the new Murano.. We will see what 2026 will bring
Cutting those two? I'd imagine they were a big part of their appeal.
Murano is known still remembered as the grenade transmission minivan. Bad call.
Maaaaan I remember watching the Ghosn drama unfold every day for MONTHS on Jalopnik back in the day 😅 crazy how time flies!
Holy shit. You got carlos ghosn to respond!? Damn
That was a clip from MSNBC.
I wish 😂
😂
@@beo456 bloomberg*
My opinion is this. As most car companies transition to electric, the adaptability is harsh. The methods, the machinery used to manufacture their line ups for years have to be scrapped/sold off for the ev production. This not only leads to expenses to rise due to experimentation of making ev more efficient. Its harder for car companies that started making combustion vehicles to transition to ev's. Look at Musk, Tesla was always a ev company and it doesn't have these problems other car companies are having. Times are changing for the better or 4 worse.
Welp, there goes my hopes for an S16 Silvia :/
We got a Honda Nissan merger before GTA6.
Get a gr86 closest thing your going to get.
Fun fact about Nissan and BYD, in my city in Brazil, the dealership that sells both brands are owned by the same company, and they share a building lmao
Silvia with vtec new drift king
Just as a note every1, CVTs start in 07-08 altima year +
The last best Nissan was 04-06
Wisconsin knows Foxconn well 😒
these topic videos are really awesome. its really difficult to stand out in the car space on YT especially without an insane budget but i enjoy these monologues a lot. your genuine reaction to some of the wild decisions and thought processes these companies and people go through is hilarious. keep up the good work my man!
I feal like that will only hurt honda
Really great points on the Japanese government perspective. I'm 27 but went back to college recently major in Economics. Trying to eventually get into business strategy for motorsports.
I always choose Japan, Taiwan and china when doing any type of market projection projects (my favorite subject). Each time I dive into economic cause and effect of these country's major companies, I somehow always have to touch on conspiracy theories (which I prefer to avoid).
The merger is bad news. Japanese companies take forever to make a decision to begin with, now they have double the chefs in the kitchen. They’re gonna be revenue driven, and will most likely totally ignore the enthusiast community. Sad day for all.
Ouuu almost 100k and not even 24hrs yet! Lets goooooo Alex!!!!
Honda s3000 lol 7:05
The fact that Nissan didn't take any initiative to fix its CVT problem proves it should go out of business!
Excellent video!😮
dealerships will be the demise of US automakers. "down with dealers"
I'd like to see a full sized body on frame Honda SUV. With Nissan on board, that will help Honda develop one based off the Armada platform.
I thought I was the only 1 who noticed that nearly every Altima and Maxima driver is sketchy af.😂
Could this turn into something like we saw with the frs/brz/86 and find a common platform to build on while keeping their brand name 🤷🏼♂️
So much unknown. Merry Christmas and Happy holidays Alex
I have a 2023 Nissan frontier as my daily and with stuff happening makes wonder if my warranty will have some issues toward the end of it around 2026 when this happens
Truth be said and my wife works in the industry here in Japan high level management and Nissan has less then 6 months before they are dissolved , this merger is just an offer to purchase their factories and IP , it’s actually that simple. In the end Nissan needed another foreigner 😂
They're finished Other than their little sushi delivery vans...
Maybe Honda engineers are fond of sushi for lunch.
First 🥇
Ha ha yes 👁👄👁
YOU WIN. What do you want?!
“Free to play hairline” is diabolical 💀
oopsies
I certainly don’t know much about this topic, but I can say that, as someone who has recently switched from Honda to a more luxury brand, I feel like the issue the Japanese car makers made was pricing their cars too high, so it causes consumers to cross shop with entry-level luxury vehicles like a Audi A3, to which they cannot compete competitively
Nissan executives in the 80s and 90s were car guys first then business people, Nissan had waning profits due to overspending on R and D and putting HP and TQ in 300zx at an affordable price. Ghosn takes over and he's an accountant first so he cheapened out with CVTs, bad choices of electing to focus on fleet sales, then cancelling models like the Xterra even though it was the main competitor to the 4runner and was successful. Then he was also part of the decision making to turn the long history of Pathfinder from a truck based 3rd row offroader to a crossover. THEN he embezzles billions then flees Japan with help of former SOF people to a country that doesnt' have an extradition treaty to Japan. Ghosn is the main reason of the downturn of Nissan and killing off my beloved Xterra.
Nissan has been using CVTs since 2007. Not 28 years. Also this is a merger into an auto group. Like VAG. They will share a bank account and maybe some parts but they aren't going to be one brand.
The Foxconn and Mitsubishi thing makes me wonder if they could collab somehow with Rivian at the old Diamond-Star plant in IL. Foxconn still has something going in Wisconsin (although scaled down since the original plan for factories there), so it'd be in a good location for building some sub-components for a nearby Midwestern factory. And who knows if Mitsubishi still retains any prior experience from back when they collaborated with Chrysler at that location? (Would that still be of use?) Just some random thoughts, but not sure if that would make sense.
That collab might make more sense for commercial trucks than passenger cars though. (Considering that Rivian also makes the "bug eye" EV trucks for Amazon.)
I heard this on the radio 2 days ago. I screamed "WHAT???" at the radio 5x!
The auto industry is in a major upheaval, but considering how many drivers are out there and people that generally need a vehicle. The writing is on the wall, these big corps are frothing at the mouth to remove private drivers from the road and implement vehicles as a service they control, rather than a tool and utility we each own access to at our own discretion and desire. So yes, foil hat all the way. Just one more freedom that needs to be removed for the planned changes on the horizon.....
As an employee for one of these companies, I think you hit the nail on hit head with some of your points ;)
I wouldn’t trust the Renault owned Nissan to make anything of quality. They are better than Stellantis, but not by much.
Those CVT transmissions were the downfall of Nissan they became too unreliable and this merger is just Japan gov't taking care of their giants.
Dead at Mitsubishi being the red headed step child 😂😂
I'm SO down for the two companies who gave us LEGENDs combining into one big Megazord.
Nondasan FTW.
Does this mean we will be seeing the sunset on the 5 speed manual option on the versa and sentra? It makes me so sad that we keep see the sunset on those...
You forgot to mention the nets around the roof of Foxconn to prevent employees from throwing themselves off the roof due to the slave like working conditions.
They’re just getting together for the stock prices to go up, they’ll take the most cost effective strategies from both companies and raise prices to increase their margins, nothing will be better, everything will get more expensive
If honda was smart theyed turn nissan into a sports car company, bring back the proper skyline gt-r, sx/silvias and just abandon all other models.
After being stuck in Holiday traffic, there should absolutely be NO Altima drivers with VTEC 😭
I don’t know what’s scarier, Altima boys with VTec or Civic boys with V6 GTR engines
am I the only one with hope that some absolutely sick/ badazz cars are about to rear up? Definitely would like to see some explosive innovation and new collabs
I think you nailed it! Here's a couple considerations... Honda is globally sooo much more than cars. They are active in various tech areas, aerospace, robotics etc. Its plausible they are intentionally idling their auto market for this reason. They are comfortable, and focusing on other markets with some undisclosed end goal. However, the governments intervention and "forced" collaboration hints at a possible undisclosed sizable government contract Honda has behind closed doors. This could explain why their government is nudging them to help out lil bro. This would also explain why they are being merging despite the noted differences between the companies.
Now consider the Foxconn aspect (as you stated). With Foxconn being huge in EV production (and potentially cracking into the American market), and considering how few Japanese EV's Americans are buying, it's possible Japan's government is trying to combine their strengths to give the collective of Japanese automakers a foothold in the EV market?
I guess time will tell. Thanks for an awesome brain tease.
You're using a Razer as a work laptop?
Has it been reliable? Free of issues?
I use Lenovo Legion
It’s pretty simple. The companies were always just warring cartels within the Japanese economy but now they can no longer compete with Chinese and Korean companies so they need to consolidate into a single cartel.
I’m gonna have to bring my prelude to LHT to have them completely restore it so I can drive it in perfect condition for another 200k miles. Gone are the days of a fun MT car. What we have is the best it’s ever going to be.
i agree, i see this business and stake holder interest move. last ditch effort from nissan.
i see zero enthusiast vehicles coming to light from this merger.
It could be interesting, think of the possibilities. That said, given it happens time and time again the overall consolidation of a respective market only means higher prices for us so there’s that
Reminds me of the Japanese government forcing Datsun to buy Prince. The good that came of that was the Fairlady 432. Not seeing any of that here.
Subaru is the confused student that aced a test that they didn't study for. They ended up having the most reliable vehicle in consumer reports with the 2023 Crosstrek.
No, they studied. They got tutoring from the class nerd/teachers pet - toyota.
Assuming the merger is allowed to go through, I think it might allow Nissan to focus on the GTR, Z, Frontier and Titan, and allow Mitsubishi to revive the Lancer Evo and return the Eclipse to what it once was, while their resources those brands had been committing to their flagging mass market models go to cut costs and improve Honda's successful mass market vehicles. And their engineers getting access to each other's technology libraries can only result in good things.
I blame all these new car brands popping up everywhere. They are killing the car industry with an influx of super cheap cars that have zero track record for reliability
I this merger is gonna be an organized consolidation of the 3 brands.
-Honda will provide the reliable fwd drive family/commute vehicles. They will also get the bigger SUV frame from Nissan and Mitsubishi (and the AWD technology)
- Nissan will provide the more perfomance inspired RWD vehicle. (And will probably go back to the Datsun name as rebranding)
-Mitsubishi will do Kei trucks, small vans , and other fleet vehicles
The Qashqai is sold as the Rogue Sport in the US. Same exact car.