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| Nissan Tiida | |
This article first appeared in the Trinidad Guardian and has been republished here by permission of the author
by George Deyal
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, September 4, 2006 - A new car was recently introduced by the Nissan Motor Company, the Nissan Tiida that is a fusion of Japanese and European design and engineering. "Tiida" is a Japanese word which translates into English as 'the changing tide'.
"This is a different kind of car for Nissan," boasts Raymond Evans, Neal & Massy Automotive's Marketing Manger, "We invite our customers to see the car and SHIFT their expectations of what a sedan is!"
Neal & Massy Automotive Ltd represents the Nissan Motor Company locally. The company was established in 1923 from the merger of two companies owned by Harry Neal and Charles Massy. It is one of the founding companies of the Neal & Massy Group.
In 1971 Neal & Massy Motors attained the authorization to be the representatives for the Nissan range of vehicles. At the time the Nissan line in the Americas was symbolized by the Datsun brand.
Facing financial troubles, the Datsun line was dropped and their technological gains were migrated to the Nissan lines.
One of the more popular Datsun lines in Trinidad and Tobago was the '120' line of cars, otherwise known outside of the country as the quite famous 'Cherry". Some of these tough cars, many actually assembled in Trinidad, are still on the road today.
In the late 1970's, Nissan replaced the Datsun 'Cherry' model with a new car to represent the Nissan brand, a changing of the tide of sorts.
The new Nissan car, through evolutions of automotive engineering was called different names in different markets throughout the world. Variations of this car are known as the Sunny, Pulsar, Tsuru, Bluebird, Sentra, and the Almera.
The Tiida is a completely new vehicle, not an update or a facelift to any of these, but worldwide the Tiida car replaces a lot of those familiar names.
The change stems from a SHIFT that took place within the Nissan Company 7 years ago.
On March 27th 1999, Nissan formed an alliance with French automaker, Renault. In the partnership, Renault holds a 44.3% stake in Nissan, while Nissan owns 15% of Renault shares. The alliance is headed by Carlos Ghosn, CEO of both Renault and Nissan.
"I think one of the reasons this alliance is working," states Ghosn, "is because we are extremely cautious in maintaining the brand and corporate identity of each company, separate and distinct."
"When we put Renault and Nissan together, we took a lot of items and we said, okay, what can we do together on these particular lines? And at the end of the day, we discovered that after seven years we did much more than we thought."
According to Nissan's Corporate Mission: "SHIFT: A single word that captures the passion and commitment that has revived Nissan and drives our future. Everything we touch, we shift. And everything we shift, we try to make better and uniquely Nissan."
The new Nissan Tiida marks a shift in not just how consumers should think of Nissan cars, but how Nissan and their dealers should think of their own cars.
"We are exited about it because it really represents a lot of what people were asking for," smiles N&M Automotive's General Manager, Derek Faria, "It is really the best of both worlds."
On first viewing, The Tiida seems to look just slightly like the typical Nissan, and indeed the resemblance to some of its Renault family tends to show through in the way that a child can resemble both its mom and dad.
On closer inspection of the specifications however, the Tiida car is still distinctly Nissan. And if you look at it a second time you can trace along some of the exterior lines of the car's Nissan ancestry.
It has that feel of familiarity about it when you sit behind the wheel.
Other rethinks of familiar Nissan cars that have been given the alliance treatment are the newly launched Nissan March, and the yet to be released redesigned Nissan Wingroad.
Colin Homer, Director of Service at Neal & Massy Automotive gives his assurance that his staff is fully trained before the introduction of a new vehicle. The service and technical staff were trained for over three months before the launch of the Tiida car.
"You can consider us a training centre for Nissan in the Caribbean and Latin America," says Homer, "the methodology we use is Nissan's methodology, which means that we actually train people who will be able to work on Nissans anywhere in the world."
Locally, Neal & Massy Motors does not intend to replace its Almera with the Tiida, but will continue to sell several variations of its Almera model.
The Nissan Tiida competes against the Toyota Corolla, Mazda 3, Ford Focus, Mitsubishi Lancer, Peugeot 307, VW Golf, Renault Megane, Hyundai Elantra, and the Honda Civic.
Earlier this year, the board of US Automotive giant, General Motors (GM), voted to hold exploratory talks with Renault and Nissan on a possible three way alliance.
According to JD Power, a firm which examines the automotive industry, "The new group could achieve unprecedented economies of scale and buying leverage in addition to being the world's largest automaker."
Locally, it would mean something else too.
In 1932, Neal and Massy Motors were the distributors of General Motors (GM) vehicles in Trinidad and Tobago. It would potentially reunite the former partners while giving Neal & Massy access to the largest product line of vehicles in the world.
The changing tide indeed does ebb and flow. At Nissan it is perhaps best described as a SHIFT.
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