We’d already heard about it from our sources at the Nissan dealership, so this is just a confirmation. The older-generation Nissan Patrol, currently still available in 5-door form alongside the new Patrol, will also be offered in the 3-door short-wheelbase body style for 2012 in the UAE.
The Nissan Juke didn’t make much sense to us, considering the Qashqai was already on sale here. But it has apparently become a hit wherever it has gone on sale so far. This is the first time we got to look at the Juke in person, and it is seemingly nothing like the Qashqai on which it is based.
Our last giveaway before Ramadan comes courtesy of freebies we got from Nissan-Renault events. Included in this gift pack is a fancy limited-edition Renault Trucks key-ring set, consisting of small heavy metal sculptures of the Renault Sherpa and Kerax “Cape To Cape” adventure trucks, as well as a booklet detailing the original adventure trip. We’re also throwing in a Nissan Altima-branded 1GB USB stick with built-in fingerprint security scanner.
Update: The winner is Bijoy John.
We never even touched the 350Z. We didn’t drive the 370Z Coupe either. And we never asked for the 370Z Roadster. However, we never say no when we get offered a car, so we took this Nissan drop-top you see here for a spin. Trouble is, with 16,000 km on the clock, everybody and their mother has already test-abused this car, so we’re guessing it wasn’t the most ideal representation of what a “Z” car is supposed to be.
Arabian Automobiles, part of the AW Rostamani group and the exclusive dealer of Nissan, Infiniti and Renault in Dubai and the Northern Emirates, has launched a massively-expanded vehicle servicing centre at its existing Ras Al Khor facility which will be open 24 hours, 7 days a week.
It was a double surprise as Nissan revealed two different versions of the next-generation Tiida at two different motor-shows in a span of 2 days. As we previously reported about the Chinese Sunny being the new Tiida sedan, the new Sunny debuted as the Versa, currently known as Tiida in the GCC, at the 2011 New York Auto Show, without a hatchback equivalent. Yet, at almost the same time, Nissan revealed a new Tiida hatchback at the 2011 Shanghai Motor Show that is a completely different car. Make sense?
This phase of the year does not seem to be so good for the island nation of Japan, which recently had gone through one of the worst earthquakes ever in March, and an even worse aftermath with multiple aftershocks and nuclear radiation dangers. The nation that rests on the “ring of fire” in the Pacific is home to a large number of well-known automakers, among them Toyota, Nissan and Honda. The quake which struck the nation has also jolted the automakers as well, causing severe damage to their production rate, losing the potential production of over 500,000 cars since then.
This is the 2012 Nissan Tiida, as seen in Chinese-spec trim. It looks much better than the current model, and now has a longer wheelbase than the Honda Civic, putting it firmly in the compact category, larger than the current sub-compact.
After recently introducing the first “manufacturer-approved Japanese brand certified pre-owned program” for Nissan in the UAE, Arabian Automobiles has opened the UAE’s largest used cars facility in a media event held yesterday. The company is the sole dealer for Nissan, Infiniti, Renault, ZNA and MG in Dubai and the Northern Emirates, and they have chosen to get into the used car business in a big way with this 7000 square-metre facility.
One of our regular readers, M. Hajooni, who usually drops all sorts of spy shots on this site taken by himself, just dropped an email to me with a picture of a 2011-2012 Nissan Patrol interior. The interesting bit is that the interior seems to have a manual gearbox.