For years now, I've always felt like Nissan have been missing out on the small car sector. Their range of Micras and Notes is nothing short of miserable and I wondered for a number of years whether they'd release something to compete with the small car sector again. I had hoped they'd revive the 'Pulsar' name over here as it sounds good and is synonymous with performance. Nissan, with their Nismo and sports car lineage could really do well in the small car sector if they designed something sporty and good looking. Nothing has really changed, Astras, Golfs and Focuses are always being churned out, but nothing new.

 

Nissan are about to put the Pulsar on sale. In the US, they've had a small saloon based on the Pulsar which has continued to be sold in Japan. They have the Sentra. Here's what the Nismo will look like and comes complete with a turbocharged 1.8 with 240bhp. Quite cool.

 

http://www.houseofjapan.com/auto-moto/more-nismo-models-coming-says-nissan-product-boss

 

 

 

 

 

....now for what we'll get for the UK. The hatch is due to go on sale very shortly over here.....UNFORTUNATELY....it looks as dull as the Sunny and Almera did. Such a shame, they've REALLY missed a trick here. I am hoping these early release photos are only indicative of the poverty-spec models and that we might get our own Nismo variant. But Nissan's UK specification and lineup across the range is not as good as that in Japan or the US, I have no idea why. Our Nismo 370z looks nowhere near as nice as the US-spec or Japanese spec. Nissan UK only had the balls to do something exciting with the Juke Nismo. Apparently there's a Nismo Qashqai on its way though.

 

Anyway, here's the new UK-spec Pulsar in all its dullness.

 

 

Edited May 21, 201411 yr by Funkysi

A ha! I did some digging around, it appears it's in the pipeline!

 

That's better! :) Hot contender now should I replace the Leon FR I have over the new year or two!

 

That looks pretty cool.

Hmmmm.Wonder who's engine is in that..............

Lush that nismo pulsar and gotta love the sentera

Lush that nismo pulsar and gotta love the sentera

 

Sentra. ;)

 

Hmmmm.Wonder who's engine is in that..............

 

Nissan's own. Probably a bored out version of the 1.6T as found in the Juke Nismo

I blame apple for my spelling mistakes stupid ipad

But that's not even a darn word! :rofl:

 

I agree though, my iPhone changes stuff, even when you don't want to. I don't really like it TBH and I'm going straight back to Android when this one's time is up.

That is highly annoying, it changes perfectly normal words into rubbish sometimes for no reason.

Love my ipad/iphone/iPod for the technical reasons but for simple stuff like spell checking it's absolutely shit

A ha! I did some digging around, it appears it's in the pipeline!

 

That's better! :) Hot contender now should I replace the Leon FR I have over the new year or two!

 

 

That's a bit more like it....

 

To be honest, Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Mazda and Honda have all lost their way since the 300zx/Supra/3000GT/RX7 and NSX went out of production. Sure, we have seen 2 further Z-car incarnations; but the 350z was a disappointment and the 370z, whilst much better, has had its short-comings highlighted by the cheaper (and dare I say it, a class-below) Toyota GT86 thingy.

 

Japan kept the coupe/sports GT market alive in the 1980s and 1990s but has now, in all honesty (Nissan GTR aside), been ripped apart by the Germans once more. And as for exciting hot hatches - hell even the French do better today. I will certainly be pleased to see that Nissan on sale - for today, all the Japanese manufacturers seem to churn out, are boring lethargic hatchbacks for the elderly and those awful electric/hybrids for the PC, self righteous anti-car brigade...:sad:

 

Come on Nissan et al - give us some decent kit like the marques above so sadly lamented!!

 

Richard:thumbup:

the 370z, whilst much better, has had its short-comings highlighted by the cheaper (and dare I say it, a class-below) Toyota GT86 thingy.

 

 

 

I've driven both of these and you know what, I much prefer the Z. I find the GT86 quite low-brow. It handles well and has a good driving position, but the whole car has a feeling of cheapness to it. It looks cheap too, it looks more like a Korean vehicle than some surefooted Japanese sports coupe.

 

When the 370z first came out, I really didn't like it, I was the very same with the 350z, but BOTH of them I've grown to really like. I've spent some time behind the wheel of both and whilst the 350 especially isn't quite up there in terms of the performance stats, it's a decent enough car to have quite a lot of fun in. Nice little chassis.

 

Visually, if you go for the right model, I think they look pretty good too. My choices are:

 

Nismo 350z (early UK/Japanese version) - lower power, but the styling tweaks more than make up for it.

 

 

Nismo 370z (US spec) - in person, this car has great road presence, a lovely sounding engine and is a little different from everything else. I followed one out of Orange County last year and it was the first Nismo I'd actually seen out on the freeway. In the blazing California sunshine, it looked fantastic. Really wide back end on it.

 

Edited May 21, 201411 yr by Funkysi

Toyota gt86 Subaru BRZ Scion FR-S there all the same nothing special

Euro Fodder for us!

 

Came back from Florida in April, amazed how big the Nissan brand is there and the choice of cars we don't see.

 

Even Ford's Explorer was a treat!

 

Didn't see many Z32's but saw a nice SWB in Universal 's Car park.....stood out from the rest..Pic's on my mobile so can't show yet!

Euro Fodder for us!

 

Came back from Florida in April, amazed how big the Nissan brand is there and the choice of cars we don't see.

 

Even Ford's Explorer was a treat!

 

Didn't see many Z32's but saw a nice SWB in Universal 's Car park.....stood out from the rest..Pic's on my mobile so can't show yet!

 

Nissan's name is held in very high regard in the US. They're quite a cool brand, their cars are much nicer too. The Altima and Maxima are quality cars and quite attractive. You also have the V8 Titan and Armada. Over here...if it weren't for the Z and GTR - there'd be little. Juke seems to have added a bit of flare, but that's about it.

 

Nissan USA in Tennessee do a really good job of marketing and also offer a tremendous amount of enthusiast support. They unveiled their new 370z Nismo at ZdayZ event last week; they also sponsor a few of the other large national events. They even loaned Z1 Motorsports a prototype 370z Nismo when I went out out to ZNationals back in 2008. NMUK do nothing, but then again, the enthusiast base is pretty lacking over here. But it would be nice if they actually tried.

NMUK are leaning on a lot of market strength and momentum with their recent products and with the Nismo brand, although flawed in it's application on the Joke...sorry! Juke, shows they have a premium performance brand with real history to work with, just needs the right people with a bit of balls to buck the trend and we could see some promising kit.

They are. Their Qashqai model has proven that, but there's nothing really that imaginative in the rest of the range. It's the Micra that's been a real killer for them and I think they need to re-invent themselves in the supermini segment. The current Micra is horrible, it's as dull as Swindon and has absolutely no flare what-so-ever. I believe it's of Indian origins and actually looks more dated than the model it's replaced. This is the segment, more than the small-hatchback segment that I think they're really missing out on. The Micra is selling in much lower volumes than it did in the 90s and I personally think they need a fresh sheet of paper on a car in that segment, even the pearl rinsers are moving away from it and heading to Hyundai and Kia. Nissan still have a slight brand issue in the UK when you take away their sports car models. I am glad they're now using their Nismo branding, it's been around long enough!

 

I actually kinda like the Juke Nismo and wouldn't mind owning one. I'd have to get rid of those awful wheels they put on it though and stuff some 18" 350z anniversary wheels on it.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]79542[/ATTACH]

 

200mph 0-60 2.7 seconds and it's stunning

They might be churning out some dreary motors, but Nissan's plant in UK made more vehicles than

the entire combined Italian motor industry last year. And exported 80% of them.

Talking about new Jap cars if Toyota bring out the new Supra then Nissan need to step up there game to compete with it. Its a stunner.

 

http://www.topspeed.com/cars/toyota/2015-toyota-supra-ar99796.html

http://sniffpetrol.com/2014/05/20/nissan-announces-genre-busting-family-car/

http://sniffpetrol.com/2014/05/20/nissan-announces-genre-busting-family-car/

 

That's as dry as the desert! :rofl:

But of tounge in cheek in that article I think. Why bring back the pulsar though seriously? Didn't they only sell 65 units in the UK?

But of tounge in cheek in that article I think. Why bring back the pulsar though seriously? Didn't they only sell 65 units in the UK?

 

The 'Pulsar' name was never used n the UK.......the GTI-R was badged as the Sunny.

My mistake, whatever it's called we were talking a little while back and I think it was Andrew pointed out what the 10 most rare uk production nissans were. The pulsar/gtiR was well up on that list I believe.

It's just a name Steve and it was a name not used on any UK production car. It's a cool name I think and they had to get rid of the Sunny and Almera names. Unfortunately, this new Pulsar is as dull as its predecessors.