Source: Renault & Nissan
Photo: Nissan

As well as releasing pricing for its all-new 2012 NV Commercial Van, Nissan also announced a partnership agreement with Original Wraps to provide future owners of the van with personalized graphics. The Japanese maker said the application will be available through the Nissan Commercial Vehicle website in January 2011. The graphics are printed on automotive grade 3M Scotchprint On-Demand vinyl and are laminated for protection and fade resistance. They can also be removed without causing any damage to the van's paint job.
“We’re pleased to offer high quality, customized vehicle personalization with hundreds of different graphic designs created specially for the new Nissan NV,” said Joe Castelli, vice president, Nissan Commercial Vehicles and Fleet, NNA. “It’s part of our innovative approach to thinking about how our customers use their vans – including as a vehicle for advertising their company and services.”
The company’s first entry into the commercial vehicle market in the United States comes with a body-on-frame construction and choice of standard roof or high roof configurations. The range includes the NV1500 with standard 4.0-liter V6 engine, the NV2500 HD with a choice of 4.0-liter V6 or 5.6-liter V8 and the NV3500 HD with standard 5.6-liter V8. All engines are linked to a 5-speed automatic transmission.
Nissan offers the NV is in two grades, S and SV with prices starting from $24,590. Full information on pricing is listed below.
Pricing
Model/Roof/Engine
NV 1500 Standard Roof S V6 $24,590 USD
NV 1500 Standard Roof SV V6 $26,190 USD
NV 2500 Standard Roof S V6 $25,590 USD
NV 2500 Standard Roof SV V6 $27,190 USD
NV 2500 Standard Roof S V8 $26,490 USD
NV 2500 Standard Roof SV V8 $28,090 USD
NV 3500 Standard Roof S V8 $28,190 USD
NV 3500 Standard Roof SV V8 $29,790 USDModel/Roof/Engine
NV 2500 High Roof S V6 $27,990 USD
NV 2500 High Roof SV V6 $29,590 USD
NV 2500 High Roof S V8 $28,890 USD
NV 2500 High Roof SV V8 $30,490 USD
NV 3500 High Roof S V8 $30,590 USD
NV 3500 High Roof SV V8 $32,190 USD
The Nissan factory in Sunderland UK is recruiting an additional 100 manufacturing staff on temporary contracts to meet a short term spike in demand being delivered by the ongoing car scrappage schemes around Europe. The news comes in only a few weeks after Nissan announced in May that it would re-hire 150 staff on 4-month fixed term contracts at its UK plant following significant increases in demand within markets already operating scrapping initiatives, including France, Germany and Italy.
The additional staff will again be offered 4-month contracts, and will operate on the plant's Micra and Note production line to help support a planned overall increase of 18,000 units in the June-September production plan.
"Sunderland models – particularly smaller cars like Note and Micra – are proving very popular with scrappage customers, and although the market remains highly volatile, we welcome this further opportunity to add to our workforce," said Kevin Fitzpatrick, Sunderland Plant's Deputy Managing Director.
When you hear a name like 'Nurburgring Edition', you expect something special, right? Well, judging from Nissan's press release, this doesn't seem to be the case with the new 370Z Nurburgring Edition that has been launched in Germany. Supposedly inspired from the bright-yellow 370Zs that participated at the 24-hour endurance race at the Nurburgring in May, the limited edition model will be produced in a limited run of 80 copies. Unique features are limited to a 'Premium Ultimate Yellow' paint finish, special decals, a more sonorous Cobra exhaust system, a numbered plaque and 19-inch OZ alloy wheels shod in Dunlop SP Sport Maxx GT tires (255/40 R19 at the front, 285/35 R19 at the back).
There are no mechanical upgrades with the special edition 370Z retaining the standard model's 331HP 3.7-liter V6 engine. Prices in Germany have been set at €50,400 (that's about $71,700 at today's exchange rates). Buyers of the special edition 370Z also get a €150 gift card (approx. $215 US) for use at the Nurburgring race track either to perform a few laps on the Nordschleife or to buy memorabilia items.
Nissan's German division has yet to release any photos of the 370Z Nurburgring Edition - the pictures are from the standard model.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Nissan president Carlos Ghosn took part in the opening ceremony of the Japanese automaker's first plant in Russia on Tuesday. Located at St. Petersburg, Nissan's new US$200 million assembly plant has a production capacity of 50,000 vehicles a year. The facility, which is scheduled to employ 750 workers at start of production with one shift, will build the Teana mid-size sedan and the X-TRAIL compact off-roader.
"This is Nissan's breakthrough in Russia," said Ghosn. "The opening of our plant in Saint Petersburg in the current conditions underlines our confidence in the high potential of the Russian economy. With the start of production at our new plant Nissan become an integral part of the local community."
Even though the financial crisis has taken its toll on the Russian car market as sales plunged more than 40% in the first four months of the year compared to 2008 when Russia briefly overtook Germany as Europe's largest car market, many analyst believe that Russia will be a key growth market for automakers when a recovery starts.

When we reported on the 2012MY Nissan GT-R, we were wondering how the added power would affect the Japanese sports car's acceleration times. Well, the wait is over as Nissan announced today that the facelifted GT-R with the tweaked 530HP twin-turbocharged V6 completes the 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) sprint in just 3.0 seconds, or a whopping 0.5 seconds faster than the 485 hp version.
Measurements were carried out at the Sendai Race Way on November 12th-13th, in Sunny/Cloudy weather during the media test event. Temperature ranged between 15-19 degrees Celsius (59-66.2 F).
The company used a standard specification model – including tires and wheels –, without any optional parts. The car was set to “R” mode for the suspension and VDC-R (Vehicle Dynamic Control) system.
Given that few (if any) series-production sports cars priced under the $100k mark (in the U.S.) achieve these kind of numbers, the GT-R definitely returns an incredible bang for your buck.

