pres589 wrote:
"Nissan hasn't done anything right in a decade or more."
Hyperbole much? Last I knew Renault/Nissan was a profitable car company. Which is the whole point of having a company, I'm not sure how that's been lost on so many participants in this little discussion...
Okay, a little overstated in terms of "profitability", but not in terms of market share in the long term.
In 1980, Nissan had roughly equivalent market share as compared to Toyota, and bigger than Honda throughout most of that time. By the 90's, Toyota had twice what Nissan had, and Honda was equal or lager, with Nissan actually losing market share in the late 90s and early 2000's (when the Renault-Nissan Alliance was formed). They were a company in trouble.
Note the timing there - their market share was stable through the mid 90's, which was my assertion above. At some point losing market share with a big infrastructure will cause problems with profitability.
How did Nissan go from a strong #2 to distant 3rd place among Japan's biggest and best? The "other" market (i.e Mitsu, Hyundai, Kia, Subaru, VW, etc) has even out performed Nissan from the mid 90s on.
Chrysler, in the 90s, improved their market share, when they were coming out with a lot of good designs. Then the CEO sold out to the Germans, and they killed it (prophetically speaking, I called that when I was in school - everybody else told me the Germans would make them better and I was dumb. A few years later the Germans sold because they killed Chrysler's resurgence...).
My whole point is that good products sell, and for a company like Nissan to stay around they need to grow market share, and while their current line up seems to be doing okay, I just think they could do better. A Datsun brand, done right, could eat into the "smaller" manufacturerers share and grow Nissan's.
Yes to Datsun if Nissan can get it right (i.e. the Jimbob MBA thesis). I think they need to play on their early strengths and remind people of some of the great cars they've produced (and 510 SE-R and even Roadster SE-R would be bitchin').
A "niche" market of low dollar, good performing, exciting to drive cars (qualifiying "excitement" given the price/performance...) could "re-invent" the segment - VW did it with the GTI, and while the tC is more of a sporty economy car than an economical sporty car, I don't think the transformation would be that hard.
And, here in the Old Pueblo, I see more modified tC's than any other car we admire on this board (actually they're usually nicely done too, not ricer).
http://wehrintheworld.blogspot.com/2009/06/automaker-market-share-over-time.html