Engineering News Blog

Engineering News

Latest news of interest to engineers. Sourced from GlobalSpec's Engineering News

Previous in Blog: Future Television   Next in Blog: Converging On Greatness
Close
Close
Close
Rate Comments: Nested

Nissan Pathfinder May Return to CUV Roots, Ditch Body-On-Frame Again

Posted January 09, 2008 8:04 AM

From Autoblog:

The Nissan Pathfinder has done what was needed to take advantage of a sales trends: it started life as body-on-frame, then switched to unibody, then back to body-on-frame. Today, it shares the ladder platform with the Nissan Titan pickup and Armada SUV.Speculation, however, is that the next generation Pathfinder could go back to unibody construction. Nissan isn't yet saying what it will do, but with the need to raise mileage -- as well as comfort -- a new Pathfinder CUV could be a win for everyone. And, as seen with the repackaging of the Ford Explorer America concept, a unibody build would give Nissan designers a lot more leeway to create something new and fresh.The biggest issue appears to be what to do about the Pathfinder's different buyers in other countries. In America, the Pathfinder could probably sacrifice some off-road prowess and towing capacity and not suffer too much if at all. In Africa, every bit of the Pathfinder's off-road ability gets used, and customers there wouldn't accept the compromises of a softer CUV.

Read the whole article

Reply

Interested in this topic? By joining CR4 you can "subscribe" to
this discussion and receive notification when new comments are added.
Guru
New Zealand - Member - Interested in everything- see my Profile please APIX Pilot Plant Design Project - Member - Member Engineering Fields - Electrical Engineering - Member Engineering Fields - Power Engineering - Member Engineering Fields - Civil Engineering - Member Hobbies - Musician - Autoharp and Harmonica Hobbies - Hunting - Member Hobbies - Fishing - Member

Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Christchurch, (The Garden City), South Island, New Zealand
Posts: 4395
Good Answers: 230
#1

Re: Nissan Pathfinder May Return to CUV Roots, Ditch Body-On-Frame Again

01/09/2008 9:29 PM

The major problem with Nissan, has been the huge numbers of "niche" vehicles, some of which were not prolific sellers.

That's why Nissan is owned 44% by Renault, without which Nissan would have become bankrupt.

Fine vehicles, far too many models, finding out the hard way the same problems LandRover discovered years ago, when they made the Series 2A LandRover with 38 standard but different body options.

Kind Regards....

__________________
"The number of inventions increases faster than the need for them at the time" - SparkY
Reply
Reply to Blog Entry

Previous in Blog: Future Television   Next in Blog: Converging On Greatness

Advertisement