2014 Nissan Altima S Sedan 4-door 2.5l on 2040-cars

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Infiniti confirms new "premium compact" to be built in UK

Aside from certain naming-related news, Infiniti has actually had some decent product news to announce this week. The company's president, Johan de Nysschen, alluded to a new 550-horsepower performance sedan, and now the automaker has confirmed that a new "premium compact" will go into production in 2015. Based on the fact that this new model will be built alongside the Nissan Leaf at the automaker's Sunderland, UK assembly plant, we could only hope that it's a production version of the LE Concept (shown above).
Sunderland already produces Nissan products like the Qashqai, Juke and Note, and as a part of an investment of 250 million British pounds (around $406 million USD) for the new model, the plant would add an extra 280 jobs with the capacity to build 60,000 of the new Infinitis annually. Adding the premium compact at Sunderland means that Infiniti will have to change its plans for another new model, a bigger "C-segment hatchback," which could very well be a production version of the Etherea Concept.

Nissan returning to top-level US racing with this TUDOR entry

Muscle Milk Pickett Racing, formerly powered by Honda to two consecutive American Le Mans Series championships, is now officially powered by Nissan. The Japanese automaker's return to the top tier of US sports car racing comes with Nismo factory backing of the Muscle Milk entry in the newly created TUDOR United SportsCar Championship. Those with long memories will recall that Nissan walked away from America's then top-flight sports car series, IMSA, more than 20 years ago, having won 33 races, three manufacturer titles and four driver's titles from 1988 to 1991.
The ORECA 3 racecar's reveal also marks the introduction of Nismo Global Exchange drivers to the team. Alex Brundle, who drove for Nissan-powered OAK Racing last year in the FIA World Endurance Championship, will join Lucas Luhr and Klaus Graf at the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. It's his first time in a major US event, but having finished second in the WEC and in the LMP2 class at Le Mans last year, he's no novice. Nismo drivers will also contest the 12 Hours of Sebring and Petit Le Mans.
The No. 6 Muscle Milk entry will be hitting the track with the other competitors this weekend during the "Roar before the Rolex 24," with the race itself happening on January 25-26. You can read more about what's coming in the press release below.

Next Nissan Rogue flaunts its new look

Remember last April, when Nissan told us it would be launching five new models over the course of 15 months? Well, we've seen the Altima, Pathfinder, Sentra and Versa Note, so that magical fifth model has to be the new Rogue, which our spy photographers recently caught testing. Despite looking like a hodge-podge of black duct tape and garbage bags, we can clearly see that the new Rogue takes a lot of its styling cues from the Hi-Cross concept that Nissan showed at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show. And that's fine - we found that CUV concept to be a decidedly handsome thing, and certainly more attractive than the weird little Rogue that currently roams the streets.
Details surrounding the next Rogue are still very unclear, though our spies suggest that it could be powered by a new 1.2-liter supercharged four-cylinder engine, good for something like 113 horsepower and 140 pound-feet of torque. We'll see about that, since those numbers represent a drastic drop in power versus the current Rogue - to the tune of 57 hp and 35 lb-ft. A diesel engine for other markets is expected to be on offer, and a plug-in hybrid version is also rumored to be in the works, though that won't show up at the vehicle's initial launch.
If Nissan sticks to its plan of showing these five new models in the course of 15 months, that means we should see the Rogue in July. Of course, since things don't always go as planned, it could be many more months before all that camouflage is taken away.