2004 Nissan 350z Touring Coupe 2-door 3.5l on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Question of the Day: Most heinous act of badge engineering?

Badge engineering, in which one company slaps its emblems on another company's product and sells it, has a long history in the automotive industry. When Sears wanted to sell cars, a deal was made with Kaiser-Frazer and the Sears Allstate was born. Iranians wanted new cars in the 1960s, and the Rootes Group was happy to offer Hillman Hunters for sale as Iran Khodro Paykans. Sometimes, though, certain badge-engineered vehicles made sense only in the 26th hour of negotiations between companies. The Suzuki Equator, say, which was a puzzling rebadge job of the Nissan Frontier. How did that happen? My personal favorite what-the-heck-were-they-thinking example of badge engineering is the 1971-1973 Plymouth Cricket. Chrysler Europe, through its ownership of the Rootes Group, was able to ship over Hillman Avanger subcompacts for sale in the US market. This would have made sense... if Chrysler hadn't already been selling rebadged Mitsubishi Colt Galants (as Dodge Colts) and Simca 1100s as (Simca 1204s) in its American showrooms. Few bought the Cricket, despite its cheery ad campaign. So, what's the badge-engineered car you find most confounding? Chrysler Dodge Automakers Mitsubishi Nissan Suzuki Automotive History question of the day badge engineering question

Autoblog Podcast #393

Episode #393 of the Autoblog Podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth, Steven Ewing, and Michael Harley talk about Monterey Car Week, the Woodward Dream Cruise and Dodge Charger Hellcat, and the latest round of mid-engine Corvette rumors. Dan also had the chance to speak with Jeffrey Rothfeder, author of Driving Honda, a new book that takes a look inside the automaker. We start with what's in the garage and finish up with some of your questions, and for those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. Check out the new rundown below with times for topics, and you can follow along down below with our Q&A. Thanks for listening! Autoblog Podcast #393: Topics: Monterey Car Week Jeffrey Rothfeder (Driving Honda) interview Woodward Dream Cruise + Dodge Charger Hellcat Mid-Engine Corvette rumors just won't die In The Autoblog Garage: 2014 Jaguar F-Type V6 S Convertible 2015 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD 4X4 CNG 2014 Nissan NV200 SV Hosts: Dan Roth, Steven Ewing, Michael Harley Runtime: 02:10:41 Rundown: Intro and Garage - 00:00 Monterey Car Week - 37:08 Jeffrey Rothfeder - 52:17 Woodward 2014 - 01:28:11 Mid-Engine Corvette - 01:44:30 Q&A - 01:56:53 Get the podcast: [UStream] Listen live on Mondays at 10 PM Eastern at UStream [iTunes] Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes [RSS] Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [MP3] Download the MP3 directly Feedback: Email: Podcast at Autoblog dot com Review the show in iTunes Podcasts Rumormill Chevrolet Dodge Jaguar Nissan Pebble Beach mid-engine corvette dodge charger hellcat

Nissan will expand free* charging incentive to 25 Leaf markets

Nissan has proof that giving away a bit of electricity makes buying a new Leaf all the more enticing. Thanks to a deal that offers free charging to some Leaf owners in Texas, one dealer there claims his Leaf sales have tripled. We don't see national sales climbing quite that high starting July 1 2014, but an announcement made today at the New York Auto Show will likely give the EV a boost. New Leaf buyers will get to charge for free at public chargers for two years. Within limits: a max of 30 minutes at CHAdeMO and an hour at Level 2 stations. Nissan will expand its "No Charge to Charge" promotion to at least 25 markets across the US. The deal means that new Leaf buyers will get to charge for free at public chargers that accept the new EZ-Charge card, within limits. That means a maximum of 30 minutes at CHAdeMO DC fast chargers and just one hour at Level 2 stations, Brendan Jones, director of Nissan EV infrastructure strategy and development, told AutoblogGreen. This should be plenty of time, Jones said, since the average Leaf driver comes to a CHAdeMO station with 35-40 percent state-of-charge on the battery and the average time they stay is around 16-17 minutes. A half hour is fine at a fast charger, since the battery will get to 80 percent full within that time, but we're less impressed with the one-hour limit at a Level 2 station, since that will only put maybe 20 miles into the battery. The EZ-Charge card is compatible with four of "the leading EV charging networks," which here means ChargePoint, Blink, AeroVironment and NRG eVgo. Nissan says the 25 markets make up over 80 percent of all the US Leaf sales. Anyone who buys a new Leaf in one of the specified markets - or bought one on or after April 1 of this year - will get the free-to-use EZ-Charge card (others can still get the card, which means only carrying one charger company fob instead of four). The promotion starts July 1 in 10 markets (San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, Seattle, Portland, Nashville, Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Washington, DC) and then expands to the next 15 by the end of June, 2015. Nissan would not specify which markets these will be, but they will be where the Leaf is selling well and there are DC fast chargers. That means, we suspect, places like Chicago, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Atlanta.