2013 Nissan Altima on 2040-cars

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Nissan Qashai gets the Juke R treatment

It would appear that we're a little behind the times on this one, but a UK-based tuner of the Nissan GT-R is creating its own take on the lustworthy Juke-R starting with the Nissan Qashqai crossover. Severnvalley Motorsport claims to be the leading authority for tuning of the current GT-R in Europe. The outfit is now turning its attention to stuffing the drivetrain of a GT-R under the body of a Qashqai+2 - a seven-passenger compact crossover similar in size to our Nissan Rogue - resulting in the Qashqai-R.
The project started back in March when Severnvalley took delivery of a new Qashqai. After stripping the crossover down to its bare essentials and building a custom jig to support the body shell, it was then transferred onto an awaiting GT-R chassis. The crew aimed to keep Qashqai's appearance as stock as possible, but fender extensions and hood vents were required to accommodate the sports car underpinnings.
The white Qashqai-R seen above will be tuned to produce 900 horsepower, while a black version will get bumped up to 1,000 hp. And, looking at the build photos, we surmise that this project will take nothing less than a herculean feat of supercar determination before it's through.

2013 Nissan Pathfinder: February 2013

I took the keys to our long-term 2013 Nissan Pathfinder from Editor-in-Chief Neff (who left me with an empty gas tank, for the record) directly following the Detroit Auto Show. That means that, by the time you all read this, I'll have been in possession of the Pathfinder for more time, and driven it more miles than any Autoblogger so far. I'd like to think that I've made good use of it... with one small exception.
For those of you that live outside of the Snow Belt and who may routinely ignore the Weather Channel out of cocky certainty - I'm looking at you, American Southwest - there's been some real weather in our part of the world this winter. A year ago, I'd basically packed up my shovel and my driveway salt by Valentine's Day; while the last quarter of 2012 and beginning of 2013 have seen back-wrenching piles of snow fall on and around my Michigan home. Good times, in other words, to test the all-weather capabilities of our all-wheel-drive Pathfinder.

This is Nissan's 2014 Detroit Auto Show concept

During a media event in Los Angeles today, Nissan flashed a few images of a new concept car that will be unveiled at the 2014 Detroit Auto Show in January. According to Shiro Nakamura, senior vice president and chief creative officer of design and brand management at Nissan, this unnamed concept has a "very strong design signature" and shows "[Nissan's] future design direction."
It's certainly quite sleek, this concept, yet specific elements like the front fascia and taillamps are evolutionary steps from what we're seeing on some of Nissan's newest products. Those rear lamps look like sleeker versions of what the Sentra wears, and that grille appears to be a more stylized version of what the next-generation Rogue has been seen sporting.
As for what, exactly, this concept previews, that's still up in the air, though our best guess is that it hints at a Maxima successor. After all, Nissan did confirm to us that a new Maxima is currently in development, and showing this concept in early 2014 lines up with our predictions that the next-generation sedan should arrive in time for the 2015 model year.