2012 Nissan Maxima Sv No Reserve Auction on 2040-cars

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Mystery shoppers love Infiniti, hate Tesla

Infiniti, followed by Lexus tied with Mercedes-Benz took the top two spots for best sales experience according to mystery shoppers from the latest Pied Piper Prospect Satisfaction Index, while EV manufacturer Tesla recorded the lowest overall score. Not surprisingly, premium brands dominated the top ranks. Including the three already mentioned, luxury brands occupied seven of the top ten spots and included Audi, BMW, Porsche, and the only American brand to crack the upper echelon, Cadillac. Toyota, Volkswagen, and Nissan rounded out the first ten positions. The news for domestic automakers isn't good. Aside from Caddy, the only other star-spangled automaker to score above the industry average is Chrysler. The rest of FCA, most of GM, and all of Ford fell below the line. But Pied Piper's mystery shoppers handed Tesla the biggest walloping – the company is ten full points below the next lowest brand, Volvo, and its score of 86 is 17 below the average of 103. It's baffling, considering the company's touted direct-sales model. "Tesla leaves me scratching my head," Fred O'Hagan, Pied Piper's president and CEO, told Wards Auto. "They own all of their stores, so you would think each one would be doing the same thing. But they're not. Tesla is consistent in its inconsistencies." O'Hagan added that there's a "huge variation" in Tesla's store-to-store effectiveness, and that in some cases, shoppers found showroom workers that acted more like "museum curators," Wards Auto reports. It might be popular to call Tesla the Apple of the car world, but based on Pied Piper's work, the brand has a long way to go to emulate the uniform shopping experience of an Apple Store. The news might be bad for Tesla, but even for the brands that scored below average, there's cause for celebration. Only Tesla and Mini lost points in this year's rankings, and only Mercedes and Lincoln held steady. Every other brand, including Infiniti, which topped the index for the first time, gained at least one point. The biggest improvements belong to Porsche, Land Rover, and Mitsubishi, which all jumped five points. Pied Piper's annual Prospect Satisfaction Index uses mystery shoppers – over 6,100 this year – from across the country to assess dealers and generate rankings from over 50 individual factors. News Source: Pied Piper via WardsAuto Green Audi BMW Cadillac Chrysler Infiniti Lexus Mercedes-Benz Nissan Tesla Toyota Car Buying Car Dealers study

Four Wheeler crowns Ultimate Factory 4x4... who wins?

Nearly every automaker doing business in the SUV or pickup truck segments offers a package designed to improve the off-road capabilities of its wares. But, of course, not all such factory kits are created equal. How, then, to separate the wheat from the chaff? Gather each of them up and put them through their paces, naturally.
The folks from Four Wheeler and PickupTrucks.com joined forces to run just such a comparison test, with the winner named the Ultimate Factory 4x4. A total of seven vehicles showed up to the fight: the 2012 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor, 2013 Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, 2012 Nissan Frontier PRO-4X and Xterra PRO-4X, 2012 Ram Power Wagon, and 2012 Toyota 4Runner Trail and Tacoma TRD T|X Baja Series.
With the contestants in place, the whole crew put each vehicle through a battery of tests that included skidpad and acceleration measurements, a hillclimb, a rocky stairstep course and a rock garden. Considering the nature of the beasts, on-road ride and comfort were not part of the routine.

2016 Nissan Altima gets SR model, 39 mpg, 3 press releases [w/video]

UPDATE: After taking exception with Seyth's reaction to press-release overdose, a Nissan spokesperson commented,"It gets 39 mpg. That's ******* epic." The Mazda 6, rated 40 mpg highway, is the only car among the Altima's peers to do equal or better. (See a full list of gas-powered non-hybrid cars that do 39 mpg highway or better here.) It seems that Nissan just can't stop selling its hot Altima midsizer. At least, that's what the bullet points of the press release for the new, 2016 version of the car tell me. The model has seen five consecutive years of sales growth, occasionally hitting the 30,000-per-month figures that heavies like Camry, Accord, and Fusion regularly nab. And, as we all know, a key to keeping midsize sedans fresh is the mid-cycle refresh. Here we have it. Nissan has reshaped the front and rear of the Altima to better match the look of its handsome new Maxima. That means a deep-v wrought in chrome on the front fascia, new (optional) LED headlights that look like reverse check marks, and a lower bumper that mirrors the shape above it. There are new taillights, bumper, and trunk lid for the rear of the car, too. You'll likely have to stare at the pictures pictures of the posteriors on the old and new cars for a few minutes (as we did) to pick them out, but they're there. The press release says so. Changes to the interior are subtle. We spotted a new center stack, and new cup holders next to the gearlever. Your weird friend Brian who hosts the Altima Altimatics fan forum could probably lend more detail here, but the non-enthusiast eye sees a mild rethinking of a nice interior. The excellent Zero Gravity front seats are still standard on all trims, which is probably half the reason Nissan is selling so many of these things. (How did that not make the bullet points, guys?) Change is more evident in the new-for-'16 Altima SR trim. The lighting profile is different for the model's most athletic variant, with smoked lenses, daytime running lights and revised fog lamps. More importantly, the SR gets its own suspension setup, revised dampers, stiffer front and rear stabilizers, and a more aggressive wheel/tire package. Nissan also offers drivers the ability to paddle-shift the SR's CVT transmission. The SR grade can be had with either Altima engine option. As for the motivating forces behind Altima's new nose, well, they're mostly the same.