2010 Nissan Rogue S Awd on 2040-cars

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Nismo toying with crossovers and pickups

Nissan is apparently committed to turning its racing and tuning division into a bigger player, with new Nismo models coming out all the time. But while the Nismo division has until now focused primarily on hatchbacks and sports cars, the next project could be a truck. According to Aussie website CarAdvice in speaking to Nissan marketing chief Darren Cox and Nismo boss Shoichi Miyatani, the prospect of a Nismo-tuned SUV or pickup are definitely on the table. That could include a performance-oriented take on the Navara pickup, but also the Qashqai crossover – a prospect first mooted a year ago. And if the Qashqai and Navara are under consideration, there's no telling what Nismo might do with the likes of the Frontier, Rogue, Murano or even the Pathfinder. None of that is concrete at the moment, of course, but the market for performance crossovers seems only to be growing – and growing more accessible, too. The Germans keep making smaller crossovers and performance variants thereof, and even Fiat is said to be working on an Abarth version of the 500X. The Juke Nismo itself bridges the gap between hot hatches and performance crossovers, but apart from the 370Z Nismo and GT-R Nismo, most of the division's projects seem to be focusing on hatchbacks like the Pulsar and Versa Note.

January no slump for Chevy Volt this year

The mild winter didn't tank January sales for the Chevy Volt this year. While last month's sales were a lot lower than December's – because January new vehicle sales are almost always lower than December's - the second-gen Volt had a good month. GM sold 996 Chevy Volts last month, an increase of 83.8 percent over the 542 sold last January. In December, 2,114 Volts were sold. The trend wasn't as good over at Nissan, which sold 755 Leafs in January. That's a drop of 29.4 percent compared to the 1,070 sold in January 2015. Given the lower overall sales for the Leaf these days, the drop from December wasn't as bad, with 1,347 Leafs sold in the last month of 2015. What's absolutely amazing is that after over five complete years of sales, the cumulative totals of the Leaf and Volt sales in the US remain almost exactly the same. The current difference is only 600 units, with the Leaf on top. If the Volt continues to outsell the Leaf for the next few months – and all indications are that that is likely, since Nissan is offering the first-gen model while Chevy has put out it much-improved second-gen - then we will soon get back to an equilibrium like we were at the end of February 2015, when the difference was just two units. As always, our more complete wrap up of all the green car sales in the US will be coming soon. Stay tuned. Related Video: News Source: Nissan, GM Green Chevrolet Nissan Electric ev sales

Least favorite vehicles of 2017

The Autoblog staff has driven a lot of vehicles in 2017. This video showcases our least favorite vehicles from this year, along with some thoughts on why they made the list. Wanna read more head over to https://www.autoblog.com/photos/least-favorite-cars-2017/ BMW Fiat Lexus Nissan RAM Toyota Autoblog Minute Videos Original Video nismo nissan sentra fiat 500x Arts and Entertainment 500x bmw m240i rogue