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Nissan, Renault break up the Ghosn-style almighty chairmanship

YOKOHAMA, Japan — Japan's Nissan Motor and France's Renault said they would retool the world's top car-making alliance to put themselves on more equal footing, breaking up the all-powerful chairmanship previously wielded by ousted boss Carlos Ghosn. The removal of Ghosn, credited for rescuing Nissan from near-bankruptcy in 1999, had caused much uncertainty about the future of the alliance and some speculation the partnership could even unravel. The companies, together with junior ally Mitsubishi Motors, on Tuesday said the chairman of Renault would serve as the head of the alliance but — in a critical sign of the rebalancing — not as chairman of Nissan. "This is a very special day for the alliance," Renault SA's chairman, Jean-Dominique Senard, told reporters after a meeting at Nissan's Yokohama headquarters. He spoke to reporters along with Renault's chief executive, Thierry Bollore; Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa; and Osamu Masuko, CEO of the smaller Japanese alliance partner Mitsubishi Motors Corp. Those four executives will meet every month in Paris or Tokyo and oversee various projects, helping to make the companies' operations more efficient, they said. Nissan has said that Ghosn wielded too much power, creating a lack of oversight and corporate governance. It was not clear who would become Nissan's chairman, vacant since Ghosn was arrested in Japan in November. But the automakers gave no indication of any immediate change in their cross-shareholding agreement, one which has given smaller Renault SA more sway over Nissan. The alliance did not announce any changes in mutual stake holdings. The so-called Restated Alliance Master Agreement that has bound them together so far remains intact, they said. "We are fostering a new start of the alliance. There is nothing to do with the shareholdings and the cross-shareholdings that are still there and still in place," Renault Chairman Senard said. "Our future lies in the efficiency of this alliance," he told reporters at Nissan's headquarters in Yokohama. Senard also said he would not seek to be chairman of Nissan, but instead was a "natural candidate" to be vice-chairman. Former Nissan chairman Ghosn was released on a $9 million bail last week after spending more than 100 days in a Tokyo detention center.

Junkyard Gem: 1992 Mitsubishi Expo LRV

Chrysler did reasonably well selling first-generation Mitsubishi Chariots in North America with Dodge/Plymouth Colt Vista badging during the 1980s, and so Mitsubishi Motors decided to take a shot at selling the second-generation Chariots with its own company's badges when those vehicles went into production in 1991. Those vehicles were known as Mitsubishi Expos here, with sales beginning in the 1992 model year and continuing through 1995. Here's one of those ultra-rare first-year Expos, found in a Colorado self-service car graveyard recently. The Chariot line had split into two in its home market by that time, with the regular four-door wagons still called Chariots and a shortened three-door version given the RVR name, which stood for Recreational Vehicle Runner (actually ßVR, with the Cyrillic first character). In the United States, the Chariot was sold as the Expo Wagon while the ßVR was dubbed the Expo LRV. The LRV's door setup is a bit odd. On the driver's side, there's just one door. On the passenger side, there's a sliding rear door (with interlock to prevent it from tearing off the fuel-filler door if it's open). In right-hand-drive markets, Mitsubishi put the slider on the left side while keeping the fuel filler on the right. Chrysler sold its own versions of the ßVR, of course. The Eagle version was known as the Summit Wagon. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Dodge and Plymouth dealers sold the ßVR as the Colt Vista. Since this is the base-model Expo LRV for 1992, it has the 1.8-liter SOHC 4G93 engine, sending 113 horsepower and 116 pound-feet in the general direction of the front wheels. The all-wheel-drive and Sport versions got a 2.4-liter 4G64 rated at 136 horsepower and 145 pound-feet. The emissions sticker tells us that this car was sold new in California. It was built in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. This one has the optional four-speed automatic, which cost $670 extra (about $1,460 in 2023 dollars). Not even 100,000 miles passed beneath this Expo's wheels during its 31-year career. Why is it in this place, then? Here's the reason: a crash that mangled the left front suspension. The ignition key dangles from the kind of lanyard used by car auctions, so we can assume this car got totaled instantly by the insurance company and had no chance of being sold to any customer other than a junkyard. The MSRP for this car was $11,537, or about $25,132 today.

Mitsubishi dealers would really like a truck to sell

While Mitsubishi is switching gears to focus on crossovers, that won't address a market that its dealers would like to be in. While answering questions from the press last night, Don Swearingen, executive vice president and COO of Mitsubishi's North American office, mentioned that its US dealers have a pickup truck high on their "shopping lists." In fact, he said that a truck is pretty much at the top. Mitsubishi does already have a small pickup truck it sells in foreign markets, badged as the Triton or L200. However, Swearingen said that just because dealers want a truck doesn't mean it's going to happen, citing various obstacles to bringing one to market. If, for example, Mitsubishi brought over the Triton, the company would have to go through the long, expensive process of certifying it for US safety and emissions regulations, not to mention making sure it fulfilled American buyers' demands. There's also the Chicken Tax, which levees a steep tariff on trucks built outside of the US and imported in. One possible way Mitsubishi could circumvent all of those issues, though, would be to leverage its new partnership with Nissan. Nissan already sells Frontier small pickups in the US, and Mitsubishi could simply redesign that model to suit its style. It's something that both companies are familiar with as well. Mitsubishi previously sold a restyled Dodge Dakota as the Raider, and Nissan allowed Suzuki to rebrand the Frontier to be sold as the Equator for a short time. It would certainly be a quick way to get into the truck market. However, Mitsubishi would also need to decide if such a product would actually be profitable, in addition to satisfying dealers. Related Video: