2014 Nissan Rogue Mp on 2040-cars

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Infiniti brand will finally make its debut in Japan, but not the name

Nissan left the automotive media scratching its collective head when it announced that its Infiniti luxury brand would be renaming all of its vehicles, with cars wearing the Q designation and CUVs/SUVs wearing the QX badge. So the G Sedan became the Q50, and the G Coupe became the Q60. The QX56, meanwhile, became the QX80, and the FX crossover became the QX70. It is still thoroughly confusing nearly a year later.
Not content to confuse its US customers alone, Nissan will be fiddling with the name of one of its most revered Japanese-market models - the Skyline. Rebadged for the US as the Q50, and before that as the G Sedan/Coupe, the new Skyline will wear an Infiniti badge. What makes this truly confusing, though, is that the car won't be called the Infiniti Skyline, despite its badging. It won't even be called the Nissan Skyline, anymore. It's now just the Skyline. Apparently, Nissan thinks it can capitalize on the Skyline's link to the Japanese royal family (the Skyline was originally a product of Prince Motors, which provided vehicles for the Emperor and his family), by ditching any brand names and referring to it as its own model, according to Automotive News.
Now, confusion aside, there are things about Infiniti badging in Japan that make sense. Badging all the Nissans that eventually become Infinitis as Infinitis in the first place goes a long way to make the brand seem separate and distinct from its parent company. Speaking to AN, Infiniti's executive vice president of global product planning, Andy Palmer, puts it this way, "We have to treat Infiniti, if you will, in the same [way] that Volkswagen treats Audi. It's not a Nissan-plus. Infiniti has to stand head-to-head with any of those German competitors."

2014 Nissan 370Z Nismo

Michigan is one of those places where we can sub-divide the seasons into good and bad portions, with each producing a noticeable shift. The week prior to my time in the 2014 Nissan 370Z Nismo, it was 65 to 70 degrees and sunny, all week long. Anyone care to guess what the following week was like?
Windy, cold and damp weather typified my week in the Z, with temps hovering around 55 degrees and several days of showers. Yes, I got the first week of the bad part of fall. The Z was hardly happy during its time with me, but we both persevered, and I made a point of sprinting out to the garage anytime the ground seemed remotely dry enough to test this striking two-seater. That enthusiasm waned quickly, though, as the week wore on.
By all accounts, the Z is a car that I should like. It's an uncompromising sports car, but as I discovered during my travels, sometimes a little compromise is welcome, and living with a car like the Z - particularly the angrier, Nismo-tuned model - quickly becomes a case of too much of a good thing.

Recharge Wrap-up: Nissan "religious" about zero-emissions, Tesla crashes at dealership, Formula E on-board video

Nissan is pretty darn serious about being king of the EV industry. Just see what Chief Planning Officer Andy Palmer has to say at the launch of the e-NV200: "When it comes to zero emissions, we're absolutely religious. We'll be the absolute, No. 1 leader in zero emissions. No doubt. That's our positioning." Bold words, to be sure. Toyota, on the other hand, ended its collaboration with Tesla (whom Nissan mustn't forget about in its quest to reign supreme in the EV world) to build the RAV4 EV, and will focus instead on hybrids and testing the waters with hydrogen cars. Says Jim Lentz, CEO of Toyota North America, "I would rather invest my dollars in fuel cell development than in another 2,500 EVs." Read more at Automotive News or Autoweek. To celebrate 25 years of TDI technology, Audi is releasing the A7 Sportback 3.0 TDI Competition special edition in Europe. The Competition uses Audi's biturbocharged, 3.0-liter diesel engine boosted to 326 horsepower, giving the car a 0-62 time of 5.1 seconds. It comes with the S line sport package and is offered in four exterior colors: Daytona Gray, Misano Red, Nardo Gray and Sepang Blue. The interior is black leather, with the option of Misano Red or Agate Gray contrast stitching. The Competition edition will go on sale in August starting at ˆ72,000 (about $97,700). Audi's first Turbocharged Direct Injection engine debuted at the 1989 Frankfurt Motor Show in the Audi 100 2.5 TDI. See the press release down below for more details. There was another Tesla Model S crash recently, this one at the Tesla Store. The driver apparently crashed the freshly purchased car into the Tesla sign before even making it off the lot. According to Reddit user s1lentway, who was at the Tesla Store in Fremont, California when it happened, "We believe this is someone who just got their car. They must have been driving it for less than a minute and lost control, crashing right into the sign missing the showroom glass windows only by a few inches." Wrecked Exotics suggests the driver hit the accelerator instead of the brake pedal. Probably the best comment in the Reddit post: "Edison strikes again." See the original post at Reddit for more corny jokes, speculation and similar stories from other users. Take a lap in a Formula E racecar. The video below offers up the sights and sounds of a hot, wet lap in the open-cockpit, all-electric Spark-Renault SRT_01E.