Incredible events for Nissan

[TRed]

I have been driving Nissans for about 20 years now, and since the late '70s, the aftermarket has ignored Nissan as far as "radicle" accessories is concerned. Oh sure, folks like Rancho and Fabtech have produced modest upgrades and installer friendly kits for performance enhancement. But never since before the introduction of the Toyota 4x4, has anyone introduced these accesories at the release time of the vehicle. For years manafacturers have been making accessories for the big three and Toyota and Jeep, that are available as soon as one purchases the rig from the dealer. It was two years before anyone made a intake system for my 3.3 v6, and as for a lift kit, it was and still is hard to find a good well made system. Well all that is over and done! The new line of Nissans is so hot in the mass market, that add ons and real accessories are comming out before anyone even owns a new model. It is a new world out there, and the Nissan product line is getting some nice attention from the aftermarket.

[720Finder]

Hopefully the aftermarket will look to the wheelers for ideas and make stuff that works rather than just mall crawler crap. But for now it's still up to us to do the R&D for the hardcore stuff, and nothing is more encouraging than to see the number of SAS projects out there. There's got to be 5 times more than there were at this time last year. Time to get out the sawzalls and mig welders and get to work.

I've heard that the Nissan execs at GONE Moab said that Nismo will be making a special edition X-terra with a 4:1 t-case!

[guy_r]

I cannot describe how stoopid nissan are for not releasing the GU and GQ patrol in the US. IN Aus it would be unheard of for any event not to feature one of the toughest 4x4's on the planet.

My GU can run 35's (offrad and hard) with a 2 inch lift .. 33's fit on stock suspension .. guys are running flexy 4 inch lifts and 37's The driveline is easily up to the task ...

It is great that the US market is starting to support the like of the Xterra as it means that some of those kit will filter through to the land downunder ...

[ALF]

I think we may see a change in the market place from the imports soon. Toyota appears ready to bring back a modified fj40 concept in 2005 and we have already seen the Jeep Rubicon do well from a domestic mfg. I believe others will follow suit. I wish we could get some of the cool non usa market vehicles expecially those with diesels.

Speaking of diesels we will be seeing more of these in the near future as well in trucks and passenger vehicles. Toytota is already training its techs on the diesel powerplant they plan to put in the Tundra in late 2004.

Lets see what Nissan has cooking. Anyone seen any pics of prototypes that are exciting.

alf

[Plush_Darkside]

It would be nice to see (even just limited # runs) of factory capable vehicles from the import market. Hell, even the American companies are getting bad, once apon a time a Blazer was a good rig, now they are over inflated station wagons like most of the modern market "SUVs".

It would be nice to get a new vehicle that was trail ready without voiding the warantee (Other than Rubicons and H1s)

[D-RAT]

It would be nice to see (even just limited # runs) of factory capable vehicles from the import market. Hell, even the American companies are getting bad, once apon a time a Blazer was a good rig, now they are over inflated station wagons like most of the modern market "SUVs".

It would be nice to get a new vehicle that was trail ready without voiding the warantee (Other than Rubicons and H1s)

[/B]

There in lies the problem. Low volume = low profit. Unfortunately, Nissan is like every other manufacturer, and they promote what sells in this country. For every one of us that drool to have a dual solid axle Patrol to hammer on, there's a hundred out there perfectly satisfied with a stock Xterra.

Sad but true. Kudos to Jeep for at least building the Rubicon, even though it'll probably only survive 2-3 years.

[onlyonedr]

I am at least glad to see that the new trucks (Titan, 05 Frontier, etc) are getting rear selectable locking diffs. Finally a clutch-cancel switch for the manual Frontier for '05 as well. Looks like someone is at least listening with one ear.