“Scratch Guard Coat” will be applied for the first time on an SUV model that is scheduled for a partial makeover in the near future. The paint will be applied to the car’s chassis, bumpers, door mirrors, among other parts.

hat do you think this will do to teh detailing industry. There are many people, myself included, who make some or all of their living off of removing scratches and other defects from the vehicles of others. I guess after 3 years it would be back to normal but this could be a big blow for a lot of good, hardworking people.

CEO Ghosn said that the automaker plans to soon replace conventional automatic transmissions with continuously variable transmission (CVT) units for all of its front-wheel-drive North American models except the Quest minivan. In addition to advantages in packaging, performance, and initial cost, Ghosn said every million vehicles equipped with CVTs rather than standard automatics reduces carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to putting 200,000 hybrid-electric vehicles on the road.

A fifth of Nissan Motor Corp.’s top North American managers will leave the company when it moves its U.S. headquarters to Tennessee this summer, including the senior executive for product planning and the chief product spokesman.

Jack Collins, vice president for product planning, and Kurt von Zumwalt, director for product and consumer public relations, are among 12 managers ranked director, vice president or higher who told the company they would resign or retire.

Nissan announced on Nov. 10 that it was relocating its headquarters to Nashville from Gardena, Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles, despite intense lobbying from U.S. executives opposed to the move.

Nissan gave its 60 highest-ranking executives until Feb. 1 to decide whether they would head east with the company. The other roughly 1,240 employees have until April.

The list of departing executives includes Joy Crose, vice president for legal, and John Rinek, director of media and agency management.

Nissan spokeswoman Frederique Le Greves said that, excluding managers who will retire, only 15 percent will not make the move.

Collins and von Zumwalt both plan to retire. The company has not yet announced replacements.

“If it’s 80 percent” who are moving, “it’s a sign to middle management that loyalty at the top is running high,” said Jim Sanfilippo, executive vice president for business development at marketing firm AMCI in Bloomfield Hills.

“But I’m wondering how solid these statistics are,” he said. “It may be preliminary intent on the part of these guys. It’s unconfirmed until they make the move.”

Nissan expects to save money by relocating to Nashville, which has a lower cost of living than California and is near the company’s U.S. manufacturing operations.

As part of a plan to cut administrative costs worldwide, Nissan also is relocating its Japanese headquarters from downtown Tokyo to Yokohama, an hour away.

But auto industry experts say the company may lose some of the edginess in its North American corporate culture by uprooting the headquarters from the trend-setting California market. Nissan generates more than half of its total profit in the United States.

The company will relocate employees in June and July. They will work in downtown Nashville for two years until a new headquarters in nearby Franklin, Tenn., is complete.Nissan’s North American design and advance product planning operations will stay in California.

Nissan studying possibility of building full-size van for U.S. market

AutoWeek | Published 03/06/06, 2:06 pm et

GENEVA -- Nissan Motor Co. is studying the possibility of assembling a full-sized van in North America off its full-sized truck platform.

That platform is shared by the Titan pickup and two SUVs, the Nissan Armada and Infiniti QX56, all built in Canton, Miss. Nissan is re-engineering the platform for 2008, along with adding commercial versions of the Titan pickup.

Nissan said its research shows that owners of full-sized vans are unhappy with their vehicles and would be willing to switch to another brand if the van were competitively priced. General Motors and Ford Motor Co. account for 94.5 percent of the U.S. market.

"A lot of van owners told us, 'Ford, Chrysler and GM betrayed us; they don't consider our expectations, our needs,'" said Francois Bancon, Nissan's head of product planning and development.

Additionally, Bancon said in an interview at the Geneva auto show, van owners said the quality of those products is disappointing and "the driving position is horrible."

If produced, the van would debut after 2008.

Last year, 361,876 full-sized vans were sold in the United States. Ford's E-series van and Club Wagon were the leaders with 179,543 combined sales, accounting for 49.6 percent of the market.

The Chevrolet Express/G van was second with 127,585 sales, followed by the GMC Savana at 34,765 and the Dodge Sprinter at 19,578, according to the Automotive News Data Center.

"We have not made a decision to produce the van, but I think it could be a possibility," Bancon said. "We will have (opportunities with) the next-generation Titan platform."

A Nissan full-sized van would be priced to compete with the Ford and GM entries, not the Sprinter, he said. Because the Dodge Sprinter is a modified version of the Mercedes-Benz van sold in Europe, it "is very expensive in the U.S.," he said.

Nissan announced in January that it would create a division to sell light commercial vehicles in North America, a market segment where it is not present. Nissan's Light Commercial Vehicle and Fleet Division began operating Feb. 1, headed by Mike Hobson, a 15-year Nissan veteran.

Nissan has enjoyed its share of kudos for handsome and crisp exterior styling, but the Japanese automaker knows its interiors haven’t kept pace. The company plans to change all that by teaming with London-based design house Conran & Partners to create fresh and unique Nissan interiors.

Conran, which espouses a clutter-free design ideology, first collaborated with Nissan in 2003 on the Cube+Conran concept for the Tokyo Motor Show. The production Cube+Conran went on sale shortly after and all 1000 units sold out within two weeks.

Getting the Conran treatment this year are the Cube, March and LaFesta, which all sport specifically designed seats upholstered in bright, modern fabrics or leather.

“We have great respect for Conran’s simple, modern, warm designs, and I believe Conran appreciates Nissan’s distinctive design approach and Japanese DNA,” says Shiro Nakamura, Nissan’s chief creative officer.

Conran’s treatment includes seat fabric with “patterns inspired by romantic shadows of spring leaves and flowers” in the March+Conran city car, and plush red seating in the LaFesta+Conran minivan, with a panoramic roof shade overhead that sports bright multicolored stripes “inspired by the colorful parasols and lawn chairs of an English picnic.”

Promo-speak aside, what Nissan is trying to say is that it is trying hard to emphasize the importance of clean and modern interior design. It remains unclear whether Nissan plans Conran touches for its entire lineup.