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 What do you get when you cross a conventional family hatchback with an SUV? This was the question posed by Nissan’s European strategists one decade ago when they decided to ditch the slow-selling and traditionally styled Lower-Medium sector Almera and pull out of the sector all together. With Nissan’s West European sales heading towards their lowest point since the late 1970s during the middle part of the new millennium and after loosing 1.6 percentage market share points since its peak in 1993 – when it was Japan’s largest manufacturer in Europe – an unorthodox do-or-die plan was called for. One of Europe’s greatest autoindustry success stories for decades In retrospect, Nissan’s decision to replace its Golf-sized Almera – which had seen West European sales fall to a respective 74,700, 61,900 and 56,000 in its final full years between 2003 and 2005 – with a Crossover did not get the thumbs up from autoindustry analysts. Luck or good judgment? Either way, history shows that Nissan’s decision to replace its conventionally styled, but largely luckless Almera with a Crossover has become one of Europe’s great automotive success stories of the past decade or so...more Vantastique – Renault’s new Trafic 31 July 2014 > ROAD TEST | Late to Crossover party - Suzuki SX4 S-Cross 17 June 2014 > ROAD TEST | Rebirth of design icon - Audi’s 3rd generation TT 09 Apr 2014 |
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