Is Nissan Looking to Bring a Low-Priced Roadster to Market?
Nissan introduced an interesting conceptual sports car at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit last year,
named Azeal, which had a lot of media abuzz with excitement, speculating that a sporty subcompact coupe would soon join a new subcompact hatchback based off the next-generation Micra, and that both were headed for North America.
While the hatchback has been confirmed as the Versa, based off of the Japan-market Tiida, no confirmation has been made regarding a sport model. Could the URGE be it? No doubt, the prognosticators will get fired up when Nissan's next sports model hits Cobo Hall in the second week of January, and there may be reason for they're excitement.
Currently,
Nissan only has one sports car, the 350Z, and its high price puts it out of reach of potential Mazda MX-5, Pontiac Solstice customers. The latter car's sales have shown that there is indeed a place for low end roadsters. But why such excitement in a category which has long been solely owned by the little Mazda? After all, for years Toyota has battled it out against the Miata with its mid-engine MR2 roadster, but its few takers caused other automakers to question the entire roadster market segment. Then the Solstice arrives, and due to attractive styling, excellent road manners and sufficient power, Pontiac dealers can't keep up with demand. What seems to have dogged Toyota all these years might seem obvious in hindsight, styling matters even more in the fickle roadster market than it does among midsize sedan buyers.
Nissan introduced an interesting conceptual sports car at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit last year,
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| While Nissan's Azeal, shown at last year's Detroit auto show, unitially created some media buzz about a future compact sport coupe, so far nothing has materialized. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, American Auto Press) |
While the hatchback has been confirmed as the Versa, based off of the Japan-market Tiida, no confirmation has been made regarding a sport model. Could the URGE be it? No doubt, the prognosticators will get fired up when Nissan's next sports model hits Cobo Hall in the second week of January, and there may be reason for they're excitement.
Currently,
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| Currently, Nissan only has one sports car, the 350Z, and its high price puts it out of reach of potential Mazda MX-5, Pontiac Solstice customers. (Photo: Trevor Hofmann, American Auto Press) |