Nissan has gone from being a sought after sports car brand to the second worst manufacturer in Japan. They are lucky that Mitsubishi makes cars in that respect. After Infiniti took the near premium market, Nissan went down market and now makes cars that are sold to subprime buyers en masse. I remember when the early to mid 90s 300zx turbo came out I put that car on a pedestal as a semi attainable near super car. Now they just make commodity crap cars that all look exactly the same. Sad to see this decline.
To expand on this, the 2003 Z really did usher in an interesting period for Nissan. The early Infiniti G series based on the same platform and sharing the VQ engine was lauded. Even the Sentra got a cool SE-R Spec V (albeit awkwardly named!) But... then design got weird (Cube, Juke, later Rogues, all the angles on Nissan/Infiniti sedans). They threw away the G and M names and moved to the generic Q naming. They replaced their steering with an electronic system, dispensing of all driver's feel. What happened to "Nissan. Driven."?? Of course, this is all from a car person/driver perspective. But they never reached Toyota/Honda levels of reputation for a great appliance vehicle, and they let their "fun to drive" reputation dissolve almost overnight.
I agree except that I don't think they were ever in a different position despite some iconic sports cars; Toyota and Honda have always been on top. Well, maybe there was one change- Subaru got their shit together starting in the early 90s and, at least in my opinion, are definitely preferable to Nissan at this point.
I don't see how they're more luxurious considering Infiniti is an arm of Nissan and I consider them to be much more luxury-oriented than Subaru, but I'd say my perception is based on brand strength and perceived quality. Subaru's brand has a bit of a halo over it due to their charitable, environmental, and subversively social efforts (e.g. their gay-friendly ad campaign), as well as the typically less painful dealership experience.
Well, all of that, plus, as a car guy, I have some positive fuzzy feelings for them because they finally brought some modern turbo-charged AWD rally cars over to the US at a time when there weren't a lot of interesting fast cars (early 2000s).
Not saying that bland styling is making them crap. That is just to make them commodity cars. They are crap because they took away any sporting premise that they brand was built on by forcing CVT transmissions as the only option for most of their line up. Maybe the altima will run a long time, but it will also run with faded and sagging plastic parts, it will be a rattle trap with cheap plastic interiors and several generations old technology inside. Cars made by Kia and Hyundai that were laughed at a decade ago now FAR SURPASS nissan in quality and fit/finish.
