Although I’ve seen the production version of the Nissan Qazana, I can’t tell you anything about it. And that’s mainly because I’ve signed a confidentially agreement.
But – thanks to the concept Qazana - it’s no secret that the showroom version will really polarize opinion.
The Qazana is the beginning of a move by Nissan to break out of its stylist comfort zone. Company bosses want their cars to ‘have a more attractive and emotional appeal in the future’.
However, Nissan insiders are denying that the production Qazana is ‘a risky’ move. "We have studied the market and customers extremely closely and are sure that it will be success," they say.
Nissan last calculated bet – a move into Crossovers of varying types – has proved to be a massive success. The Qashqai was the first ‘4x4’ to offered in a size that made sense on the school and supermarket run, as well as being priced reasonably.
Indeed, last year Nissan sold 183,000 Qashqais across Europe and Russia (which might make it one of the best-selling UK produced cars of all time).
Nissan Qazana 'will split opinion'
Market research after the Qashqai’s launch also showed that the average age of the buyer was rather lower than a conventional C-segment car and that more women bought it, which is just what the marketing department ordered.
However, the Qashqai didn’t exactly push the styling envelope. It seems that Nissan wants its future customers to be more ‘emotionally engaged’ with its products, a process driven by styling.
I’m not so sure. Last week I saw an H-plate Nissan Primera rolling down the street. After registering that the car was now 19 years old, my next thought was just how much I enjoyed driving a Primera 2.0 eGT over the Christmas break in 1993. I can still remember it quite clearly.
For my money, making really good cars is a much less risky way of ‘emotionally engaging’ buyers.
