Set for launch in the first quarter of 2012, the Nissan Sunny will sit beneath the next Tiida/Pulsar and is, in essence, a sedan version of the Micra.
The car has just been launched in China with the Sunny name. Nissan Australia spokesman Jeff Fisher says it's a definite for our region but it may not wear the Sunny name and is likely to be built in Thailand or Japan.
"It's not the Tiida/Pulsar replacement," he says. "That's a bigger car.The Sunny is in the light-car class and is based on the Micra."
Mr Fisher says the Sunny sedan has been fast-tracked for release in China. It is built in the Guangzhou province at a new joint venture factory of Chinese carmaker Dongfeng and Nissan.
"It goes on sale in China next quarter," he says. "That is the first country to build the car. It will then be rolled out for sale in 170 countries."
Nissan first launched a Sunny model in China in 2003 under the new Dongfeng Nissan partnership. That car was an immediate hit, particularly by young families aged in their 30s and in the market for a mid-sized sedan.
The latest Sunny has the Micra 1.5-litre four-cylinder 75kW/136Nm engine attached to a continuously-variable transmission (CVT) automatic.
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Neil Dowling
Contributing Journalist
GoAutoMedia
Cars have been the corner stone to Neil’s passion, beginning at pre-school age, through school but then pushed sideways while he studied accounting.
It was rekindled when he started contributing to magazines including Bushdriver and then when he started a motoring section in Perth’s The Western Mail.
He was then appointed as a finance writer for the evening Daily News, supplemented by writing its motoring column. He moved to The Sunday Times as finance editor and after a nine-year term, finally drove back into motoring when in 1998 he was asked to rebrand and restyle the newspaper’s motoring section, expanding it over 12 years from a two-page section to a 36-page lift-out.
In 2010 he was selected to join News Ltd’s national motoring group Carsguide and covered national and international events, launches, news conferences and Car of the Year awards until November 2014 when he moved into freelancing, working for GoAuto, The West Australian, Western 4WDriver magazine, Bauer Media and as an online content writer for one of Australia’s biggest car groups.
He has involved himself in all aspects including motorsport where he has competed in everything from motocross to motorkhanas and rallies including Targa West and the ARC Forest Rally.
He loves all facets of the car industry, from design, manufacture, testing, marketing and even business structures and believes cars are one of the few high-volume consumables to combine a very high degree of engineering enlivened with an even higher degree of emotion from its consumers.
About Author
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