Square Is As Square Does, Kia Goes For An Extreme Makeover And Hyundai Beats Toyota With The Quality Stick. Who Woulda Thunk?
What's the second-biggest Japanese carmaker to do when it sees Number One driving off with scads of tuner wannabees behind the power of a boxy, foxy Scion called the xB? That's exactly what we asked Nissan executives who asked us to repeat the question, requested a Japanese translation, and then simply said, "Yes." Damn American high schools and their lack of language arts!
Good thing we already knew the deal going in. Truth be told, Nissan is envious of Toyota's success with the Scion brand-and it's the squared-off xB that's taken the tuner world by storm (say, a Category 1 like 1995's Hurricane Opal, if not quite 1992's Category 5 Hurricane Andrew). Even Toyota is said to be shocked that the xB is accounting for way more than half of Scion sales. With Honda's rolling quadrangle Element setting the stage and the xB currently hogging the spotlight, Nissan is said to be ready to grab some of the action too.
And that's where the Cube comes in. The Cube practically describes itself-if you've seen the box your PlayStation2 came in, you get the gist of its slab-sided shape. In Japan it's a screaming hit with the lost generation that favors disco platform shoes and tiger hair. And that's why no less than Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn says the next Cube will be a global car, meaning it's headed to the States, where it will be pitched at the lost generation that favors disco platform shoes and tiger hair. The new Sentra will move up and out of the bargain basement, and the Cube, it seems, will shoot out of Nissan's Mexican assembly plant, priced to throw down against the cheapest Korean cars.
In its wildest dreams, Nissan probably sees the Cube outfitted with a whole lineup of accessories and gear that could turn the $12,000 box into a $20,000 ride, customized right at the dealer, starting sometime in mid-2006. That's a good dream-almost as good as the one in which we see the Olsen twins riding shotgun in a homemade version of an Aerosmith video. Maybe the Nissan PR guys can hook us up? Guys?
Spectra Beefs UpKia's reputation as cheap and easy wheels came long before people said the same thing about us. When the Korean upstart began selling Sephias and Sportages in the States in the late 1990s, the whole country (theirs, not ours) had a rep for good deals, if not great shakes from teensy four-cylinders and a somewhat nonchalant attitude toward handling. But things change. We brought up our grade in Remedial Math this quarter, for example. And Kia has done an extreme makeover on its vehicles, particularly the Spectra that's new for 2005.
Good things start underneath in the new Spectra. That's because the Kia shares a lot of its running gear with the Hyundai Elantra, and everybody knows the current Elantra totally spanks the last version and runs a close second to the Focus and Civic for baked-in goodness. You can feel a lot of the Elantra in the Spectra, and that's a good thing, to quote one well-known prison bitch.