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The whole story is a bit hard to untangle, but I wouldn't be surprised if both that he literally saved Nissan and funneled money off to personal projects is tru

The whole story is a bit hard to untangle, but I wouldn't be surprised if both that he literally saved Nissan and funneled money off to personal projects is true. He strikes me as the type of executive who believe he can do what he wants as long as he shows result. It was rumoured that the house he lives in in Beirut actually belongs to Nissan and they've been trying to get him kicked out, but with little success.

causality0 5y ago
Nissan may have been saved, but it came at the cost of their reputation. According to my auto mechanic friends Nissan once ranked up there with Toyota and Honda for reliability, but their quality plummeted after the Renault deal.
- tmh88j 5y ago
  > According to my auto mechanic friends Nissan once ranked up there with Toyota and Honda for reliability, but their quality plummeted after the Renault deal. Nissan went to crap when they took a controlling stake in JATCO and started using those god awful CVT's in everything, and then stopped putting any effort into their sports cars to keep them competitive enough to lure enthusiasts to their brand. I owned a GT-R for several years and it was a great car, but it's going on 13 years of the same generation and the 370z is hardly any different from the 350z that first came out in 2002. I could rant for hours, I used to love Nissan. I'm hoping the 400z will turn things around for them in the eyes of enthusiasts if it's priced reasonably.
  - oscb 5y ago
    Exactly this! Ghosn saved Nissan by focusing on optimizing and reducing costs and while that must've helped a lot in the short/medium term it came at a cost in the long term. It's as if Nissan had gotten stuck in the last decade of tech for cars. They went from competing with Porsche and having popular electric cars to basically being an afterthought in the market.
    - economusty 5y ago
      Competing with Porsche? Can you expound on that?
      - tmh88j 5y ago
        The R35 GT-R took down everything from Ferraris to Porsches and Lamborghinis when it first came out, both in straight line speed and handling on the track. Results at 3m10s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDP7Pty8Qnw&t=130s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDP7Pty8Qnw&t=130s Probably a bit of acting, but Jeremy Clarkson had to be carted off the track while driving one because he injured his neck on a particularly tight corner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXFSVoVqhYw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXFSVoVqhYw
        Nemrod67 5y ago
        Let me share a gem: https://youtu.be/9ElvaHArai4 https://youtu.be/9ElvaHArai4 do activate the subtitles! Best MOTORing January 2011. ""Super Sports Battle in Sugo"" Cars: NISSAN GT-R, MB SLS AMG, FERRARI 430 SD, PORSCHE 911Turbo S, AUDI R8 5.2 Drivers:Keiichi ""DK"" Tsuchiya Naomi Hattori, Takayuki Kinoshita, Seiji Ara, Tetsuya Tanaka
        AtlasBarfed 5y ago
        And ten years later a 130 grand car (would that be the cheapest in the field back in 2010? Was the corvette or lotus the cheapest in that clip?) would eviscerate them by... two seconds?
    - fomine3 5y ago
      To be fair R35 GT-R was Ghosn's project.
  - ericbarrett 5y ago
    Even setting aside reliability, the Nissan CVT is so awful to drive. The power delivery in every car I drove with one (always a rental) is incredibly mushy and the constant-RPM engine drone grates like a fly buzz.
    - tmh88j 5y ago
      Yea, they are absolutely the worst. They gave a Murano loaner while my GT-R was getting its transmission replaced and that piece of junk sat in my driveway and didn't move for a month. High performance, low performance, they offer some terrible transmissions across their entire lineup! As much as I want to defend the GR6 because it is phenomenal when it works and the stock housing can take an insane amount of power compared to other DCT's, mine died after only 10k miles and it was a 2015 model, which was supposed to be a non-issue after like 2011 from the launch control updates.
  - JKCalhoun 5y ago
    Yes, CVTs are crap. Every time I consider purchasing a car (used or new) I pass over the CVT offerings — which include most (all?) of Nissan's line up.
    - AtlasBarfed 5y ago
      I won't disagree tha CVTs are crap, but they were an attempt for better gas mileage / carbon emissions reduction. I have heard they are improving, but by the time they figure them out the ICE car will probably be utterly obsolete.
tomcam 5y ago
I don’t know much about cars, but I understood Renault’s quality reputation enough to understand the acquisition was a disaster from the get-go. So I’m not sure I can agree with your premises.
- agumonkey 5y ago
  While trying to understand how Renault managed to acquire so much of Nissan I was reminded that Nissan was nearly bankrupt in 1999, there's even a springer document about this period https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230236912_5&ved=2ahUKEwilpeXos-HxAhUSzYUKHUPpAQcQFnoECCMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw35n_KXcvoCyBhv6HatEQKQ https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https:/...
ajcp 5y ago
It belongs to Nissan in that Nissan alleges Ghosn bought the place with money he stole from them. I used to live just down the street from the place. Lovely neighborhood.

causality0 5y ago

Nissan may have been saved, but it came at the cost of their reputation. According to my auto mechanic friends Nissan once ranked up there with Toyota and Honda for reliability, but their quality plummeted after the Renault deal.

tmh88j 5y ago
> According to my auto mechanic friends Nissan once ranked up there with Toyota and Honda for reliability, but their quality plummeted after the Renault deal. Nissan went to crap when they took a controlling stake in JATCO and started using those god awful CVT's in everything, and then stopped putting any effort into their sports cars to keep them competitive enough to lure enthusiasts to their brand. I owned a GT-R for several years and it was a great car, but it's going on 13 years of the same generation and the 370z is hardly any different from the 350z that first came out in 2002. I could rant for hours, I used to love Nissan. I'm hoping the 400z will turn things around for them in the eyes of enthusiasts if it's priced reasonably.
- oscb 5y ago
  Exactly this! Ghosn saved Nissan by focusing on optimizing and reducing costs and while that must've helped a lot in the short/medium term it came at a cost in the long term. It's as if Nissan had gotten stuck in the last decade of tech for cars. They went from competing with Porsche and having popular electric cars to basically being an afterthought in the market.
  - economusty 5y ago
    Competing with Porsche? Can you expound on that?
    - tmh88j 5y ago
      The R35 GT-R took down everything from Ferraris to Porsches and Lamborghinis when it first came out, both in straight line speed and handling on the track. Results at 3m10s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDP7Pty8Qnw&t=130s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDP7Pty8Qnw&t=130s Probably a bit of acting, but Jeremy Clarkson had to be carted off the track while driving one because he injured his neck on a particularly tight corner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXFSVoVqhYw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXFSVoVqhYw
      - Nemrod67 5y ago
        Let me share a gem: https://youtu.be/9ElvaHArai4 https://youtu.be/9ElvaHArai4 do activate the subtitles! Best MOTORing January 2011. ""Super Sports Battle in Sugo"" Cars: NISSAN GT-R, MB SLS AMG, FERRARI 430 SD, PORSCHE 911Turbo S, AUDI R8 5.2 Drivers:Keiichi ""DK"" Tsuchiya Naomi Hattori, Takayuki Kinoshita, Seiji Ara, Tetsuya Tanaka
      - AtlasBarfed 5y ago
        And ten years later a 130 grand car (would that be the cheapest in the field back in 2010? Was the corvette or lotus the cheapest in that clip?) would eviscerate them by... two seconds?
  - fomine3 5y ago
    To be fair R35 GT-R was Ghosn's project.
- ericbarrett 5y ago
  Even setting aside reliability, the Nissan CVT is so awful to drive. The power delivery in every car I drove with one (always a rental) is incredibly mushy and the constant-RPM engine drone grates like a fly buzz.
  - tmh88j 5y ago
    Yea, they are absolutely the worst. They gave a Murano loaner while my GT-R was getting its transmission replaced and that piece of junk sat in my driveway and didn't move for a month. High performance, low performance, they offer some terrible transmissions across their entire lineup! As much as I want to defend the GR6 because it is phenomenal when it works and the stock housing can take an insane amount of power compared to other DCT's, mine died after only 10k miles and it was a 2015 model, which was supposed to be a non-issue after like 2011 from the launch control updates.
- JKCalhoun 5y ago
  Yes, CVTs are crap. Every time I consider purchasing a car (used or new) I pass over the CVT offerings — which include most (all?) of Nissan's line up.
  - AtlasBarfed 5y ago
    I won't disagree tha CVTs are crap, but they were an attempt for better gas mileage / carbon emissions reduction. I have heard they are improving, but by the time they figure them out the ICE car will probably be utterly obsolete.

tomcam 5y ago

I don’t know much about cars, but I understood Renault’s quality reputation enough to understand the acquisition was a disaster from the get-go. So I’m not sure I can agree with your premises.

agumonkey 5y ago
While trying to understand how Renault managed to acquire so much of Nissan I was reminded that Nissan was nearly bankrupt in 1999, there's even a springer document about this period https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230236912_5&ved=2ahUKEwilpeXos-HxAhUSzYUKHUPpAQcQFnoECCMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw35n_KXcvoCyBhv6HatEQKQ https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https:/...

ajcp 5y ago

It belongs to Nissan in that Nissan alleges Ghosn bought the place with money he stole from them. I used to live just down the street from the place. Lovely neighborhood.