The Nissan Pulsar is back!

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cally-dave

cally-dave

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Nissan has revealed its car to take the fight to the all-conquering Volkswagen Golf and Ford Focus. Ladies and gentlemen, may we present to you the brand new Nissan Pulsar.

Big news, considering it's been nearly a decade since Nissan's last family hatch perished. Not many mourned the Almera, but in the meantime Nissan has, of course, mopped up with its Qashqai crossover. And now it reckons it's the right time to wade back into the C-segment pool.

So, the new Pulsar then. It'll only be offered with turbocharged engines, including a 1.2-litre petrol unit producing 113bhp and a 1.5-litre diesel with 108bhp and 192lb ft of torque. Later in 2015, we'll see a 1.6-litre turbocharged petrol with a heady 187bhp. There is no word on a 3.8-litre, twin-turbo GT-R-spec V6 in tribute to that 80s icon the Pulsar GTI-R, but we can only live in hope.

Nissan is targeting sub 95g/km of CO2, while the XTronic auto ‘box will be on offer too. And as for the handling, Nissan's VP Andy Palmer recently revealed to TG's Paul Horrell that the Pulsar "has to feel secure on the road like a VW, but have some spice on top. There's no terminal understeer, but it won't flip you."

The new Pulsar measures nearly 4.4m long with a 2.7m wheelbase, and is said to offer up 692mm of rear legroom. It'll come with a range of chassis tech, including forward emergency braking, moving object detection (or ‘other cars'), lane departure warning and a blind spot warning.

Nissan has also packed the new Pulsar with the NissanConnect system, which integrates your smartphone into the car's system, while allowing access to a wide variety of apps. It'll also get LED headlights too.

We'll let you cast your own judgements as to the overall design package - which Palmer reckons will polarise opinion - but you'll notice the trademark Nissan ‘face', along with "bold and energetic curves on the body side".

Full pricing will be released close to its Autumn 2014 on sale date.

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EDIT:

Source: http://www.topgear.com/uk/car-news/nissan-pulsar-revealed-2014-05-20
 
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Oh, and additionally, I love the Nissan Almera. I've certainly mourned its passing and it's nice to still see quite a few on the road.
 
I think the styling starts very well at the front, and then all goes wrong as it approaches the rear. One knows something is wrong when one's first thought upon seeing a vehicle from behind is that it "looks a bit like a man's buttocks."
 
Won't sell that well in Europe, not a premium brand, won't be that much cheaper than a premium brand to tempt people and too bland to interest people.
 
Is it just me, or is anyone else getting a whiff of Hyundai i30/Kia Cee'd/Toyota Auris from the rear?
 
Wait a minute, there is an ongoing family hatch by Nissan (The Tiida). Anyway this looks not bland actually - a N16 Sunny owner
 
Clark
Won't sell that well in Europe, not a premium brand, won't be that much cheaper than a premium brand to tempt people and too bland to interest people.
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This. Not least because Nissan itself abandoned the concept of a regular C-segment car to build the Qashqai, which has been vastly more successful than the Almera and Primera ever were. It seems very odd indeed they're wanting to get back into standard C-segment cars.

Also, @cally-dave - we tend to source posts here rather than copy them from the source word-for-word each time some news appears.

I'm guessing it's Top Gear, since your post a few days ago was. And while I can't speak for them, I know I'd be pretty pissed if someone just grabbed my entire article and replicated it without any credit.

Apart from anything, it means we can go back to the website in question in case there are any further details.
 
Good to see the old name make a return to the EU market after the Almera took over. They've played it safe with the design compared to some of their other offerings. I'd even go as far as saying nothing else in the current Nissan range has a front end quite that good-looking.

I don't expect it to steer many buyers from flocking towards the Qashqai however. Not least because the second gen model recently hit the market.

Downhill Dino
I was thinking WRC.
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Too bad they only field B-segment hatches in the WRC nowadays.

A future spot on the BTCC grid would be great though. Given the broad range of manufacturers already taking part. You can never have too many.

AzNTypeR
Is it just me, or is anyone else getting a whiff of Hyundai i30/Kia Cee'd/Toyota Auris from the rear?
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Ctrl+C Qashqai. About the only thing I dislike about it.
 
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AzNTypeR
Is it just me, or is anyone else getting a whiff of Hyundai i30/Kia Cee'd/Toyota Auris from the rear?
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Cookie-cutter hatchback. Hide the grill and lights and you'd be hard-pressed to distinguish it from half a dozen or so other hatches on the market.
 
R1600Turbo
This article on how Nissan needs to step up with this car was pretty good I thought.

http://automatchtom.kinja.com/nissan-here-is-your-chance-to-get-young-buyers-again-1578918259
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Honestly, aside from the Juke, and maybe some configurations of the Versa, I can't really think of a single Nissan that I'd want to buy. And its a shame, because a decade ago, it would have been the exact opposite. Its a shame, really. Nissan used to be reasonably cool, had cars with serious street cred, and instead they've become nothing more than also-rans in a market that was dominated by the world's biggest also-ran, Toyota (well, post-2001, anyway). As hot of a seller the Altima is, and well, how the Versa seems to have turned out, it doesn't mean that they're getting the attention to be around for the long-haul. Young folks are being targeted with "youthful" advertising, "youthful" products, and with "youthful" technology - of which, mostly, Nissan doesn't have in the US. So why not change that around?

Problem in North America is that the car would sit awkwardly between the Versa Note and the Sentra. So, I suppose that would make it an actual compact car, which might be a smart move for Nissan. Cut at the Civic and Corolla while they're on the knees and go straight for the Ford jugular. Jam that 1.6T and the six-speed manual in there from the Juke. Sell it to me for $20k out the door. Kids would come knocking. They just, uh, have to do it.
 

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