Next Nissan Pulsar Won't Be "Sporty"

Derek Kreindler
by Derek Kreindler

Brace yourselves for the inevitable slate of reviews criticizing mushy steering, an uninspired ride and myriad other complaints that most buyers won’t give a lick about. Nissan’s next C-segment hatch, the Pulsar, will apparently not be “sporty”, and Nissan is just fine with that.

According to AutoExpress, Nissan’s Andy Palmer said that

“I’m not looking for a car that is ultimately very very sporty…I’m looking for something that can transition a customer from a Qashqai to a hatchback. It needs the same DNA, but we want to keep ex-Qahsqai buyers in the Nissan family. It has to have a familiar design and handling.”

Palmer noted that the new hatch “doesn’t transmit impulses back into the car” and that “the steering is quite light”. Sounds like a recipe for enthusiast disaster, right? Well, given the smashing success of the Qashqai ( which basically invented the small CUV segment in Europe), it’s easy to see why Nissan is going down this road.

Derek Kreindler
Derek Kreindler

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  • JohnnyFirebird JohnnyFirebird on Jul 03, 2014

    I love TTAC's intense dedication reporting every Pulsar update. With the same picture. This isn't sarcasm. It's hilarious.

  • 28-Cars-Later 28-Cars-Later on Jul 03, 2014

    "Next Nissan Pulsar Won’t Be “Sporty”" Oh ok, so ugly then. Got it.

  • Kyree Kyree on Jul 03, 2014

    Or as Xzibit, host of "Pimp My RIde" once said, "A pulsar is a crushed star, so Nissan was basically doomed from the start."

  • Marcelo de Vasconcellos Marcelo de Vasconcellos on Jul 03, 2014

    Have no idea why they are doing it. Euro hatches in this segment tend towards the sporty being the Golf the template. Maybe Nissan is reading something in trends in European tastes in cars and is trying to catch the next wave. Though it flies in the face of conventional wisdom, you have to respect the knowledge of a company able to release the Quas-something-or-other in ime to ride the wave, as well as the whole Dacia venture. Don't know what they're doing, but won't discard the effort off the bat. That said, why is it so ugly?

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