Nissan Cube Coming to US
By Chris Haak
01.23.2008
The Nissan Cube, a small, boxy car similar to the original Scion xB in shape and concept, will be coming to the US market according to Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. global design director Shiro Nakamura. The Cube has been sold in Japan since 1998.
The company, however, has not made an official announcement on the Cube’s impending arrival. Nissan had been studying whether to bring it to the US for at least two years, following the success of the Scion xB, but didn’t move very quickly because it didn’t have the urgent need to lower its buyers’ median age that Toyota did (Nissan’s age demographics skew much younger than many of its competitors do).
Personally, I prefer the looks of the Cube to the original xB, as its shapes (such as the rounded corners of the windows) are more interesting. Between the Cube and the current xB, it’s no contest against that vehicle which so frustratingly deviated from its original bantamweight version. It will be interesting to see how well the vehicle does, as it shares nothing visible but the chrome Nissan logo on the grille with any other Nissans sold in the US. Hopefully Nissan will sell the Cube in its original form to US buyers and not sell a fattened-up, bloated version of it. If they do, perhaps fans of the original Scion xB will buy these instead of the new xB.
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