Vroom, vroom, or bust?

I am an automotive writer, and I have yet to review the new Nissan Leaf or even drive it. I did sit in it when it came to Tempe, AZ earlier in this year, but as it was a special event, I did not have the opportunity to test it.

Normally, we don’t cover Nissan’s on this web site because we specialize in European cars, but I heard earlier today that the car emits a particular noise to pedestrians that it was approaching. Clever, I thought, and was interested to read on that this noise was similar to one of the flying cars in the movie Blade Runner. This I HAD to check out.

So after 15 minutes spent searching online and this on Nissan’s Facebook page, I began to notice one thing – this marketing campaign is about the people, not the car. And to me that’s a weird approach. When Apple releases a new product, they interview executives of the company, potential users, and even celebrities. That launch then becomes more about the people and the product, and about what the two can do when you put them in a room together.

But when someone like Ferrari or Porsche releases a new car, the advertising tends to be more about the product. How fast is it? What does the vroom of the engine sound like? How fast can it lap around the Nürburgring? Yet, all of the marketing seems to be of the Apple sort. And that’s fine if you are selling a consumer electronic, but for a car, it just doesn’t make sense to me.

I want to see this reviewed on Top Gear, I want to see You Tube videos of it lapping the saltiest tracks in the world. I want to see a professional review. I want to see it compared to a Tesla and then to a Versa, or whatever comparison you may draw between this car and another. At the very least, I want to see it in motion.

But sadly, there is very little footage of this car doing what it is supposed to do: getting me from point A to point B. Com’mon Nissan, let’s see a little more vroom, vroom!

This entry was posted on Monday, May 24th, 2010 at 8:19 pm and is filed under Technology, pollution. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. This post was read by 607 people until now. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.