Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., often called Nissan Motors or simply Nissan, is a Japanese automobile manufacturer which formerly marketed vehicles under the Datsun brand name until 1983. The company’s main offices are located in the Ginza area of Tokyo but Nissan plans to move their headquarters to Yokohama, Kanagawa by 2010, with construction starting in 2007.
Nissan – full name Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. – is Japan’s second largest car company after Toyota and is among the top three Asian rivals of the “big three” in the U.S.
The Nissan VQ engines, of V6 configuration, have featured among World’s 10 Best Engines for 12 straight years, since the award’s inception. A new generation VQ series engine will premiere on the next generation Infiniti G35, the future Skyline GT-R and the 2007 Nissan 350Z. There will also be a new generation 2.5VQ 4-cylinder engine that will power the next generation Altima and likely will power the upcoming SPEC-V 2007 Sentra (which will make its debut in October of 2006 followed by the new Altima in November).
Much like its brother Renault, the pronunciation of its name is different in different markets. In the U.S., the brand is said “NEE-sahn”, while in the UK it is pronounced “NIH-ssan”. In Japan, it is pronounced “NIH-sun”.