Report: 2015 Nissan Micra $10K Minicar For Canada--Paid For By Smart?
Green Car Reports has posted an interesting bit of speculation about why Nissan was able to plop the Micra into the Canadian market with no apparent plans to so in the U.S.
It's fairly rare for Canada to get a car that the U.S. doesn't.
It's is mainly a question of economics: Canada's relatively small market size doesn't often justify the investment required to "federalize" a vehicle to North American safety and emissions standards. (The regulations for Canada & the U.S. are essentially the same, with just a few minor differences.) The marketing effort is higher, too, since there would be no U.S. coverage of the vehicle coming across the border.
So what happened here?
GCR's John Voelcker speculates that the work to permit the Micra to be sold here was actually done by Smart, which had an agreement with Nissan to "rebadge" (and tart up) the Micra to sell as a larger Smart ForFour model alongside the Smart ForTwo.
Despite Smart having abandoned that plan, the work was already done, with Smart possibly having footed the bill. So it was a relatively easy decision for Nissan to sell the car here, since it was ready to go in terms of regulations.
This also means there's little reason the Micra couldn't also be sold in the U.S.A. It comes down mainly to a marketing decision, not a regulatory one.
Read the full article: http://www.greencarreports.com/news/...d-for-by-smart
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View my fuel log 2015 Micra S manual: 5.0 L/100 km ... 56.5 mpg (Imp) ... 20.0 km/L ... 47.0 mpg (US) ...