Comedian Chris Rock’s 1999 homily “No Sex in the Champagne Room” wisely
observes, “Cornbread: ain’t nothing wrong with that.” The same could be said for
Nissan’s compact crossover, the Rogue. As a vehicle, it’s fine. It’ll be
replaced next year, with production starting in Smyrna, Tennessee. About a year
later, Nissan also will start producing Rogues in South Korea—some will be
shipped here to supplement the Tennessee supply.
There isn’t a whole lot to say about the next Rogue because it’s still far
off. Guided by Sir Occam, we’d guess that the next Rogue will grow just a bit in
size, ride on the upcoming Sentra‘s platform, and use a four-cylinder engine
that displaces about two liters.
Here’s the why for building it in South Korea: The current Rogue is built in
Japan, a practice that Nissan and other automakers are trying to get away from;
the Yen is pretty strong compared to the dollar, and that makes Japanese-made
cars expensive to sell in the U.S. The next Rogue will be built here in the
U.S., but Nissan thinks that U.S. and global demand will exceed what it can do
in its Tennessee factory.
As a result, Nissan has turned to its live-in
significant other, Renault—in MBA jargon, they have a manufacturing alliance,
hold stakes in each other, and share a CEO. Renault bought controlling ownership
in a small South Korean car manufacturer called Samsung more than a decade ago,
so the Busan-based factory is available. South Korea and the U.S. have a free
trade agreement that adds a relatively minimal 2.5-percent tariff to imported
vehicles through 2015; after that, there’s none at all. The bottom line is that
Nissan needs the space, has some in South Korea, and the costs of building the
Rogue there are reasonable.
The current Rogue still is a deservedly strong seller for Nissan; we just
hope the company doesn’t Versa-fy the next generation of it.
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