If you like cheap cars, you may already know that a new Nissan Kicks is coming out. Because of the loss of essential production tools has taken longer to get to the United States. Automotive News says this is the second considerable delay in showing the new small SUV to the public. The first was a 1.5-month delay because the car failed necessary crash safety tests. The theft of tools from a supplier’s factory in Mexico is likely to delay production by five months. Those who knew about the situation didn’t say who the source was or what parts the tooling was for. Nissan told Automotive News about the delay, but they didn’t say why. Nissan’s vice president of marketing for the U.S. and Canada, Brian Brockman, said, “The next-generation Nissan Kicks is a little late because of something unexpected that is out of Nissan’s control.” We expect a lot of the current model, which is still one of the most popular cars in its class, to be available until then. Production will start in June of next year, and sales will begin in the U.S. soon after. The Kicks will be made by Nissan’s plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Some dealers’ problems will be fixed by continuing to make the current type, but some are still upset about the delay. A salesman in the San Francisco Bay Area named Chadi Moussa told Automotive News that the company immediately needed the new model to compete with other automakers. Moussa says that only Ariya has a technical bent. The rest of the world loses two to three years. The average price to buy a Kicks is about $25,000. This makes it one of the least expensive cars you can buy. This is still an essential plan since many customers finance their purchases, which is a big part of how Nissan dealers make money. Compared to last year, sales in the second quarter of 2022 jumped by a stunning 28%, and production increased as pandemic supply chain problems were fixed. In the year before, Nissan sold a total of 54,879 Kicks. That’s about two-thirds of what Mitsubishi sold in the U.S. for the whole year. The fact that the tools were stolen makes me wonder why the thieves did it. The devices are only helpful to Nissan unless the thieves want to build their plant. It’s possible that it was taken because it was worth money as scrap metal. If the thief had been more brilliant, they might have asked for money in exchange for giving the tooling back to the company. Because they didn’t have the right tools, the five-month wait was to be expected. It’s still being determined what was taken, but it can take six months to a year to make things like casting tools and press equipment. The instruments are bought a long time before the model comes out so that they are ready to go when sales pick up. Depending on how well the toolmaker can handle a rush job, it can take a lot of work to change tools quickly. Since 2016, the Kicks have been sold all over the world. In the U.S., they have been on sale since 2018. In 2021, both the inside and the outside were redone. Seven years is a short time for a car to be made, but it’s great that the Japanese carmaker keeps replacing its fleet. Reports say that the new Kicks, which will have a new engine and all-wheel drive, will come out in 2025. It should also sit higher and have a new front end resembling the Ariya and Versa. This might make the subcompact car better than ever, but the price might increase. It will take more time to see how well the new generation plan works.
