Highlights of the new Tiida / Latio / Versa is the new generation MR16DDT downsized turbo-charged direct injection petrol 1.6-liter engine (188bhp). The same engine is already carrying out its duty in the Nissan Juke. According to the Juke's chief vehicle engineer Hiromichi Matsui, the MR16DDT is benchmarked against VW's TSI engine. Nissan likens the 1.6-liter turbo to provide a similar output to a normally aspirated 2.5-liter petrol engine.
The present generation Tiida / Latio / Versa comes in both hatchback and sedan bodystyle, but we have no information if this will continue to be the case. But if a sedan variant exist, it should have been spotted in China by now. Like Malaysia, Chinese consumers prefer sedans over hatchbacks. The Peugeot 207 sedan, 308 sedan (marketed as the Peugeot 408), Ford Fiesta sedan and Mazda2 sedan were all created with the Chinese market in mind.
The current C11 generation Tiida / Latio / Versa wasn't quite the commercial success that Nissan hoped for it to be. It did however garner quite a bit of success in the USA, where the Versa is one of the cheapest cars in the American market. Elsewhere in most markets, the Latio / Tiida were sold as a C-segment car at B-segment prices. Consumers didn't respond well to such dual-segment stradling. For some reason, best left to be explained by academicians, the Latio does not rank very highly in consumer's consideration sets. Maybe consumers just don't know what to make of it. It's either a Vios / City or a Civic / Corolla Altis. It's a similar story in Australia and Europe.
So with the new TR, Nissan has hinted that it will be a proper C-segment car, with the VW Golf as its benchmark. The current B-C segment stradling strategy will be abandoned as the B-segment will now be covered by the March hatch and the upcoming March sedan, allowing Nissan a proper product to effectively challenge the incumbent leaders of Toyota Vios / Honda City. The TR Tiida / Latio will be longer (+90mm) and wider (+65mm) but lower (-12mm) to give a more sporty stance. Wheelbase will also be stretched by another 100mm. The Golf, with its premium positioning is not a contender in the local C-segment market. But the Corolla Altis and Honda Civic will see some challenge. Then again, haven't we see the same story repeated so many times before? Local Nissan distributor have a practise of launching their new models with big fanfare, and then flogging the same old model way beyond its shelf life, sometimes up two 2-generations old. Just look at the previous generation Cefiro, the Serena, X-Trail, even the Sentra. ETCM did not even bother to introduce the facelifted Latio locally, although they did the same for the Singaporean market.
Images above feature projector headlamps on the cars. The halogen headlamp below is probably for the lower range variant.
Right hand drive variants and CKD productions is expected to commence between 12 to 18 months after its China debut. So expect the new Latio to arrive at your local dealer no earlier than 2012. There is also another concern - it's direct injection petrol engine may not be compatible with our local fuel quality, at least in engine's current state of tune. This was the reason why Mercedes took so long to introduce it's CGI engines locally. Additional engineering manhours will have to be allocated to adapt the engine to our local fuel quality. The E300 continues to soldier with a non-CGI engine because its low sales volume potential does not justify the additional investment required to retune the engine. So there is a minor possibility that we may miss the MR16DDT altogether.
Update :
We can't confirm but apparently this is claimed by a Chinese web portal to be an interior shot of the Tiida / Latio replacement.
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