Nissan News: Car Paint and Natural Gas Powered Trucks

09/20/96

Nikkei English News reports that Nissan Motor will start to use a paint guard film to protect vehicles' finishes from scratches and acid rain. Until now, the carmaker has used the protective film solely on its luxury sedans. Nissan will apply the film to all passenger vehicles, including sport-utility models, by March 31, 1997.

The protection film gets applied to roofs and hoods to protect paint finishes during transport or storage. It's tougher than ordinary paint-protecting waxes.Nissan said that it will experiment with recycling used protection films into auto parts starting in October.

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Nissan Diesel released its new a Condor medium-size truck on Wednesday. A compressed natural gas engine powers the new truck and is the first engine of its kind to gain government approval. Nissan says the 180hp engine emits less than half the amount of nitrogen oxide that long-term government emission control standards set as target levels for diesel engines.

The truck comes in two models priced substantially higher than comparable diesel trucks. Nissan hopes to sell 50 of the trucks annually to local governments where they would be used as collection and delivery vehicles in urban areas, where natural gas is readily available.

Paul Dever -- The Auto Channel