Dan Passe has left Nissan

MCN1SMO

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He took a Job with Nikola Motor Company. Ive known Dan since 2014 and was always a great friend at Nissan and real car guy. He always helped me out when he could and will miss such a great contact. Got invited to NY in 2016 and was able to meet Tamura-San because of him. I know some of you interacted with him on this forum and others as he was instrumental in the roll out of the new Z.

I wish him well!
 
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I guess this explains why he hasn't logged in since November lol.

this is more recent. He took a step back from the forums a few months before as there was just a lot of things going on that were just out of his control with the roll out. I understand as he was in a bad spot and from a PR point of view nothing he could really say. I was very surprised to see the news today as I was just chatting with him the other day.
 

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So who's Nissan PR person in N. America now? He was very communicative at first, then too long of a silence, that wasn't appreciated by many IMO. At least he could've said 'Stay tuned...' or something. Communication is key and I think he failed towards the end, people were expecting some feedback including myself. Anyway, good luck on his next job.
 
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So who's Nissan PR person in N. America now? He was very communicative at first, then too long of a silence, that wasn't appreciated by many IMO. At least he could've said 'Stay tuned...' or something. Communication is key and I think he failed towards the end, people were expecting some feedback including myself. Anyway, good luck on his next job.

I will reach out and see who will be the best person moving forward as I do want to keep a dialogue with the forum and enthusiast community open with Nissan. I was close with the Z/GTR product planners and marketing back in 2014-2017 but those guys moved on to other positions. Since then Dan was who I primarily spoke with. I do have some new contacts but they are on the design and motorsports side so a little removed from the day to day goings on
 

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as mentioned he was very communicative on this forum for a time and seemed truly enthusiastic. many of us were excited and had a lot of fun posting.

as time druuuuug on im sure he couldn't devulge what was going on behind the scenes and he could only hold off the wolves for so long. he was in a tough spot for sure.

there are no hard feelings on my end (and probably most here) and hope he enjoys the new direction is his life...
 

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I wish him nothing but the best, Nissan has bought quite a few Nikola trucks - they are going after the logistics space from what I know.
 
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The burden of being a front man for a dysfunctional auto manufacturer must've been too much

In good health, I hope he does well in the next chapter...
You should take the job, perfect man for it! No pressure, just a few more pills 🤜
 

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out of any car company gez , that one hasnt been getting good press
 
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as mentioned he was very communicative on this forum for a time and seemed truly enthusiastic. many of us were excited and had a lot of fun posting.

as time druuuuug on im sure he couldn't devulge what was going on behind the scenes and he could only hold off the wolves for so long. he was in a tough spot for sure.

there are no hard feelings on my end (and probably most here) and hope he enjoys the new direction is his life...

that is basically what happened yes he was truly enthusiastic but as all the set backs began to pile up (most out of nissans control) there really wasnt anything publicly he could say to answer everyone's concerns and all the negative feedback was just redundant. In PR you have to put a positive spin on everything as you are representing the entire brand. He couldnt come on here and say hey guys we know this is a clusterfuck and please bare with us so he just removed himself from the equation. there is another part of it where when I was running the other forum I put out some information last fall I obtained from a dealer owner that Nissan wasnt happy with about the internal allocation formula. I guess from Nissans point of view it wasnt a good look to have a spokesman involved on the site.

2022 was pretty much a lost year for the Z besides some anecdotal stories of people taking delivery here and there. Ive been monitoring this closely and even though it doesnt seem like it I think we are on the cusp of getting past these set backs. Stop sales are addressed. VINs in the US are already in the 1250's and im seeing an uptick in Z arrivals as well as in transit cars through April. dealers are still all over the place on price but if you monitor the facebook groups and really search nationwide inventory im starting to see prices a little more reasonable. you will still see your 20K over guys but a couple times a week im seeing MSRP or something under 5K pop up.
 

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I'm surprised that Nissan was able to produce >1000 units for the US market. I thought they were going to quit after 1000 units or that they have an ingenious plan to keep the volume low for rarity.

Someone should throw a rock into their HQ with a note saying, "stop making the SUV/CUV and focus on the Z for like 3 months". *yes I'm aware USA vs Jap plants.
 
 





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