Nissan has some cool new technology heading to our shores by way of their Japanese Elgrand. The baton will be handed from the Elgrand to the Infiniti EX35. The pass off will be the world’s first All Around View Monitor. The high tech mirror system will go into the Elgrand at the end of the month and the Infiniti EX35 in December.

  
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Breaking news! Nissan Canada is the latest manufacturer to offer incentives for cash buyers. Unlike some of the other manufacturers, the Nissan crew seems resolved to keep buyers in Canadian showrooms and have offered a more meaningful package.

Let’s do a little comparison shall we? According to the web sites, the Altima 2.5s sedan starts at $24,498 in Canada and $20,080 south of the border. Cash purchasers can take advantage of a $2,000 incentive. While that still leaves a $2,418 gap, it’s not enough to send people south unlike yesterday’s news.

See all the incentives after the break
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Now that images of the Nissan GT-R are almost becoming commonplace, Nissan has upped the ante a bit with a series of pictures of the GT-R prepped for the GT500 class in Japan’s Super GT series. The shakedown test took place yesterday and today at the famed Suzuka track under the watchful eyes of the NISMO team. At the wheel were NISMO regulars Satoshi Motoyama, Michael Krumm and Tsugio Matsuda. Apparently the test went off without a hitch, which is as expected given the experience of the team.

More images after the break
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As regular readers know, I have a bit of a thing for Nissan’s modern Zed car. The car is just so good, that its’ joy to drive under almost all conditions. Equally happy on windy roads as it is in the snow (with winter boots of course) it is truly a world class all around sports car. When I saw the Nismo model sitting there waiting for me, I just had to give it a go. I mean, what could be better than taking a world class sports car, stiffening the chassis, beefing up the suspension and a bunch of other track tested bits and bites?

The 350Z Nismo wears a Super GT inspired body kit that gets mixed reviews. The more reserved among us (read fuddy duddies) feel the skirts and step ladder wing are a bit over the top, while others seem to thing designers could have gone a bit farther with the wing. Either way, there is no mistaking that this is missile is destined for track usage.
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The previous generation Sentra SER Spec-V was a bit of an odd little beast. Stiffly sprung and with bags of horsepower through the front wheels, it was a torque steering nightmare. The fit and finish inside and out was haphazard at best. Overall, it felt like some tuner had gone wild adding performance bits to a basic Sentra and had built a car that handled like it was on rails and went like a scared cat, but really wasn’t a very nice car otherwise.
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Looking up and down the pit lane at Pocono Raceway, it was tough to make a choice for my first drive of the day. I wanted a platform that I was comfortable in and I wanted a front driver. Something from the Nissan world made sense and I took note that the 350Z convertible was available, but that would have gone against my plan of spending the morning with front wheel drive cars. Sitting there all alone, was the 2008 Altima Coupe 2.5S. Perfect. Not too much power in a family of cars that I’m familiar with.
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The cute ute class originators, Honda’s CRV and Toyota’s RAV4 both seem to have lost a bit of their distinctive style with their latest redesigns. That’s not to say that they aren’t great vehicles, but they seem to have lost a bit of personality as they’ve matured. Even still, any newcomer to this market is fighting a bit of an uphill battle as brand loyalty runs deep with owners of these vehicles.

While the old standbys may be having a bit of an identity crisis happening, Nissan’s first entry into the segment is unquestionably a Nissan. Perhaps you could call it the Rogue child of the Murano, as the 2008 Nissan Rogue shares so many styling cues and tech details with it’s older brother.
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These days, most new cars leave the factory with a pretty decent sound system. While they may not always satisfy the audiophile, they do just fine for the majority and they are pretty reliable to boot. Working in the industry, I’ve come across plenty of aftermarket stereo installs that made a total mess of the functionality of the vehicle. From butchered fitments, to botched wiring it is often a nightmare for the tech who is asked to fix some installer or owner’s mistakes.

For all of these reasons, I usually stay away from replacement radios but the used Xterra we picked up a couple of months ago had been fitted with a Pyle radio that really was a pile. FM was the only function that worked, though even that was a bit of a crap shoot as the display did not work. I’m not an audiophile, so I went on a hunt for an inexpensive basic radio that included a CD player. A search through a few major chain sale flyers turned up the Sony cdx-GT110 for a great deal. As an added bonus, it also has a front jack for and mp3 player.
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Those kind folks at the GTR Owner’s Club in the UK not only provided the world with photos of Nissan’s upcoming supercar, but now they’ve posted video! As the test driver mentions, Porsche is going to be worried!

Video after the break
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Welcome to the Canada Day edition of the Carnival of Wheels! It’s been a busy couple of weeks in The Garage. We are in the middle of three weeks of track action and we’ve picked up a new to us SUV, so our work here in The Garage has been pretty self centered. Don’t worry though, our selfish posting will continue, as there are still tons of photos yet to be edited from the VARAC festival and next weekend is a double header. First we’ll have 2 days in the pits at the Steelback Grand Prix for Champ Cars and then on Sunday, Miss Shelby has her first race of the season. Elsewhere online, autobloggers have been busy churning out all manner of hot content, so sit down, strap in and get ready for a smoking hot lap of the blogosphere while you watch the French Grand Prix.

First up we’ve got another visit from Hello Kitty Hell, with a truly frightening tuner mod. This poor guy’s wife has actually installed this happy feline exhaust tip on their car! Be afraid, be very, very afraid.
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