Shiro Nakamura, the chief of design for Nissan, plays classical music on a cello and jazz on a bass. His tastes run from Bach to Bill Evans, and in each genre he finds different ways to express himself.
"Jazz is innovation, creating advanced music; classical is more established," he said last week at the New York International Auto Show. "It's the same in cars. How do you balance the two things? You must find the best path between the classicalness and the newness."
Three and a half years ago, Nakamura, 52, was hired away from Isuzu by Carlos Ghosn, Nissan's aggressive new chief executive. Ghosn, a Brazilian-born Frenchman of Lebanese descent, has so radically revived Nissan's fortunes in four years that he stars in his own comic book in Japan.
While Ghosn cut costs, Nakamura -- a short, deliberative man who favors dark suits and oval glasses and wears a goatee -- has moved Nissan design from backwater to cutting edge, shaking up perceptions not just of Nissan but of Japanese car design itself. He has re-imagined Nissan's cars and trucks, as well as those of the company's Infiniti luxury brand, with a design approach markedly different from the company's nondescript recent past, one that reflects his dogged modernism. Few other automakers have re-imagined the designs of an entire lineup in so short a time, though whether the vehicles are loved or not depends upon whom you ask.
Nakamura's approach tends to favor largely unornamented sleek steel bodies offset by a few details, such as distinctively designed headlights, that revel in complexity. Like the work of modern architects that Nakamura takes as an inspiration, the new Nissans have clean surfaces undisturbed by the plastic cladding that has been fashionable on many American cars or by extraneous bumps or edges.
The redesigned Altima, a sedan for middle-of-the-roaders, and the new Titan, a big, swaggering pickup truck, are vastly different in their appeal, but they share a dramatic presence rooted in a sweeping angle that elevates the rear of the vehicle.
Generally, the long tradition of sophisticated and identifiable Japanese design in architecture, art and ornamentation has not extended to cars. The designs of Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans have mostly been "very derivative," said Bryon Fitzpatrick, the chairman of the transportation design department at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. Now, he said, "the perception in the design business is that Nissan is changing the face of Japanese design."
Another person who has noticed is Robert A. Lutz, the vice chairman and chief of product development at General Motors. When asked last week to pick a competitor that had caught his eye at the auto show, he said, "All of the new Nissans are nice."
More specifically, Lutz said: "The Z cars are good. The Altima I like a lot." (The Z-Roadster is Nissan's new two-seater.)
He added that sales of the idiosyncratic new Nissan Murano would be "very interesting to watch" because it is part of the new crop of vehicles blending the traditional station wagon with the SUV.
Nissan has referred to the Murano as a vehicle for "on-roading" and has built a similar, if more oddly proportioned and muscular, version for Infiniti, the FX-45.
The company is also entering the full-size pickup and SUV markets for the first time, and it is showing no lack of restraint in naming them the Titan and the Armada.
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