Friday, May 22, 2009

Nissan FORUM Concept






















Nissan today unveiled their concept vehicle for the 2008 North American International Auto Show. The Forum is an exploratory design concept based on the idea of a family transportation vehicle.
Although it undeniably has the profile of that most dreaded of vehicles, the minivan, Nissan executives preferred not to call it that. Whatever you want to call the Forum, Nissan just hopes you call. The new concept is designed to provide flexible transport for grownups and those not so grown. All seats are equipped with personal entertainment systems that allow the occupant of that seat to plug in their own digital media player and have the sounds play back through seat-mounted speakers.

The front seat grownups can monitor activity in the back two rows thanks to a pair of roof mounted cameras that can play back through the dash mounted display screen. When things get out of hand, a time out button on the steering wheel allows the driver to mute all entertainment systems instantly. On the propulsion front, the Forum is designed around Nissan's upcoming clean diesel V-6 engine. According to Nissan's VP of product planning Larry Dominique, if a vehicle like the Forum does get produced it could use either a diesel engine or a hybrid power-train. The diesel does seem like the better option for this type of vehicle thanks to it's plentiful low-end torque. Regardless of the ultimate fate of this people mover, we will definitely see the diesel engine in the Maxima in 2010. The Nissan press release and a video of the Forum are after the jump.





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