Thirteen years ago, David Halberstam's "The Reckoning" explored the changing industrial fortunes of Japan and the United States through the rise of Nissan Motor Co. and the decline of Ford Motor Co.
The book portrayed Nissan as a determined, customer-driven company that made U.S. inroads with high-quality, sporty cars. In contrast, Ford was depicted as a faltering, risk-averse concern run by accountants absorbed with profit and stock value rather than emotion-stirring vehicles.
But today it is Nissan that has a stable of largely forgettable vehicles and is facing the financial abyss, while Ford is riding high with cutting-edge cars and trucks that are generating a hefty profit.
"Nissan lost touch with the market," said George Peterson, president of AutoPacific Inc. in Santa Ana and a former Nissan executive. "It became very conservative. Instead of being entrepreneurial, Nissan went into a shell."
So deep are Nissan's woes--some say worse than those faced by a bankrupt
Chrysler Corp. in 1979--that President Yoshikazu Hanawa earlier this month said the Tokyo-based auto maker would consider selling a controlling stake in itself to a foreign company.
On Jan. 22, Nissan and DaimlerChrysler said they had held "constructive" discussions in Japan about possible equity investments in both Nissan's commercial truck and passenger car operations. Talks are continuing.
Paris-based Renault also said it is interested in acquiring a major stake in Nissan. Ford, too, with its $23.8-billion cash reserve, had been seen as a possible suitor. It already controls Mazda Motor Corp. of Japan. Ford last week announced that it will buy the automobile operations of Sweden's Volvo in a $6.45-billion deal.
Nissan's reckoning comes as the global auto industry is consolidating. A worldwide glut of production capacity is increasing competition and forcing auto makers to reduce costs as never before.
The solicitation of buyers by Nissan amounts to a humbling public auctioning of a Japanese icon. The drama starkly highlights the severity of Japan's economic problems, which show little sign of abating.
Nissan, the onetime dandy of Japan's auto makers with headquarters in Tokyo's ritzy Ginza district and a garage full of sports cars, has lost ground globally to Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. as well as to the large U.S. and European auto makers. It has been wounded by a long succession of management miscues at home and abroad.
