Nissan Philippines launches on March 7 with Altima, Sylphy

US-market Nissan Altima sedan

Nissan is about to get into motion once again. The Japanese brand has established a new company, Nissan Philippines Inc., to handle marketing and sales. The brand is set introduce new models, attract new customers, and once again establish a strong presence in the Philippine market. With this move, we hope that the brand’s recent troubled history in the Philippines, with two competing distributors for its vehicles and a continuing downturn in sales, is about to turn the corner.

The first move will be to re-launch the Nissan brand on March 7. Expected to take the center stage along with the new company’s executives are a pair of sedans, the Altima and the Sylphy.

The Altima has been marketed in the Philippines in the 1990s, as the bulbous sedan that replaced the Bluebird, that replaced the Maxima. This is the fifth generation of that line, and it’s designed to compete with the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord. Base engine is a 2.5-liter inline-four cylinder, with 3.5 V6 engines available in some markets.

The Sylphy is Nissan’s alternate name for the Sentra and as such the new car is expected to replace the current Sentra, which is already 11 years old. Confusingly, the car was previously known as the Bluebird Sylphy. Sylphy, in various names, is sold in USA, Japan, China, and Thailand. Typical engine for the Sylphy is a 1.8-liter inline-four paired with a CVT.