Rumour: Nissan Sunny facelift details

Nissan India has just given its entry level small car, the Micra hatchback a mid life facelift. Along with the Micra Facelift, the Japanese car maker also entered the entry level B-segment hatchback space by re-positioning the pre-facelift Micra as the cut price Micra Active model.

According to Overdrive, a similar strategy could be in place for the Sunny sedan, Nissan's best selling car model in India and one that's steadily losing sales to rivals. While Nissan India has revealed that the Sunny will get a facelift in the next few months, the refresh could be similar to what the Micra Facelift has got in terms of the styling elements.

Sharper looking headlamps, a more aggressive grille and bumper job, and other styling elements are expected to be the various changes on the Sunny Facelift. The car's 1.5 liter K9K turbo diesel and the HR15DE petrol engines, and the 5 speed manual and CVT gearboxes, will be carried over to the Sunny facelift. 

On the inside, additional features could to be added to the facelifted Sunny model, making it more attractive to C-segment car buyers. The current version of the Sunny could be re-positioned as an entry level sedan, to share segment space with the likes of the Toyota Etios, the Ford Classic and the Tata Manza.

The cut price version of the Sunny will be a stripped out variant even as more features are added to the facelifted Sunny, in order to create a higher level of demarcation between both the models. If Nissan can do a Micra Active with the cut price Sunny's pricing, the car maker has the potential of ruffling a few feathers in the sedan space. 

Nissan India's big launch of the year will come later this year, in the form of the Terrano SUV. Based on the Renault Duster, the Terrano is said to be a re-badged and restyled model on the outside. Under the skin, the Terrano is expected to share most of its parts with the Duster including engine and transmission options.

With the Ford EcoSport's sharp pricing, product planners at Nissan could have a task at hand while pricing the Terrano. Under the Renault-Nissan alliance, Nissan cars re-badged as Renaults need to be positioned higher than Nissan products they're based on and the same holds good when Renault products get badge engineered to become Nissans. (Think Nissan Micra-Renault Pulse and Nissan Sunny-Renault Scala.)

In 2014, Nissan will enter the big volume-low cost car space with the Datsun low cost car brand. Two Datsun small cars, code-named the K2 and i2 will be launched in India during 2014. These cars will be positioned in the 3-4 lakh rupee and 2-3 lakh rupee price segments respectively.