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Nissan's new global passenger car, Tiida, is now available in hatch and sedan in South Africa, ahead of many of the 130 countries in which it will compete. Tiida, pronounced 'tee-da', means "dawn of a new day" in Japanese and promises to cast a bright new light on the local market.
Tiida, which is built at Nissan's Rosslyn factory north west of Pretoria, fills an important gap in the resurgent company's passenger car range. It is Nissan's new contender in the C segment, a segment that accounts for some 25% of total passenger car sales and showed a 16% growth in 2005 compared to 2004.
 The Tiida design team, under chief designer Takahashi Nakajima, set out to create a quality car that offers a comfortable, spacious interior in a suitably compact overall size. The result is a quintessential, modern hatch and sedan with a compact, dynamically-styled exterior that belies its spacious interior. Tiida's spacious cabin, and its comfortable, high quality interior are amongst its strongest selling points.
Local production
Nissan, the only South African motoring manufacturer who is an accredited member of the Proudly South African organisation, has generated significant local investment with Tiida's introduction. Just over R100 million has been invested in Tiida's unique local production. More than 20 first tier local industrial suppliers were involved in supplying services and equipment to the Rosslyn factory during the preparation phase for manufacturing. Around 25 local first tier component manufacturers are supplying components for Tiida. In addition, around 60% of Tiida is local added value and this will grow as Nissan pursues its policy of continuously looking for opportunities to increase local content.
 The hatch line-up includes three five-door options: 1.6 Visia+, 1.6 Acenta with five-speed manual transmissions and the 1.8 Acenta, with a six-speed manual transmission.
The five-door sedan derivatives include the 1.6 Visia five-speed manual, 1.6 Visia+ five-speed manual or four-speed automatic, Acenta 1.6 five-speed manual and 1.8 Acenta six-speed manual.
Service intervals are every 15 000 km and a three-year/90 000 km service plan is included in the price.
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