While some carmakers appeal to dog lovers, Nissan is going all-in with cats,at least in Japan. The Yokohama-based company is teaming up with a chain ofcat cafés across the country to promote the Nissan Dayz kei car.
If you’re not familiar with cat cafés, they’re essentially a coffee shop inwhich you sip your latte while surrounded by dozens of cats. It’s supposed todeliver all the companionship and fun of cats without, you know, actuallyowning them. The concept began in Taiwan, blew up in Japan, and has made itsway to the U.S. as well.
The Nissan’s Dayz kei car is probably most famous outside of Japan for beingat the center of the fuel economy testing scandal that led to Nissan taking acontrolling stake in Mitsubishi Motors. For a small kei car starting at¥1,327,700 ($12,590 USD), though, it’s brimming with state-of-the-artfeatures.
Even base grades get lane departure warnings, forward collision braking, hillhold, and pedestrian detection braking, auto-dim high-beams, and more. Highertrim levels get Nissan’s Around View bird’s eye parking assist and ProPilotsystem that includes hands-free highway driving with adaptive cruise and lanecentering.
It’s so easy, even a cat could drive it (obligatory Toonces link here). Or atleast that seems to be what Nissan is implying. Or maybe they just know thatthe internet loves cats. In any case, the marketing department has created abunch of cat-sized Dayz cars to be placed at “Mocha” cat café locations. Itencourages visitors, but the official Nissan website actually warns (viaGoogle translate) “Please note that the cat may not drive the car depending onthe mood of the cat.”
Hey, at least the name of the car, “Dayz” is already in LOLcat language.
Previous Ancient Gene Variant Influences Coat Color in Modern Dogs
Next CSIRO Voyages Film Bigfin Squid in Australian Waters for First Time