Nissan Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. have more in common than people might think.

Affiliated with foreign automakers and led by non-Japanese executives, both companies epitomize the increasingly global nature of the world’s auto industry. They also epitomize the will to survive.

Mired in debt and hampered by slumping sales, their futures seemed in doubt just a few years ago. Today, analysts herald them as the comeback kids as they post profits, roll out new models and solidify their brand image. Here’s a look at where they’ve been and where they’re going.

Nissan, under the leadership of Brazilian-born Carlos Ghosn, launched its own revival plan 2 years ago and has amazed virtually everyone with the speed of the company’s turn-around.

When Ghosn arrived in Tokyo, the company had $19 billion in debt, 7 years of poor financial performance and a long-suffering product line that hadn’t enjoyed a consistent high-volume seller in Japan for several years (see www.jama.org, Japan Auto Trends, September 1999, volume 3-3, page 6). Since implementing the aggressive turn-around program, which included the breakup of Nissan’s traditional network of parts suppliers, the improvement of manufacturing efficiency and the selling off of non-automotive businesses, the company has thrived.

In fact, the 3-year revival plan took only 2 years to complete. The company recently announced a net group profit of $2.9 billion (372 billion yen) for the fiscal year that ended March 31.

Having met all the plan’s original commitments, Ghosn is moving onto the second phase of the company’s rejuvenation— “NISSAN 180,” which stands for the sale of one million more cars, an 8 percent operating margin and zero debt.

“We transformed a struggling company into a good company,” said Ghosn, who recently was named to the board of Renault SA, Nissan’s principal shareholder. “Through NISSAN 180, we will transform a good company into a great company.”

Evidence that Nissan is on the mend is reflected in its showrooms as well as in its profits. The company plans to introduce 28 or more new car models over the next 3 years, double the company’s normal release pace. In the spring, it launched its first minicar, the “Moco,” just one of six new models the company plans to bring to the Japanese market this year. It also released the “March” (see photo on page 4), a new model whose sales are more than triple what Nissan originally projected.

More evidence can be found in Nissan’s workforce. The company announced that it planned to hire 4,000 workers, including 2,500 jobs at a new U.S. plant, as the company raises production. This represents the first boost in employment since Ghosn took the helm in late 1999.

And still more evidence is seen in its technology-development efforts. The company has reached an agreement to acquire a university campus to house a new R&D center not far from the Nissan Technical Center. The acquisition supports plans to develop a range of products under the NISSAN 180 plan.

In a recent interview, Ghosn said: “Today we are a profitable company. We have reduced our debt tremendously. We have a lot of new products coming. We have enhanced our brand. Our corporate image is changing very fast.”

What began in November 2000 shortly after Mark Fields took charge of Japan’s number four automaker will likely continue under Lewis Booth, the Englishman who has vowed to press ahead with Mazda’s ”Millennium Plan.”

Fields vacated Mazda’s top job to become the head of Ford Motor Co.’s Premier Automotive Group, which is made up of Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo. Booth, who formerly headed Ford’s Asia-Pacific, Africa and Technical Staffs before accepting Mazda’s top job, has indicated that he doesn’t come with a mandate of change, but rather has said, “I come with a mandate to implement the Millennium Plan.”

That plan, which Fields announced just a few months before the company posted its worst-ever net loss of $1.2 billion (155.2 billion yen), is credited with raising the company’s group net profit to about $66 million ($8.5 billion yen) this past fiscal year—the most dramatic year-to-year turnaround in the firm’s 82-year history. Cost cutting, staff reductions and plant closings lie at the heart of the recovery plan, which the company has promised to continue implementing until March 2005 (see www.jama.org, Japan Auto Trends, September 2000, volume 4-3, page 6).

Instead of closing down assembly lines, the company has announced that it will build a flexible and highly automated new assembly line at its Unina plant. Mazda’s reversal in fortunes has allowed it to invest in developing new models, reviving older ones and improving its image—objectives that for years had remained elusive for the Hiroshima-based company controlled by Detroit’s Ford Motor Co.

In April, the company unveiled a new minivan, the MPV. About a month later, the company introduced the Atenza, a mid-sized vehicle, which will be known as Mazda 6 in North America when the company begins to sell it later in the year. In addition, Mazda also plans to unveil its new Mazda RX-8 sports car and the Demio subcompact at year’s end. These rollouts set the pace for 36 new or revamped vehicles over the next 2 years.

All of Mazda’s vehicle offerings fall under its new international ad campaign that returns the company to its sporty roots. This new “Zoom-Zoom” campaign extols Mazda’s cars and even its family-oriented minivans as fun to drive. “I think the patient is on the mend now and will continue to get stronger and stronger,” Fields has said. Only time will tell, say the analysts.

The Mazda Atenza—“Emotion in Motion” The Mazda Atenza, which will be sold in North America as the Mazda 6, is a mid-sized sedan that leans more toward sportiness than the typical family car and is aimed at embodying Mazda’s philosophy of “Emotion in Motion.” Powered by a new 2.3-liter inline, 4-cyclinder DOHC, S-VT engine, the Atenza’s roll out sets the pace for 36 new or revamped models over the next 2 years. The Atenza and all other Mazda products are being marketed under the company’s new “Zoom-Zoom” advertising campaign that focuses on returning the company to its sporty roots.

The Nissan Moco—“Warm, Cute Feeling” Nissan enters the mini-car market with the Moco, which means a “warm and cute feeling” in Japanese. Designed for active young mothers, the car offers one of the most spacious interiors in its class and provides versatile seating arrangements and storage capacity. The two-wheel-drive model comes equipped with a variable valve-timing engine that the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has certified as ultra-low emission. Nissan expects to sell about 4,000 vehicles a month.