After nearly a decade away, Vinay Shahani has returned to Nissan with a mission: restore the automaker’s reputation, simplify dealer relations, and reinvigorate its brand identity in the U.S. market. In an exclusive interview on Inside Automotive, we sit down with Shahani, now senior vice president of U.S. marketing and sales, who reflected on Nissan’s past success, acknowledged its missteps, and shared his renewed commitment to dealers as the foundation of a stronger future.
First, Shahani’s connection to Nissan runs deep, beginning in 2003 when he joined the company after hearing its then-CEO speak to his grad school class. “It was an underdog Japanese brand that was known for high quality, but excitement,” he said, recalling the launches of the Xterra and 350Z in the early 2000s. Then, after a time with Volkswagen and Toyota, he returned to Nissan with a clear directive: help turn the ship around.
Having spent seven years at Toyota, Shahani also aims to bring elements of its dealer-first culture to Nissan. “The beauty of what they do is they put the dealer at the center of everything,” he said, reinforcing that dealers are “the face of the brand to the consumer.”
Reflecting on where the brand lost its way, Shahani said Nissan had become “too complicated” for dealers to work with—overloaded with excessive KPIs, siloed internal programs, and a lack of alignment around fundamental priorities like selling cars and serving customers. Drawing from Toyota’s dealer-first philosophy, Shahani initiated a major reset by bringing every dealer-facing program to the National Dealer Advisory Board for review.
In that session, programs were evaluated against three key criteria:
- Does it help you sell cars?
- Does it help you take care of the customer?
- Does it help you make money?
Roughly one-third of the programs were cut based on dealer feedback, freeing up resources for higher-impact initiatives.
Shahani emphasized that some programs, while well-intentioned, were not essential in the current environment. For example, Nissan’s “second delivery” program, which involved sending representatives to customers’ homes to explain vehicle features, was praised but ultimately deprioritized to conserve resources.
Instead, more energy is being directed toward core model strategies. With 13 vehicles in the lineup, Shahani acknowledged the need to spotlight high-volume models like the Rogue, Pathfinder, and Frontier, which are built in the U.S. and serve as the foundation of Nissan’s lineup. Other models will receive proportionally less marketing support under a tiered investment strategy.
Communication and transparency have also become central to Shahani’s leadership. He now holds twice-monthly calls with dealers and has significantly increased collaboration with the dealer advisory board. Additionally, he notes that restoring trust is key to Nissan’s long-term success.
Looking ahead, Shahani says Nissan’s comeback hinges on its ability to combine quality, durability, and reliability with renewed brand excitement, reclaiming its position as a full-line, irreverent Japanese brand that consumers and dealers can rally behind.
“Ultimately, it’s our dealer that is the face of the brand to the consumer. They bring the brand to life. And I think it’s something that I’ve worked really hard to kind of remind everyone on the team, that is the way forward to us.” – Vinay Shahani.
