Nissan Tries to Convince Us the Note Can Float, But Why? [w/Video]

New car launches can be boring, especially when they follow the same classic set-up. However, Nissan wanted something special for the UK launch of the new Note, so it turned the small B-segment car into a boat of sorts.

Nissan literally launched the specially-adapted Note Boat on the Eton Dorney Lake in the UK, along with three superstar Olympic rowers: Helen Glover, Sophie Hosking and Polly Swann.

The carmaker says the Note Boat “provides a visual demonstration of Note’s exciting technologies”, more specifically the sliding rear seat (turned into a single stroke seat for a rower), the rear doors, which open to almost 90 degrees allowing the fitting of a pair of oars which can move through an almost entire rowing stroke, and the Around View Monitor 360-degree parking system, which helped the rowers see where they were going and keep their lane.

The Note’s Around View Monitor with Safety Shield technology features four cameras – one in the front, one at the rear and one under each door mirror – providing a helicopter-style top down view.

I’m not sure what point Nissan wanted to make with this publicity stunt, other than the Note can be placed onto a raft and claim it’s a rowing boat by fitting a pair of oars. Imagine if the event went wrong – that would have definitely got a lot of media coverage.

As for the Note that prefers roads to lakes, UK deliveries kicked off on October 1, with Nissan receiving 3,860 orders so far.

By Dan Mihalascu

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