TOKYO – Nissan Motor Co. said it would recall 2.14 million March/Micra, Cube and about a dozen other models in its third-biggest recall, to fix a faulty ignition relay that could cause engine problems, Reuters reported.

No accident was reported from the defect, Nissan spokesman Toshitake Inoshita said.

Nissan said problems in the ignition relay could cause the engine to stall or fail to restart. The recalls are mostly in Japan, with 835,000 units, and the United States and Canada with a combined 762,000 units.

The faulty vehicles were built in Japan, the United States, Britain, Spain, China and Taiwan between August 2003 and July 2006.

Nissan does not disclose cost estimates on vehicle recalls or any impact on its earnings. But the fix is likely to be relatively cheap, with Nissan estimating less than 25 minutes for the repair, which involves replacing the ignition relay.

Recalls exceeding 1 million vehicles have become more common at big automakers as they use common components across multiple models to save design and production costs.

Last week, Toyota Motor Corp. announced a recall of 1.66 million vehicles globally for defects involving the brake master cylinder and fuel pump wiring. That brought the total number of vehicles recalled worldwide at Toyota in the past year to about 14 million.

NASHVILLE – Sales are climbing, market share is up and business is profitable. But Nissan Division still feels that Americans are unclear about what the brand has to offer, Automotive News reported.

The company today rolled out a new national ad campaign that will begin focusing attention on Nissan as a brand rather than dwelling on individual models.

The redirection, undertaken even as Nissan outpaces rivals Toyota, Honda and Hyundai in year-over-year sales growth, will hit the airwaves beginning this Saturday in conjunction with college football. More ads will run on Sept. 1.

The ads will also run during Sunday night NFL football broadcasts, starting Sept. 9.

The new ads use the recurring line “Innovation for All” to assert Nissan’s claims as a source of industry innovation. The ads will showcase technologies where Nissan has been an early mass-market adopter, such as keyless entry, brake overrides to electronic acceleration and the all-electric family sedan.

The ads will center on the brand as the source of vehicles such as the Leaf, the industry’s first mass-production electric family vehicle, going on sale in December; and the Maxima, which the ads promote as a cross between a sports car and a family sedan.

“We’ve done well. We’ve been consistently and quietly growing our share,” says Jon Brancheau, vice president of Nissan marketing at Nissan North America Inc. But focus groups revealed that potential conquest buyers were unclear on Nissan’s product line, he says.

“Those who were familiar with us and owned the vehicle had a very favorable impression of us,” Brancheau told Automotive News at Nissan’s U.S. headquarters in Franklin, Tenn. “But when you talk to conquest prospects, they’re all over the place. And some of them just go blank.”

Brancheau, 49, who took over Nissan’s marketing in March after heading up U.S. and global marketing for Infiniti for the past year, says Nissan has suffered from a lack of consistency in its advertising. He also oversaw the implementation of a brand-oriented campaign for Infiniti last year intended to help that luxury marque improve its consumer awareness.

“We’ve really done a good job of growing share in some models, like the Altima,” he said. “But it hasn’t laddered up to help halo the Nissan brand.”

Nissan Division sales were 465,605 for the first seven months of this year, up 25 percent from the year-earlier period. The brand’s market share stood at 7 percent at the end of July, up from 6.4 percent a year earlier.

YOKOHAMA, Japan—Nissan Motor Co. will likely raise its earnings forecast for the fiscal year if it can maintain momentum from its strong first quarter, a company executive said, even as he signaled caution over higher costs and the strengthening yen, reported The Wall Street Journal.

When asked why Nissan left its full-year forecast unchanged when it released its earnings last week, Joji Tagawa, a Nissan corporate vice president, suggested the company doesn’t yet know by how much it will be able to raise its estimate.

“We aren’t concerned about simply meeting our initial forecast,” Tagawa said. “It is not our style” to make a minor change in our earnings forecasts every quarter no matter how small, he said.

Tagawa said Nissan will raise its full-year forecast when it sees a clearer outlook for steel and other raw materials prices and the yen—possibly after the end of the first half—suggesting the company is treading carefully amid an uncertain business outlook.

Last week, Nissan reported a net profit of 106.65 billion yen ($1.23 billion) for the April to June period, its highest quarterly net profit in more than two years. Investors were surprised by the company’s ability to generate 71 percent of its expected 150 billion yen annual profit in only the first three months of the year, highlighting its quick recovery from an industrywide slump after the global financial crisis.

But despite the strong earnings performance, Nissan didn’t raise its full-year forecast, and Tagawa said it is still too early to say the company is back on a sustainable recovery trend.

Nissan is also watching currency levels. The U.S. dollar could weaken against the yen, falling below 85 yen, Tagawa said. The greenback hit an eight-month low of 85.95 yen Friday before rallying back to around 86.70 yen Monday.

The Japanese car maker bases its earnings forecast for the current fiscal year on a dollar rate of 90 yen. Anything below the level would affect its profit forecast, as a stronger yen reduces profit the company earns overseas when repatriated, while also making Japan-built vehicles more expensive abroad.

Each time the dollar falls by one yen, 15 billion yen would be wiped off the company’s operating profit for the current fiscal year, Tagawa said. Under its current assumptions, Nissan expects an operating profit of 350 billion yen for this fiscal year.

The Japanese carmaker posted a surprisingly strong operating profit margin of 8 percent in the April-June quarter, due to improved vehicles sales in all markets and cost-cutting.

However “it will be hard to maintain this 8 percent margin in the second and following quarters” of this fiscal year, as likely higher material costs and a potentially stronger yen could cut into profitability, Tagawa said.

Solid sales of sport-utility vehicles in the U.S. helped to boost the company’s profit, but such demand is unlikely to last as consumers continue to shift to smaller, fuel efficient cars, he said.

WASHINGTON — Nissan is recalling 51,100 of its Cube hatchbacks in the United States and Canada because of possible problems with fuel spilling during rear end collisions, reported The Associated Press.

In documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Nissan Motor Co. said Monday tests conducted by NHTSA safety regulators found more fuel spilled than federal standards allow. The spillage occurred during rear end crash tests at 50 miles per hour where the vehicle also spun onto its side.

Nissan said its own earlier tests did not show any fuel leakage, but it will issue a voluntary recall. It notified dealers last week and will contact owners on Aug. 30. Dealers will attach a special protector to prevent leaks.

There have been no injuries or incidents reported by drivers, according to Nissan.

The recall covers model year 2009 and 2010 Cubes made between Jan. 30, 2009 and July 30. It includes 45,700 in the United States and 5,400 in Canada. Cubes sold in Europe and Japan are not included because they use different parts.

A sporty four-door aimed at urban drivers, the boxy Cube was introduced in Asia before being sold in the U.S. last year. U.S. buyers have snapped up 15,530 through June this year, a 300 percent increase over the same period a year earlier.

Toyota reported a similar problem last month from NHTSA tests of a Lexus hybrid. The automaker also did not find problems in its own tests, but issued a recall anyway.

YOKOHAMA, Japan — Nissan Motor Co. President Carlos Ghosn said Wednesday that he received 890 million yen ($9.8 million) in compensation in the fiscal year ended March, making him the highest-paid executive at a listed Japanese company, according to publicly disclosed information reported by The Wall Street Journal.

This is the first time the carmaker has released the top executive’s compensation figure, as the Financial Services Agency’s new rules require that publicly traded companies in Japan disclose the annual compensation of executives receiving 100 million yen or more.

The amount compares with the roughly 816.5 million yen ($9 million) that Sony Corp. Chief Executive Howard Stringer received in a combination of 410 million yen in salary and bonuses, and 406.5 million yen in stock options during the just-ended business year. Nissan declined to give the breakdown of Ghosn’s salary and stock-option package.

The paychecks of Messrs. Stringer and Ghosn, two foreign heads of major Japanese companies, are being closely watched as compensation levels for Japanese executives are usually much less than for their counterparts in the U.S. and Europe. Even so, some observers had expected the pay levels to be in line with U.S. and European standards as the two men had previously held executive positions at overseas firms.

Toyota Motor Corp. extended discounts that brought back-to-back U.S. sales increases, and Nissan Motor Co. led the largest Asia-based carmakers’ gains for the second month in a row as auto demand continued recovering in April, Bloomberg reported.

Deliveries for Nissan rose 35 percent from a year earlier, while Toyota yesterday reported a 24 percent advance after continuing no-interest loans and discount leases on most of its namesake brand’s models in April. Honda Motor Co. posted a 13 percent increase and Hyundai Motor Co. sales were up 30 percent.

“Toyota’s incentives pretty much set the pace,” said James Bell, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book in Irvine, Calif. “Everybody being up a little bit is tied to the Toyota program — it’s raising the tide for the industry.”

Toyota recalls of more than 8 million autos globally for flaws linked to unintended acceleration and congressional hearings that tainted its image led the world’s largest automaker in March to introduce discounts across its lineup. For now, that strategy will remain in place.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange is closed for a holiday. Hyundai rose 3,500 won, or 2.6 percent, to 138,000 won in Korea Stock Exchange trading. Affiliate Kia Motors Corp., which boosted sales 17 percent, gained 1,150 won, or 4.1 percent, to 28,950 won in Seoul.

U.S. industrywide auto sales rose 20 percent in April to 982,131 cars and light trucks, according to Autodata Corp., a research firm based in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. U.S. sales have risen for six consecutive months.

The Asia-based brands boosted their combined U.S. market share to 46.5 percent, a 1 percentage point gain from a year earlier, Autodata said.

General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC, the U.S.-based automakers, held 45 percent, a one-point drop. Sales rose 6.4 percent for GM and 25 percent each for Ford and Chrysler.

Toyota sold 157,439 Toyota, Lexus and Scion vehicles last month, rising from 126,540 a year earlier. The Toyota City, Japan-based company said the increases were led by Corolla small cars, Prius hybrids, Avalon sedans, Highlander and RAV4 sport- utility vehicles, and Sienna minivans.

The automaker, which last month recalled Lexus GX 460 SUVs to adjust stability controls, is expanding production of most models in North America because of rising demand, Carter said.

Nissan reported sales of 63,769 Nissan and Infiniti vehicles, an increase from 47,190. The Yokohama, Japan-based company had the biggest volume increase among Japanese and South Korean automakers in the U.S. this year through April.

Small cars such as the Versa and Sentra posted percentage gains of more than 38 percent, while sales of light trucks including Frontier and Titan pickups and Murano, Rogue, Pathfinder and Armada SUVs were “surprisingly strong,” said Al Castignetti, Nissan’s vice president of U.S. sales.