The is a luxury sedan produced by Nissan for the Japanese market. The car's name is derived from Spanish for "summit". Earlier generations installed a hood ornament with an image of an acanthus leaf. The acanthus leaf was commonly used by classical Greeks to make a wreath for use as a crown.
In Japan, the Cima has traditionally been Nissan's rival to the Toyota Crown Royal Saloon G and later the Majesta. The Cima in the first two generations was a more luxurious and larger version of the Cedric and Gloria, with the Cima sharing the V8 engine from the earlier flagship President, Nissan's alternative to the Toyota Century. The Cima was introduced in 1988 and was based on an elongated Cedric/Gloria chassis. With its phenomenal sales—about 64,000 units sold the first year and 120,000 in four years—the car became a symbol of the "bubble economy".
The Cedric Cima was sold at Nissan Motor Stores, while the Gloria Cima was sold at Nissan Prince Stores. Later generations of the Cima shared the same platform as the President, with the Cima being a shorter version, thereby allowing Nissan to continue offering the Cima at Nissan Prince Store locations. The later iterations of the Cima were exported to the United States as the Infiniti Q45. The Q45 was discontinued after 2006, however the Cima and the President continued in production until August 2010, leaving the Fuga to become the lone flagship. April 2012, the Cima nameplate was resurrected, and resumed "flagship" status in Japan as a longer wheelbase version of the Fuga Hybrid.
In January 2021, Nissan announced that the Cima had been considered for cancellation for a second time, with production being halted at the end of 2020 while the current Nissan Japan website still lists it as available for new orders with a hybrid powertrain only in three trim levels. According to the Nissan Factory website at Tochigi, the Cima was renewed October 2021. The Cima was discontinued for the second and final time in 2022.
First generation (Y31; 1988)
Up until 1989, the Japanese tax bracket dictated a division point at the car being long, wide, with a 2-liter engine. Both the Cedric/Gloria and its arch-rival, the Toyota Crown were stretched to this very limit, with larger engined versions also available. The bigger versions received larger bumpers to take advantage of the absence of exterior dimension restrictions, but were still somewhat of a half measure as the bodywork itself remained narrow.
When rumors came that Toyota was developing a larger, wider extension of the Crown, called the 4000 Royal Saloon G, Nissan acted hastily to add a full-sized version of the Cedric and Gloria. Nissan, however, was unable to get the wide version ready for the narrow version's launch in June 1987. The half-year gap in development, however, brought about many changes in design. The wider version was originally sold as the Cedric Cima or Gloria Cima, depending on which sales channel was being used. This generation was manufactured exclusively as a 4-door hardtop, with no B-pillar between the front and rear side glass windows. The interior was very lavish using genuine lacquer wood inserts throughout the interior and the upholstery was a choice between Connolly leather or a silk-wool combination. It was offered as the Type I Limited, the Type II-S or Type II Limited AV with the turbocharged engine and a color CRT interactive display for climate, navigation and sound system functions provided by Fujitsu Ten and a Sony CD changer which were earlier installed in the Nissan Leopard GT coupe. The steering wheel had a stationary center hub while the steering wheel rotated around it, providing stereo and cruise control buttons on the hub regardless of where the steering wheel was. There was an optionally available cellular phone installed in the armrest console and the center hub was available with cellphone buttons to dial numbers, connect or disconnect calls.
The Y31 Cima is available with a VG30DE or a turbocharged VG30DET. The turbocharged version was especially popular, leading the Japanese media to coin the term "the Cima phenomenon". The Cedric Cima was sold at dealerships Nissan Motor where the Laurel could be found in Japan, and the Gloria Cima was sold at Nissan dealerships Nissan Prince that sold the Skyline. The Cima was available with an electronically controlled air suspension and a center console color CRT-display for multiple audio and video and climate control functions.