Saw this link on the Hobie-Cat Europe site. Offered by Nissan France it's the Hobie Cat pickup. And we can't even find a good sailing bumper sticker here in the states.....

Anyways, heres the link:
http://www.nissan.fr/fr/pickup/index.html

.....and here's the English translation courtesy of Babelfish:

Taste of the adventure, research of the perfection, searches feelings... here some of the values that Nissan and Hobie Cat divide. This is why Nissan launches the Record player Hobie Cat - a Record player to the look and the impressive performances!

Nissan Pick-Up Hobie Cat is addressed to those which live their leisures fully.
Jet-ski or hang glider? Stop the difficult choices: thanks to the very great capacity of its bucket and with its payload of a ton, this Record player transports all your material easily. Then, embark and release the mooring ropes!

Chrome, fog rear view mirrors front, side rims alloy 17", footboards and tubular arch of bucket : a daring style which evokes all the force of the Record player Hobie Cat. With a power of 133 CH and a couple of 304 Nm, its turbo engine Diesel 2.5L offers incomparable performances, while reducing the pollutant emissions and the fuel consumption. The **** is equipped with automatic air-conditioning, a black Alcantara® saddlery and a wheel leather to bring an absolute comfort to you.


Copyright 2004 Nissan Legal mentions

(this post is not to be taken seriously)


I just love life, it never seems to stop amazing me :



We are talking Hobie cat 16's here, right, as shown in the background ?

On second thoughts, the 70's styling of the H16 may indeed be called daring when confronting 90's and 00's youths !

Wouter

The translation above is not exact. I stuck the text in Babelfish, an automatic language translation program run by altavista. It's not perfect but it's good enough to get an idea of what they are talking about. Here's the link to Babelfish:
http://world.altavista.com/
The original link to the truck ad is on the Hobiecat Europe Hsite, listed under Partnership. Apparently Nissan will show the truck at the London Boat Show and Hobie had some boats at the Paris International Car Exhibition. Just another example of cross-promotion, which is rarely seen here in the states from the boat manufacturers.

Lance correctly notes little or no cross-promotion from US manufacturers. Sheesh- but Why? Its a really sad state of affairs here in the Ol' USA. Surprisingly Coleman Co. didn't help Hobie Cat much either.

It's like when my father's school & scientific furniture factory (the Cadillac of the Business they claimed, rightfully) was bought out. The new management fired all of the salemen who had worked on commission because "they made too much money". They hired 4 salesmen for the ENTIRE USA and paid them a mediocre salary. Guess what happened to their once-excellent business. It died-- or was killed. A boyhood friend of mine was the Comptroller, and officer in the new outfit- American Seating Co. of Grand Rapids. I always thought he was kind of dense.... confirmed, eh?

You rite, Lance. I ain't crazy about Hobie, but GO EUROPE!

For those pickin' fly crap outta pepper, here's my Louisiana Cajun French translation:

Taste for adventure, researched to perfection, sensation... these are the values that Nissan and Hobie Cat share. This is why Nissan came out with the Hobie Cat pickup - a truck with impressive looks and performance!

Geez...

thanks Lance - that's kewl, really is.
sea ya
tami

Mine isn't that gold/brown color...but I already own one of those trucks? Does that mean it's true?

Perhaps it is not a coincidence that the Tiger on the back page of the Hobie Class News is flying the Nissan logo.

Caleb

So the "Hobie lifestyle" is represented by a heavy, diesel powered, commercial vehicle then? Think I'll stick with my WRX....

My Vehicross is the seksiest cat-car evar.

To bad it doesn't have a hitch yet

Actually there were a few automobile cross marketing attempts in the USA during the Coleman era. One was a VW 4x4 Van with Hobie graphics down the side. All of the reps had them and they were available in VW dealerships. Matt Bounds will have a picture from an old Hotline? There was a Baja Mexico Photo shoot that I went on. We had a group shot in front of two of the vans. Maybe 1986-87?

You really ought to have a better handle on this, Matt.

The partnerships started even earlier. From the Sept/Oct 1984 Hotline:


Dodge Mini-vans w/ Hobie graphics

But this is what Matt M. was talking about:


So where are you in this photo, Matt?


(do not underestimate my Hotline archive)

Certainly wouldn't!

Yep, I'm in the picture. By the passenger door on the right. That was quite a trip. 10 days in Baja with a bunch of models doing a sailing and swimwear shoot. Yeehaa!

What is that you're wearing? Could it be a red speedo?

Tracie

Hey Matt,

How about a little bit bigger scan of the last picture? I certainly can't make out the other Matt.

I'd love to get hold of a turbo-diesel Nissan four-door pickup with a 2,000 pound payload. New diesel engines burn so much cleaner than the old smokers, they easily pass the toughest emissions standards, and you can run a renewable fuel: bio-diesel.

Powerful, sporty and uses renewable energy; that sounds like the Hobie lifestyle.

I wouldn't call that truck anything close to heavy. 2.5L diesel is not even one third what most diesl trucks have. It probably only weighs 3,500lbs.

You guys are just messing with me:

I'm not sure that the guy leaning against the van is Matt.
Then again, it's almost twenty years ago.

BTW, here's the opening spread (no pun intended!) from the photo shoot:

OMG
I want know where I can get a job to hang out with Chaquitas like this and get paid for it!

So are any of these vehicles still on the road? Plenty of this generation are still around but I've never seen one with Hobie graphics. It seems like one of those items some Hobie enthusiast has hiding in her or her garage, waiting for it's reintroduction on Ebay.

Seeing the pic of the VW jarred my memory. I remember driving behind one about 2 years ago in the Tampa area. I had thought it was a custom job and I thought it was pretty cool.

Steve, if you're really into it, the Hobie dealer by me has a set of the van graphics for sale.

Michael Ehnnis at Midwest Sailing. http://www.ms-pyc.com/