MISSISSAUGA -- To understand how new and redesigned vehicles drive success for auto makers, look no further than Nissan Canada Inc.

The company rode a wave of new vehicles developed by its once-destitute parent Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. to post a 7-per-cent sales gain in Canada last year in a declining market. It's aiming for a 10-per-cent leap this year. On the surface, the strategy is simple: Enter new segments and refresh existing vehicles.

"There are two critical pieces to our growth," says Nissan Canada president Brad Bradshaw. "We can't just walk away from the car lines we've been successful with in the past. We have to nurture those and at the same time we have to grow in new segments."

The attack on new segments will be evident this week when Nissan uses the Canadian International Auto Show in Toronto to introduce its X-trail sport utility vehicle.

The X-trail will go on sale this spring in Canada only -- not the U.S. market -- and will compete against the Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V and others in the mushrooming compact SUV segment.

Mr. Bradshaw has high expectations for the X-trail, with forecasts of 7,000 to 8,000 units this year.

"Frankly, the dealers tell us we can do a whole lot more than that and I'm anxious for us to be able to do a lot more than that," Mr. Bradshaw says. "Everywhere in the world that we've introduced this car, it has outsold RAV4 and CR-V."

X-trail is the latest in a procession of new vehicles that has dramatically broadened Nissan's product range, and there are more to come.

It follows a redesigned Quest minivan that gives the company its strongest entry yet in a large chunk of the market in Canada; the full-sized Titan pickup, which is Nissan's first vehicle in that segment; and the Pathfinder Armada full-sized SUV and the QX56, a similar SUV for the company's Infiniti luxury brand.

"Most of our growth in the last couple of years has come in segments where we weren't really present," Mr. Bradshaw tells a visitor to his office, which overlooks a frenetic stretch of Highway 401 south of Pearson International Airport.

There's even more to come later in the year with a redesigned Pathfinder midsized SUV, the Frontier compact pickup and the minor revamp of the Altima sedan, which has become the highest-volume vehicle for Nissan. Altima sales grew 14 per cent last year to 17,158, representing 25 per cent of Nissan's total sales of 69,534.

The company's overall sales in Canada have risen every year since 1998. Infiniti outsold Toyota Canada Inc.'s luxury Lexus division last year, as well as Cadillac and Lincoln.

The jump in sales in Canada is part of a worldwide renaissance at Nissan Motor since Renault SA of France bought a controlling stake in the debt-laden auto maker in 1999 and installed Carlos Ghosn as president. Mr. Ghosn, nicknamed "Le cost killer," promptly instituted the Nissan revival plan, trimming jobs, slashing debt and upending a long-standing parts supply system that was driving Nissan's costs through the roof.

Despite the job cuts, Mr. Ghosn has become a comic-book hero in Nissan's home country of Japan and will take over the chairman's job at Renault next year.

His relentless drive to slash costs has helped deliver the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to finance the development of new vehicles.

"What Ghosn is trying to do worldwide has been extended to Nissan Canada in a very substantial way," says industry analyst Chris Travell, vice-president of the automotive group of Maritz Research in Toronto, which does market research for Nissan.

Nissan, of course, is far from the only company introducing new vehicles this year. There will be a flurry of introductions at the auto show in Toronto this week from virtually every auto maker operating in Canada.

They form part of a flood of new vehicles that will arrive on dealers' lots across the country this year -- about 61 new or redesigned cars, trucks and minivans, compared with 48 last year, according to data compiled by consulting firm J.D. Power and Associates.

Mr. Bradshaw acknowledges that standing out amid that proliferation is critical.

"One of our key challenges for the future is making sure everybody knows as we grow that we are a full-line player, which is quite different than what we were in the past."

With all the new product, however, there is still one segment where Nissan needs to improve, he says, and that's in entry-level passenger cars.

Hyundai Canada Inc. and Kia Canada Inc. have made huge strides in that segment in recent years, and now Toyota with its Echo and Echo hatchback, General Motors of Canada Ltd. with the Chevrolet Aveo and Suzuki Canada Inc. with the Swift+ have raised the stakes in small cars.

Joining that battle will be necessary if Nissan Canada is to reach the 100,000 sales level, Mr. Bradshaw says.

Nissan Canada showed some vehicles at the Montreal auto show last month that could be useful at the entry level, he says, but it's too early to tell.

"We are committed to trying to address that," he says. "Obviously from my standpoint, tomorrow isn't soon enough."

Despite the growth and the hopes for further sales gain, Mr. Bradshaw says the company has no plans to dramatically expand its dealer network beyond the 150 outlets now in place. Nissan Canada recently added outlets in suburban Calgary and downtown Toronto, but new retailers will be added only in markets where growth gets explosive.