Nissan faces costly recall

[Poverty]

96,800 Altima, Sentra engines will be inspected

LOS ANGELES - Nissan North America could face a hefty price tag to remedy a recall of 96,800 2006 Nissan Altimas and Sentras, which may consume an inordinate amount of oil and cause engine fires.

In a June 16 letter from Brad Bradshaw, Nissan's incoming senior vice president for sales and marketing, the company told dealers that it would pick up vehicles from dealer inventories, transfer them to Nissan facilities for inspection, and return them after inspection and repair.

"We have not made a blanket statement that we will replace all the engines, but we are saying we will make the customer satisfied - whatever it takes," said Nissan spokesman Fred Standish in Nashville. "Fix it, repair it, replace it - whatever is necessary."

Nissan has not pinpointed the problem with the engines or determined how widespread it might be.

The 96,800 Altimas and Sentra SE-Rs are equipped with 2.5-liter, four-cylinder engines. The company said the cars may experience excessive engine oil consumption as a result of improper performance of the piston rings. At least 274 reports of excessive oil consumption and 24 engine fires have been reported to the company.

Nissan ordered dealers to stop selling the vehicles on June 2. It issued the recall on June 13.

Sources estimate it could cost Nissan at least $1,600 to replace one of the engines at a Nissan facility, not counting the cost of transporting the vehicle back and forth.

Approximately 33,500 of the cars are in dealer inventory. But consumers have 57,700 of the cars. Those engines probably will be repaired at dealerships, requiring additional dealer labor charges to Nissan. Nissan has about 5,600 of the cars.

Fixing the cars won't be the only expense for Nissan.

Bradshaw told dealers in the letter that Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp. will suspend all floorplan charges for the unsold Sentras and Altimas. The company will reimburse flooring charges to dealers who are with other financial institutions.

Nissan also has extended the warranty on the cars to 84 months or 100,000 miles, Standish said.

The Altimas were produced at the Smyrna, Tenn., and Canton, Miss., plants between January and May. The Sentras were manufactured at Nissan's plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico, between February and May.

From: AUTOWEEK

 

[YSSMAN]

Back when we had our Altima 2.5S for a while, it was going through oil quite often. Good thing we got rid of it when we did!

(BTW: Is it bad news day for the Japanese automakers or what?)

 

[1X83Z]

96,800 cars is practically nothing. And this isn't even a recall, like the thread title misleadingly states.

 

[Syntax error]

96,800 cars is practically nothing. And this isn't even a recall, like the thread title misleadingly states.

What's misleading about the title? In vehicle manufacturing terms a recall is when a vehicle is called back to the dealer for parts to be added or replaced on sold vehicles.

A recall is usually issued when a either a safety issue is recognized or an inordinate amount of warranty claims are submitted for the same problem. The manufacturer at this point acknowledges that there is a problem with the product and issues a recall by notifying the last known registered owners on their data base.

This looks like a pretty standard text book recall to me....

 

[Poverty]

M5 power seems to have something against recalls.

 

[LeadSlead#2]

almost 100,000 cars sounds like, every Altima and Sentra with a standard engine to me, and given that they're some of Nissan's top sellers, I'd say it's quite huge for them.
But what do I know? I'm not in that league
last year Nissan had a recall on 350Z's, on the power window swith/motor, and something on the brakes too.

 

[a6m5]

I hope they recall mine. I have a '04 Altima 2.5S. I thought all those flames coming out from under the hood was a display of awesome power!

I suggest Nissan take my car back, and replace it with a white Honda Fit Sport with 5spd........... and black interior. Thank you.

Edit: Poverty, what's up with the recalls all of the sudden?

 

[1X83Z]

What's misleading about the title?

This looks like a pretty standard text book recall to me....

Not if you actually read the first post, which is intentionally vague as to whether the vehicles "recalled" will in certainty require any sort of maintenance. It appears the recall is just for inspection - maintenance will come on an as-necessary basis.

almost 100,000 cars sounds like, every Altima and Sentra with a standard engine to me, and given that they're some of Nissan's top sellers, I'd say it's quite huge for them.

It's probably many of the vehicles made at those plants in that small time period, but Nissan sells 270,000 Altimas yearly and presumably around 75,000 Sentras. That's a total of 350,000 vehicles. And if you consider U.S. sales for the lifetime of both designs (Altima since '02 and Sentra since '00), you're looking at 1.35 million Altimas and 525,000 Sentras, for a total of nearly two million vehicles. A recall of this magnitude affects no more than 5.5 percent of current style Altimas and Sentras in the US - so it's really not that bad, or costly (plus the percentage of people actually participating in the recall is usually nowhere near 100%).

Furthermore, consider some of the other recalls mentioned recently in this forum - there are several Toyota recalls affecting between half a million and a million vehicles.

So at the end of the day with a little perspective it's not that large a number.

(for the record, about 84% of Altimas and 17% of Sentras use the affected 2.5-liter engine)

 

[a6m5]

They are great engines too. I love the balance between power and fuel economy. Mine has 175 horsepower, 180lbs of torque, and gets about 21 - 24 mile to a gallon(and I'm not a slow driver).

 

[1X83Z]

They are great engines too. I love the balance between power and fuel economy.

So do I - one of the best four-cylinders in its class. In fact, I think much of the reason why the V6 Altima only makes up about 16% of sales is because the four is so competent (and because just about every feature available on the six-cylinder model is available on the four, too).

 

[niky]

But the four has been an issue from day one... with the cracking catalytics on 03's, over-active knock sensors (horsepower, horsepower... where art thou? ) and now this?

It's a nifty engine, yes... but that's as long as it's working right...

 

[Syntax error]

Not if you actually read the first post, which is intentionally vague as to whether the vehicles "recalled" will in certainty require any sort of maintenance. It appears the recall is just for inspection - maintenance will come on an as-necessary basis.

Ummm I actually did read the first post... I thought it was quite clear personally....

The company said the cars may experience excessive engine oil consumption as a result of improper performance of the piston rings.

It issued the recall on June 13.

 

[Pink_the_Floyd]

This reminds me of the same problem Toyota had a while ago with the new Avensis.

 

[1X83Z]

Ummm I actually did read the first post... I thought it was quite clear personally....

Well then you read what you wanted to read, because this statement is quite prominent:

In a June 16 letter from Brad Bradshaw, Nissan's incoming senior vice president for sales and marketing, the company told dealers that it would pick up vehicles from dealer inventories, transfer them to Nissan facilities for inspection, and return them after inspection and repair.

Doesn't seem like the vehicles are getting repairs unless inspection deems it so.

 

[JCE]

Less than 100k of these vehicles is a drop in the bucket for Nissan. Nissan is one of the leaders in the automotive industry with the fewest recalls as a whole. Let's discuss Ford, GM, and now Toyota in comparison shall we?

I agree with M5 here on this one.