A slew of defects is dragging down the cars' J.D. Power ratings

Scott Mount's Nissan Armada gives him a headache -- literally. Soon after buying the SUV in December, the Orange County (Calif.) restaurant manager began experiencing skull-jarring vibrations from the roof. What's worse, the brakes squealed, and clicks emanated from the rear. Mount says the dealer replaced the brakes, checked the rear, and tried to quell the roof noise, but he remains unsatisfied. This is Mount's fifth Nissan, and it may be his last. "I won't buy another vehicle from them if they don't do something about this Armada," he swears.

Five years after CEO Carlos Ghosn kicked off an astounding comeback that has unleashed a half-dozen hot-selling vehicles on the U.S. market and generated solid profits after years of losses, Nissan Motor Co. (NSANY ) is having serious growing pains. Quality problems with the Armada, the Quest minivan, and the Titan full-size pickup dragged down Nissan's ranking in J.D. Power & Associates' annual initial quality survey, which reflects flaws found by owners in the first 90 days. In the survey, which was released on Apr. 28, Nissan finished 11th, way down from last year's 6th place. And the 147 problems spotted per 100 vehicles trail the industry average of 119.

That could spell big trouble for the Japanese auto maker. These problem-plagued vehicles represent a new thrust into key market segments -- minivans, big pickups, and SUVs -- already well served by Honda Motor (HMC ), Toyota Motor (TM ), and the Big Three. And all three are made at a year-old plant in Canton, Miss., built to boost Nissan's U.S. market share. Says Wesley R. Brown, an analyst at Los Angeles auto consulting firm Iceology: "If there isn't a quick fix, this could derail their momentum."

It isn't the first time Nissan has had quality woes. The Altima sedan, built at the company's 21-year-old plant in Smyrna, Tenn., has also had bumps. But they weren't as serious as those from the Mississippi factory, where poor craftsmanship was the chief complaint from consumers, says J.D. Power. And while squeaks, rattles, and vibrations account for many of the complaints, more serious issues have prompted two recalls of the Quest minivan -- including one for a sliding door that opened when drivers accelerated rapidly.

That, as it turns out, may be an apt image for what ails Nissan, which has been pedal to the metal since 1999. In that time the company has launched 13 new vehicles in the U.S. -- most engineered when Nissan was emerging from a near-death experience. The carmaker knew it was being aggressive, but since its quality was pretty decent, execs thought they could pull off the crowded launch schedule. Analysts, however, say Nissan lacked the engineering resources to check thoroughly for defects before cranking up the assembly lines.

CHEAP MATERIALS. What's more, Ghosn was seeking to roll out the new models while demanding price concessions from suppliers. As a result, Nissan often used cheaper materials at the expense of manufacturing precision. One consultant, who took apart a Titan to study it for a rival, says that certain internal parts aren't made to fit together as precisely as at Toyota and others. That forced assembly line workers at Canton to find ways of fitting the pieces snugly together -- hardly ideal since many of them had never worked at a car plant before.

Putting an end to the problems will be crucial, since initial quality problems often affect long-term reliability. "These things tend to persist," says Joe Ivers, executive director for quality and customer satisfaction at J.D. Power. "If things are this extreme, it will probably wind up costing them in warranty costs." The auto maker says it's investigating the problem vehicles and the Canton plant. At the same time, Nissan is beefing up its engineering talent and spending more on parts and materials to ensure that future models have better quality. It is also replacing the Quest dashboard responsible for some squeaks. "We're going to address all of the issues," says a company spokesman.

Nissan has won thousands of new customers during the past three years with its powerful and stylish vehicles. But all that hard work could be for naught if Ghosn & Co. can't improve quality.

http://yahoo.businessweek.com/magazi...0/b3883053.htm

 

This is good news and bad news.

Everyone's known for some time that those incredible profits came at a serious cost to consumers ... owning a Nissan myself - I've found it out first-hand. Hopefully they'll forge a decent relationship w/ suppliers of quality parts and rotate some plant workers around the factories for experience. I doubt this will impact sales all that much, though as not too many people actually get the word about such defects - even those as drastic as the above mentioned.

Good news for consumers (if Nissan takes this JD Power report seriously)

Bad news for those people in the market for the most hideous of all large SUVs currently available, the Armada.

 

This is a very short sighted approach to doing business. If they had better quality, Nissan would retain a lot of buyers, since they have a diverse product.

 

I'm not that surprised. I have a friend who's a Nissan nut and owns an SE-R Spec V. His car had about 20K miles on it when the engine had to be replaced. It's also had numerous issues with the stereo system and the ecu. The worst part is that his problems don't seem to be uncommon from other SE-Rs or 4-cylinder Altimas. It's really quite sad, because in the past few years Nissan has put out some great looking cars that are also really fun to drive. Let's all hope they go back to the quality that earned Japanese makers their reputation or excellent reliability.

 

Well, we have 3 Nissans/Infinitis in our house now.

We use to have a mixture of Lexus, Nissan, Honda/Acura.

Here is what we have.

2001 Altima GXE (25k of miles, window regulator recall, and pulley squeel) both fixed under warranty, but car hasn't had a problem otherwise.

2003 Altima SL 2.5 (9k of miles, 1 year old) not a single problem, no rattles,etc Gets great gas milege, does not burn oil.

2004 G35 Sedan 6MT, Mine, (10k of miles, not a single problem.)

We had a RX300 Lexus, and it was traded in for the loaded Altima 03. The Lexus actually had crappy steering ratio, and was a bit hard to steer. For the person driving it, 5'2 60 year old mother, with a torn rotator cuff, it hurt her to drive. She loved the car otherwise, only one problem, cruise control stock broke). But she loves the Altima better she said. She calls it babyblue, or sometimes bluestreak.

All cars have problems. And Nissan may have quality problems, but they aren't that bad as people make them out to be. I see more older Nissans/Datsuns on the road than Hondas/Acuras. Toyota is with Nissan in that department as well.

 

Yeah - that 2.5 liter (QR25DE) is a real piece of ****.

I've got the SR20DE in my car with an automatic ( - I know - worst decision of my life) - and I've run against the Spec-Vs (6-speed). To about 60 mph - I can tell you that I wasn't more than one car length behind. That's just pathetic ...

 

It is sad to see such a good company have its downfall in something that can be prevented such as reliability.

-Anthony

 

I couldn't agree with you more. But something's gotta light a fire under Nissan exec's asses ... maybe this is a spark.

EDIT: While I'm glad that Toyota, the company, can be counted on for producing top-notch, high-quality vehicles, I prefer to have plenty of options in shopping for cars - like most other products. So it's in my (and everyone's) best interest to have a few other companies putting out reasonably comparable products.

I've still got a sour taste in my mouth ... In 2001 when I was looking for a car ... the Corolla was an overpriced Geo/Chevy Prizm ... is that Fremont, CA GM/Toyota joint auto-plant still open?

 

yes, it still is, still making Corollas and Tacomas.

 

I agree that Nissan....and to a lesser extent Infiniti.....tends to use cheap materials, especially in the interior. We've had a lot of discussions on the threads here about that. Part of this can be attributed to Renault ownership of Nissan.....a company notorious for poorly-made cars that was literally driven out of the U.S. market 20 years ago by their shoddy products.
Nissan, however, is keenly aware of the criticism it has taken for this.....and is trying to make some amends. One example is the new Altima...this year the fit-and-finish inside is a marked improvement from the last couple of years...especially on the new Altima SE-R. We'll see in time how the rest of the Nissan line does.