Nissan's reliability concern for the future...When will they be back?
I am getting concern with Nissan's future and don't know if Nissan will ever match with Toyota and Honda for reliability ever again. Today, all Nissan and Infiniti vehicles have the same reliability found in American cars and, often, worse than American and European cars. Most of their problematic vehicles (Titan, Quest, Armada, QX56) are built in Canton, Mississippi, but there are a lot of other vehicles (Maxima, Altima, Sentra, Murano, Frontier, 350Z, etc.) seeing a fall in reliability as well. The average reliability grade for Nissan/Infiniti vehicles this year is a D (below average). I think this is a joke. Why buy a Japanese when you can buy an American with the same quality but at a lower cost.
I have been following Consumer Reports auto reliability for the past 20 years, and it turns out that the 2000 Infiniti QX4 may be the most reliable Nissan vehicle ever made in history. After 2001, reliability fell, along with all Nissan/Infiniti vehicles, and they have not went back up since. If this is true, then I may pick up a used 2000 Infiniti QX4 given by its status and baby it for many years.
Does Nissan actually no longer care about reliability, but instead focus on performance and style? What do you think? It's been seven years already without a true Nissan Japanese quality. Do you already miss Nissan past quality?
I have been following Consumer Reports auto reliability for the past 20 years, and it turns out that the 2000 Infiniti QX4 may be the most reliable Nissan vehicle ever made in history. After 2001, reliability fell, along with all Nissan/Infiniti vehicles, and they have not went back up since. If this is true, then I may pick up a used 2000 Infiniti QX4 given by its status and baby it for many years.
Does Nissan actually no longer care about reliability, but instead focus on performance and style? What do you think? It's been seven years already without a true Nissan Japanese quality. Do you already miss Nissan past quality?
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Yeah, Nissan's brush with death in the late '90s and subsequent Renaultization wiped out the older platforms designed in Nissan's salad days at the end of the '80s. Nissan always had performance and style, but lost the durability and reliability with its independence.
Thing is, the complexity and sophistication of todays cars are so much farther along than the "old days" (I can't believe I can refer to the 90's as that :surprise: ). I mean a simple software glitch can leave you dead in the water, a fouled sensor can send your engine into limp mode awaiting a 1000 dollar diagnosis before even being fixed!
Sorry to stray off topic. I know a few folks with Nissan products and there are no real complaints I've heard from them. In fact, I'd go so far as to say Nissans popularity is growing up here in N.E. The new Altima is hot, the
Murano sells like hotcakes and the Titan pickup is as common as the Dodge Ram. And on the Infiniti side, the G seems to be doing very, very well.
So there are some shining stars in the lineup, it's just that NIssan apears to be falling into the Toyotaisation trap of entering every possible market they can and in short leadtime, comprimising quality and durability. They also rely heavily on the corporate VQ (fantastic engine btw, not knocking it) to get things done which limits its ability to shine where possible.
I don't think things are in the toilet per se, just be warry of first year bugs which can happen with any car maker.
Like someone mentioned cars have gotten so technological as far as emissions, electrical control modules, etc etc etc.
If you have one wiring problem everything goes to pot. But the number of claims we have come through are very low when compared to the number of vehicles that are on the road.
I see claims on vehicles up to 100k miles due to we also process all Nissan service contract claims. Even the vehicles with the higher mileage on them do not seem to be having that many problems.
I also used to work as a tech for Toyota, several years, ago and trust me they have had their run of problems also.
You have to remember they are all still put designed, engineered, and built by humans. Once "we" can do all of that and have no problems with the vehicles we will also be walking on water and never dying.
The only things I really don't like about it are the generous amounts of hard plastic inside, and the overly orange-peely texture of the paint. But both of these problems are indicative of the industry as a whole. Nissan certainly isn't the only offender.
Oh, one other thing...I really don't care for the Xterra's 5-speed automatic transmission, at least out on the highway. It seems like it often goes a gear too high. And when you need it to downshift, it takes a bit of time for the engine to rev up, and then it shifts down, and you take off. Sorta like turbo lag, I guess? I don't drive it very often though, so it might just take some getting used to. I'm actually used to older 3-speed automatics where the engine usually has enough power to just take off in top gear, without needing to downshift.
I know this runs contrary to most people's experience, but I'm actually leery of older Nissans, like from the late 80's and early 90's. My Mom & stepdad had a 1991 Stanza that wasn't so hot. They have a 1999 Altima that ate its transmission at 35,000 miles. However, the car has about 280,000 miles on it now, and I don't think ever had any major problems since then, so I guess I can forgive it! I also knew a few people with that early 1990's style Stanza, and the '89-94 era Maxima, that had engine problems.
I wouldn't be afraid to buy any of Nissan's current offerings. I think sometimes their interiors are a cut below Honda or Toyota, but that shouldn't affect long-term reliability.
Let's put it this way, if I wanted to buy a Nissan, any type of Nissan, over a Honda or Toyota or Hyundai of the same type, I wouldn't let Nissan's past reliability record get in the way of that purchase right now.
I am slowly admiring Nissan more and more as the production years roll along.
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
I have first hand experience why people call Nissan's reliability uneven.
Nissan's styling is nice, though.
I keep waiting for the belt to snap on my '99 Quest but it's still ok at 132k. Guess I'll find out one of these years if it's really a non-interference engine like it's supposed to be. :shades:
I follow the Quest boards but not the Odyssey or Sienna ones, so I don't have a good feel for how the newer ones are holding up against the competition. The Canton factory sure had (has?) issues.
Mostly I notice a lot of issues with Muranos. More so than with, say, Pathfinders.
Smarty666, Nissan is just a hair below average in the JD Power Initial Quality survey for '09.
J.D. Power Releases 2009 Initial Quality Study Results (Edmunds Daily)
I think Nissan is phasing out the Quest. Not sure if they plan to partner with Chrysler for their next minivan.
I was reading on Inside Line or somewhere around here last week that interest in minivans is back up. It's tough with Honda and Toyota dominating the import side and, while I like Caravans, you still have to wonder about the company viability.
Nissan needs to focus on consistency esp. with the way the auto market is going.
Next - 2004 Canton built vehicles - Quest, Titan, Armada (and it's twin Infiniti QX56) - all had more than their fair share of problems. In my view (and I've worked with Nissan for over 15 years), they were asking for trouble there. Building three brand new vehicles, in a brand new plant, staffed with people that had never built cars before. Considering the deck stacked against them, it should be said that it's good that more vehicles that year did not have problems. That plant's products have improved in quality every year since.
Every manufacturer (Including Toyota and Honda) has problems. Every manufacturer (Including Nissan and Chrysler) builds vehicles that run like a clock. They also build a lot that fall in between. My gauge of long-term reliability has always been Consumer Reports ratings. Not the written articles, which present the particular bias of the author, but the ratings of the owners themselves which show problems in several areas of the vehicle. Pick up any of the specialty automotive CR magazines provided throughout the year, or pick up the April automotive edition and flip to the "Reliability Ratings" section. Just flip through the pages. Lots of red - good long term reliability. Lots of black - not so much. You'll see that the above three vehicles have created the largest issue with Nissan's longer term reliability. Remove that history and things aren't as bleak as painted above.
Generally speaking - the Asian brands (especially the big three) typically offer better long-term reliability than either domestic or European brands. And Hyundai is making great strides.
If you lease or buy every two or three years, you'll be fine with most anything. If you keep your cars longer, check out those reliability ratings.
I'm concerned with Nissan's future, and I don't know if Nissan's reliability score will match Toyota and Honda ever again. Today, all Nissan and Infiniti vehicles receive similar reliability scores found in American cars, and, often, worse than some American and European cars. Most of Nissan's problematic vehicles (Titan, Quest, Armada, QX56) are built in Canton, Mississippi, but there are other Nissan models as well (Maxima, Altima, Sentra, Murano, Frontier, 350Z, etc.) seeing decline in reliability as well. The overall reliability grade mark for Nissan/Infiniti vehicles this year for 2007 is a D (below-average). I think this is a joke. Why buy Japanese when you can buy American with similar quality but at a lower cost.
I've been following Consumer Reports auto reliability charts for 20 years now, and it turns out that the 2000 Infiniti QX4 could be the most-reliable Nissan vehicle ever made in history. After 2001, reliability fell hard, along with all Nissan/Infiniti vehicles, and they haven't returned back to their original status. If this is true, then I may pick up a used 2000 Infiniti QX4 and baby it for years to come.
Does Nissan actually no longer care for reliability, and is Nissan now focusing towards performance and style? What do you think? It's been seven years already without a true Nissan Japanese quality vehicle. Do you already miss Nissan good old days?
Thanks to anyone who can respond.
because the original transmission was closed and could not be repaired ($3,100 estimate) at which pojnt I traded it in with 66,000 miles. Every time it went in for these repairs it cost at least $500. Totally dissatisfied with quality and cost of repairs and will never own another Nissan. Buyer be aware.
Would like to provide some update status of Nissan lately that you're all curious. Very disappointedly, 9 years later, nothing has changed at all. Still the same old "D" below-average or "C" average reliability score stagnated for the last 10 years. The biggest problem I found are their vehicles coming from the USA manufacturing plants. Quality don't appear to look job #1 as you think it is versus Toyota and Honda. Nissan America quality is your average Joe, typical American-quality. You always hear praise from Toyota and Honda, but when's the last time you heard from Nissan? Maybe 1985.
Nissan also outsource some cars from the Renault Samsung factory plant in South Korea, where they built the Rogue compact SUV. While unknown and unheard by many US residents, Renault Samsung is Korea's third-largest automaker after Hyundai and Kia. Currently, Nissan is 43% owned by Renault of France, and the Renault Samsung plant isn't owned by Nissan.
Since 1999 after the Renault-Nissan merger, new Nissan vehicles have become more affordable and cheaper than before, with more rebates, and with low inflation MSRP price hike. Prices are now far distant away from Toyota and Honda as people have already stopped buying Nissan cars due to reliability issues. I've seen new Versas cost less than many cheapest Korean cars, and now the leftover 2015 Rogue Selects are up to $8,000 cheaper than Toyota RAV4 or Honda CR-V if you can find the right deals.
The all-time, most-reliable new Nissan vehicle today is indeed 2015 Rogue Select, all built in Japan. Despite the best and hardest effort Nissan of Japan put into, it's still not rated as reliable as the 2000 Infiniti QX4 and 1989 Nissan Stanza. The 2015 Rogue Select has equivalent reliability score to Kia Sportage and does not qualify as a real-true Japanese bulletproof quality, despite it's rated #1 from Nissan. Now that it's already discontinued in 2016, who knows what's #1 now.
Back in the 1980s, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and Mazda (in-order for most-reliable by Consumer Reports) all built cars in Japan with very, very narrow gap difference between one another. All were rated excellent and you can't tell the difference with one another as all the cars looked the same. Only Isuzu, Subaru, and Mitsubishi (in-order) didn't do too well and were off from the top-4. Surprisingly, Subaru got out from the worst, and today it's rated #3 most-reliable after Toyota/Lexus and Mazda.
Fast forward today in 2010s era, Nissan now ranks the worst at the very-bottom, and build the least-reliable cars in Japan. Even Mitsubishi is doing much better. The vehicle that drags down the most is Nissan Juke micro-SUV, all built in Japan, but has a problematic standard turbocharged engine.
That's all for now...