Over 2 Million Car Owners Affected by Latest Nissan Recall

Having just put a massive recall behind itself in March of 2010, Nissan announced another major recall in the United States, Canada, Japan, and several countries in Europe on October 28^th. The latest Nissan recall, according to the UK's Daily Mail, affects 2.14 million cars and over a dozen models, with the majority in The United States and Japan (2010). Recalls are nothing new in the automotive industry, but for such a stable and trusted brand as Nissan to issue two significant recalls in the same year, many car owners are starting to have their doubts about Nissan.

The latest Nissan recall is due to a problem with the cars' ignition that could cause them to stall while moving (Daily Mail, 2010). Anyone who's ever tried to steer or brake in a car that has either stalled, or is off and in neutral will understand why this could be a serious issue - it is very difficult to steer or brake in a car that isn't running. The fix for the cars in this Nissan recall, according to Laurent Belsie of the Christian Science Monitor, involves a change out of ignition relay and can be done in half an hour (2010). Failure to have the problem fixed could result in your vehicle stalling while in use, or may result in difficulty starting your Nissan.

Several of the models involved in the October 2010 recall are:

• Nissan Micra (Europe)

• Nissan Cube

• Nissan March

• Nissan Tiida (Japan and Europe)

• Nissan Armadas (2004-2006)

• Nissan Titan (2004-2006)

• Infiniti QX56 (2004-2006)

• Nissan Frontier (2005-2006)

• Nissan Pathfinder (2005-2006)

• Nissan Xterra (2005-2006)

If you own one of the abovementioned vehicles, Nissan will contact you beginning in December to instruct you to schedule an appointment with your local Nissan repair facility for a free replacement of the faulty ignition relay (Belsie, 2010). Again, this is a free repair provided as part of the Nissan recall. Don't wait if you have already experienced an ignition problem, however. Now that the manufacturing defect is known, if this problem is occurring to your car, it will be fixed as part of the Nissan recall. The delay until December to contact people is merely so Nissan can coordinate with its repair facilities and insure that they all have the necessary replacement parts (Belsie, 2010).

Nissan is still a great brand overall, and I still trust my 2010 Nissan Altima, which is unaffected by this recall. It just goes to show that every auto manufacturer is subject to quality defects. How they handle problems speaks volumes for the company. There is little doubt that the latest Nissan recall will be handled with the utmost diligence and efforts will be made to insure that Nissan continues to produce quality cars.

Sources:
Daily Mail Reporter (2010). Nissan, we have a problem: Car giant to call back 2.14m cars with stalling fault. UK Daily Mail.
Belsie, Laurent. (2010). Nissan cars recalled: Ignition problem? Do this. Christian Science Monitor.