Clearsky

http://wcbs880.com/njnews/NJ--Nissan...rces_news_html

max2k4

Here is an article from NJ.Com.

http://www.nj.com/newsflash/jersey/i...6724416810.xml

DrVolkl

Nice!!!

About time they took some heat for our troubles.

I haven't gotten anything about a recall or fix in the mail...must be an east coast thing. Hopefully this will change that!

Gooey

iTrader: (8)

sweet....im startin to hate nissan now....so many problems with my car these days

jonbth

I know Nissan should have given the headlight kits for no charge but I don't blame them. It's not their fault that the Northeast is infested with low lifes and thieves.

SoonerFan

iTrader: (5)

"alleging the automaker failed to warn customers that the super-bright headlights on its Maximas were hot targets for thieves"

i know it sucks that they get stolen but COME ON!!
so its nissan job to say, "by the way these might get stolen"?
EVERYTHING YOU OWN HAS THE POTENTIAL TO GET STOLEN!!!
do you blame the thiefs? or the people who made it?
dam nissan for making such a nice HID!! how dare they!!!
sue for a bad product!!
dont sue for producing a good product then not spelling out the obvious to you!!
example... coffee is hot, that shouldnt have to spelled out to me. if i dump it in my lap that is MY FAULT! not the person that made the coffee hot like it is supposed to be!!!

NT2SHBBY

I am starting to side with Nissan on this one.

Yeah they made the design cheap, but they did to keep costs down-i mean really who makes a car for less than $30k with HIDs standard???

And also in Nissan's defense how'd they know the criminals in NY/NJ would be soo grimey???

SoonerFan

iTrader: (5)

if they made the HIDs bad quality then no one would steal them...then someone would sue because their HIDs sucks!!!
GROW UP!!
and even if they did know the criminals were grimey....THAT ISNT THEIR FAULT OR PROBLEM

BiggD23

soonerfan...I agree with you to a certain degree. But my main problem is the ease at which these HIDs are able to be stolen. No thought whatsoever was put into securing these $1,500 lights when designing the car. That is where the fault lies with Nissan. My $.02.

Gooey

iTrader: (8)

then again if they made the headlights like the 350z where you have to take the bumper off to get it off...it wouldve saved some troubles but then again im in MD where theres no hid thefts. im just hatin nissan for the poor quality customer service and product..my car is actin sooo ghey these days. if they dont fix my car this time i can declare it as a lemon..oh and for HIDS pretty much all new cars have them now even the mazda 3 has them as an option

itdood

IMHO, the real issue isn't so much about warnig there is a higher-than-usual theft rate on the lights. The real issue is that Nissan engineers did not properly secure a high-priced item onto the car.

Legally, you could prove something there. For instance, it's standard in the industry to put wheel locks on expensive rims. Basically, it's common automotive engineering practice to ensure that high-priced items (e.g. something that will become a theft problem) should be properly secured to the vehicle.

This fact is brought out by the fact that the 5.5 gen nissan maxima has a statistically higher HID theft rate than other cars with HIDs.

Nissan has already taken corrective action which I applaud them for. But at the same time, such corrective action basically opens them up to legal action becuse it's like saying, "OK, we effed up on this and here's a better way to secure them).

A poster mentioned dearlier they hadn't gotten the recall letter. That's because it's targeted to high theft areas only. I didn't get one, though I live close to high theft areas. I still called the dealer and they will be doing the dat dots for me.

The situations sucks because I make my wife drive her car when we go to NJ, and it's starting to **** her off that I'm so worried about the Max there.

SoonerFan

iTrader: (5)

all im saying is they are suing for the wrong reason!
sue for a bad product!!
dont sue for producing a good product and not spelling out the obvious to you!!

K Pazzo 6

iTrader: (6)

interesting......

Colonel

Its a bad design. Nobody can argue that. Yes they did give us HID on a car under 30K. But so does Chevy and the Malibu. Here...let me give you a turbo INSTALLED, but no boost controller and no BOV. Just because its there does not mean you disregard potential problems.

In the manufacturing industry, why do you have all these safety features, warning signs and required built in measures? Why have it? Because even though the average smart person KNOWS not to stick their hand in a nip or pinch point, you have some dummy that has done it and lost an apendage.

Nissan IS PROFITING from this. The first person that argues that should be shown how far up their tush their head is. All the body work, parts sales and what not...why "fix" that cash flow? The fact that they are charging people for the AT devices is also indication that Nissan really does not care, as well as being super tacky.

I mean really, Nissan is a large corporation. And to get a large corps attention, you have to do something legally. And when a State sues you, thats pretty big in my book. Probably nothing will happen, but MANY people will think about buying a Nissan based soley on this legal action. It WILL cost them sales and market share...especially if they loose. To bad you have to drag someone/a company through the mud to get their attention.

Nissan rolled the dice hoping that any lawsuits could be settled for cheaper than retooling/redesigning the current problem. Probably using their current HID profit to fund that.

Rafe

You now what is the sad part about this is, i can see the FEDS in the future banding HIDS from all vehicles, I have a hunch this court battle is going to get ugly.......

Then well have to go back to standard lights or for god sake , hopefully technology will allow for some stronger L.E.D.S to be developed as headlights like on the concept vehicles now shown at our auto shows.

BiggD23

I guess that depends on your perspective...is it really a good product if you protect it with scotch tape and rubber bands? Obviously I'm exaggerating but they wouldn't be that much easier to remove if they were only held on by tape and rubber bands. It would take roughly the same amount of time.

No one has a problem with the lights...you're right...they are a great product. It's Nissan's decision to protect those lights with 2 lonely and easily accessible bolts each that people are taking issue with. That and the fact they they apparently profited off the repair work for over a year before taking any kind of **free** corrective action.

Colonel

: points finger to nose:

maximalex

iTrader: (1)

Ya'll see that list?
1) Finally some hard stats on what's happening
2) Sh*t...I have family & friends in every other place on that list.
3) I wonder what will really happen from this lawsuit from the end user's POV. Nissan gets some bad press, NJ State Attorney General gets good press because he is doing something for the consumer. But what about the car owners?


Reported incidents of theft or attempted theft of Nissan Maxima headlights in New Jersey in 2002-2003:

Newark: 277
Bloomfield: 135
Jersey City: 108
Hillside: 50
Butler: 50
Montclair: 32
Keyport: 25
Elmwood Park: 17
Old Bridge: 13
Edgewater: 12
Englewood Cliffs: 12
Marlboro: 10
New Brunswick: 4
West Windsor: 3
Aberdeen: 2
Somerville: 2
Washington Township (Gloucester): 1
Denville: 1
Source: NJ Attorney General; NJ Division of Consumer Affairs.

F23A4

As a NJ 2002 Maxima owner, I have VERY mixed feelings on this one.

On the one hand, Nissan should not have been so sluggish to respond when this problem was initially brought to their attention. A simple recall (of sorts) should have been issues instead of keeping things on the DL (w/ dealers in cohoots) and charging folks for datadots/brackets.

On the otherhand, the government need not get involved with this matter, seeing as its not a public safety issue (at best).

Should be interesting to see how this turns.

NT2SHBBY, the Ford Focus Mach Edition offers projector HIDs for cheaper.

6spmax

Let's see. The HID equipped 5.5 gens were made for only 1.5 years. Nissan figures out that the headlights are a high theft item by Sept. 2002 and production on the car to start the redesigned 04s around Jan. 03.

Just another retarded and pointless lawsuit for the government to justify it's existence.

F23A4

Looks like Pete Harvey (NJSAG) is trying to compete with Elliot Spitzer (NYSAG) now.

Kojiro_FtT

Nissan should sue NJ for not policing the streets well enough. That would be an equally silly lawsuit.

So everyone wants to call Nissan a lazy piece of crap for not securing the lighte better, well what about the Porches? They don't even have to pry away any body panels to steal the HIDs from Porches. So is Porche a piece of crap too?

Those numbers are interesting. I am now curious as to how many car stereo thefts there were in the same time period in the same areas?

maximalex

iTrader: (1)

Word.
Granted it's there job to do this but do there efforts ever trickle down to the lowest man/woman on the totem pole?Better than nothing I guess. At least someone with some sway is getting into the fight.

MannyNJ2k2max

iTrader: (3)

I believe Nissan did take the right initiative, although it was too late.....
if nissan designed these headlights with metal mounting tabs this issue wouldnt exist.....but even though Nissan is not entirely at fault, neither are the consumers....

Maxxxed

iTrader: (3)

A state suing a car company is a very big deal. Its not some private firm, its the state that's suing! They must have a VERY valid reason to sue them over HID theft issue. Don't feel guilty for Nissan.

For those of you supporting Nissan, use the search feature and type, "Hid theft". Read about how disgusted the victims of HID theft are... at Nissan.

carabuser

iTrader: (4)

BTW, if I leave my front door (home) open and somebody steals stuff from me, should I be sued too? That doesn't make sense...

SoonerFan

iTrader: (5)

my point is they are suing for the wrong thing!!!
instead of "failed to warn customers that HIDs were hot targets for thieves" (not nissan's fault!!)
it should be "failed to properly secure HIDs to prevent theft"

SoonerFan

iTrader: (5)

no, the people that made the stuff that was stolen should be sued. you know, for not "telling" you that people would steal it.

6spmax

Uh, I don't think F23A4 meant that as a compliment.

carabuser

iTrader: (4)

then I think Honda should get sued for the Civics getting stolen all the time

*thinking about suing Pioneer cuz the old Sentra got stolen because of those speakers... *

NT2SHBBY

doh!

Ranger Talon

I'm interested in what this grandstanding AG is doing to punish and deter scumbag HID thieves. Perhaps if criminal penalties in New Jersey weren't a joke and the state had reasonable concealed carry legislation, this would not be such a great problem.

Zero Deuce SE

I don't think Nissan will lose this case. The citizens of New Jersey who pays taxes will end up losing twice. I wonder what the rate of HID thefts is among other cars in that state?

irish44j

iTrader: (38)

Yeah next why doesn't the gov't sue companies that make nice rims, since they get stolen alot too....besides, any lawsuit is not to help anyone, it's just to make trial lawyers richer.....

SoonerFan

iTrader: (5)

the rim companies will be fine if they make you sign a paper that says "i admit im a dumb @ss and have to be told these might get stolen!! outherwise i would have no idea. if they do get stolen it is NOT the rim companies fault"

pfactor172

If they just made it more difficult to steal they would just take your whole car it dose not matter how easy or hard they are to steal if there was no market no one would steal it Porsche has the same problem there lights are being stolen also in Miami I see them with no lights all the time.

PWRLFT

I got the Anti-theft kit, and had to pay for it, that's what I'm annoyed at, I got an aftermarket alarm, I don't expect nissan to pay for that, but an Anti-theft kit for their mistake?

I want my money back, and I hope everyone in NJ will get the money back that they HAD TO invest to protect themselves.

We don't pay for safty recalls, what's the differance?
I think after the law suit they'll be no differance.

MaximaPolak

iTrader: (9)

Finally Nissan is going to pay for all the "rip offs" done to our cars. At the dealerships and at out homes. I hope that dealerships have to pay out a sum of money from where we baught our cars. I want a check in the mail for their stupidity.

BlackBIRDVQ

iTrader: (15)

If any of u ever worked at Nissan, you would understand that just about every 91-03 nissan sentra, maxima, 93-01 altima headlight attachment is the same. Just 2 bolts on top. Nissan didnt know their headlights where going to get jacked, some cars had HIDs as early as 97 for instance Audi A8.. they never got stolen. So now that ever ricer with a Hunduuhh on the street wants a set of killer "plasma blue" look the HID provide, they rip them off and sell them. I see plenty of cheap HID kits on Ebay, I wonder how they can sell them that cheap, ever priced out an igniter and bulb ?? around 400 bux for one side... I'm with Nissan on this, my Maxima is great- 80K miles of mega heavy abuse and it runs like a champ. (other than 5 MAFs which I can deal with)

Quidproquo

I'm not taking sides on this one as it's been beaten to death on both sides. However, this is something that I cannot condone:

Courtesy Parts.com price for a pair of 2002-2003 HIDs prior to September 2002: $899.00

Courtesy Parts.com price for a pair of 2002-2003 HIDs since September 2002: $1,318.00

That just ain't right....