Nissan sends engineers to check possible Canton plant problems

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- Nissan Motor Co. has sent almost 200 engineers from its Tokyo headquarters to solve problems consumers are reporting with vehicles made at its plants in Canton and in Smyrna, Tenn.

Nissan communications director Fred Standish said Tuesday that engineers would also visit Nissan supplier plants, a Nissan engineering firm in Michigan and Nissan's San Diego design center.

The engineers were dispatched after consumer complaints about Nissan were published in the April 2004 J.D. Power and Associates Initial Quality Study.

The study, conducted annually, questioned 51,000 consumers who bought or leased 2004-model trucks and cars. The survey is designed to spot complaints that occur in at least one out of every 100 vehicles. Consumer gripes about Canton-made vehicles included wind noise, vibrating brake pedals and paint blemishes.

The Canton plant opened in May 2003. It produces the new Altima, the Quest minivan, the Armada sport utility vehicle and the Titan truck for Nissan and the QX56 SUV for Infiniti. The Tennessee plant produces the Altima.

Nissan ranked in 21st place on last year's J.D. Power survey. It plunged to 32nd place this year.

Standish said the problems would "Absolutely not" mean managerial reshuffling or workforce changes at one of the Nissan plants.


"We're fully satisfied with the quality of our workforce in Mississippi. People picture planeloads of engineers descending like a SWAT team on the plants. It isn't like that at all."

Standish described the engineers' visits as normal fine-tuning for the $1.4 billion Canton plant which is barely a year old. The plant has the capacity to manufacture 400,000 vehicles annually.

He said that Nissan sent mechanical, structural, electrical, chemical and materials engineers to improve product assembly and quality. "But we've sent them periodically to our Tennessee plant over the past 20 years," Standish said.

Wendy Polk, the Canton plant's communications specialist, referred comment for the story to Tom Groom, the communications director for the Smyrna plant. Groom said he was not sure how many engineers had visited the plant since the J.D. Power study. "It just hasn't seemed like a big deal; it's just a normal part of quality control," Groom said.

U.S. sales of Nissan and its Infiniti luxury brand increased 28.2 percent through May 2004. The Canton plant manufactures the Quest minivan as well as the Armada SUV and Titan full-size pickup truck.

Standish said those models fell short of Nissan sales targets. The models mark Nissan's entry into the full-size truck and SUV market. If current Quest sales hold, Nissan should hit the 60,000 annual sales mark rather than its 85,000 goal.

Nissan wants to reach 100,000 Titan sales in one year. When sales since December indicated that only 60,000 Titans would be sold, Standish said that Nissan increased and honed Titan advertising.

"We have better marketing research," Standish said. "We know more about the market today than we did just a few months ago. We're learning how to establish the Armada and Titan as credible competitors with the veteran players, GM and Ford

 

An abbreviated version of this was posted here last month. This version gives much more detail.

This type press release is notorious for either parroting the company line, getting facts confused, or trying to redirect public attention toward good points, or away from sore points.

Taking this release at face value, Nissan seems to have a greater concern with the Canton plant than the Smyrna plant, and greater concern with the quality control of the Altima, Quest, Titan and Armada than the Maxima.

But I never take this type release at face value, and I would suggest Nissan has to be concerned with certain pervasive glitches with the '04 Maxima.

 

There trying to hit these goals in the US and are rushing through the dam production line to make the quota's. in return. some of the cars that come off the line. are $hitty. some are ok. mine happens to be in the middle. i dont have ALL the problems everyone else has but...... i have some

 

I checked out a Titan forum before I looked at one. One forum poster showed his Titan SE interior, but with a problem: the Driver's seat was supposed to have a lumbar lever. It did not. But, from the image, you could see the part the lumbar lever attaches to was visible as a bulge under the leather fabric! They put this together in a hurry and forgot the part (nor to cut the material!)...(or it was on a friday ..weee payday, I am outta here! Crawdad's and a beer!)

Funny. I went to Nissan dealer to test Maxima and wound up being pushed into a Titan, literally! Great truck, but...wish it could take 8' sheet plywood with tailgate up (or offered an HD version). The idea of an external compartment is a start (there is much sheet metal on a truck that could be used on BOTH sides of the bed for storage).
A nice future feature would be tailgate camera (monitor hitch, backing up and screen-grab license plate of driver tailgating you!). Other suggestion, turbo-diesel. Toyota may do it with Hino. Toyota has the STX coming out in another 18 months (Hybrid V8).

Too bad the Titan had 1 gallon of fuel...dealer wouldn't let me go more than 2 miles. Not a very thorough drive. But nice, quick and quiet. Future truck? We'll see in '07 or '08. F150 is still cheaper.

Anyway, this dealer kept calling (and sent 6 post cards in 5 days!) about me coming back for Titan but his used-car guy insulted me about my truck as trade. So, I tested out a Maxima (isn't that what I was there for?) at another dealer, made an offer that we both liked and should get my car on Friday~x-fingers!

Atleast Nissan is moving on the ball (if they acted within 2 months, that is pretty good). Audi/VW let 2.5 years go by before letters of Coil Pack Failures were sent out. I know, as they bought my Passat back, plus interest. And the Passat was supposed to be built in Germany! Weise zu gehen, meine Automobilingenieure!!