2014 Nissan Altima 2.5 Sv on 2040-cars

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Nissan owners complain to feds about rusting floors

"You can feel it's soft right here," Jeff Talman told KSHB. "Right under his driver and passenger seats, the floorboards were rusting from the inside out," a KSHB reporter said. "This is a seven-inch area where it's actually rotted up here," Talman said. That was Jeff Talman, just one of many who have had issues with rusting floorboards in Nissan Altimas. KSHB reported the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received more than 400 complains about rust issues in 2002-2006 models. NBC highlighted a Chicago woman's 2005 car, which had rusted so much the floorboards were actually crumbling. "The hole was big enough to fit her foot through," NBC reporter Tom Costello said. "I'm not Fred Flintstone. This is not a good thing," Marie DeMaria said. While NBC reports snow and road salt could account for rust damage in some vehicles, that's probably not the cause in places that don't get snow and ice. And complaints are coming in from all over the country. Both Toyota and Ford have recalled hundreds of thousands of vehicles in the past few years because rusting underbody parts made the vehicles fall apart. Despite the number of complaints, Nissan isn't recalling the Altima vehicle models in question. "It's not a safety recall problem that's going to cause immediate death and injury if you have a hole in the floor. As a result of that, what we've seen is that Nissan has been able to get away with this problem," auto safety expert Sean Kane told WBZ-TV. KSHB reports the age of the cars is another way Nissan is able to avoid covering cost to fix them. "Once it's out of the warranty period, obviously they don't have any legal obligation. It becomes more of a customer service issue of whether they want to deal with it or not," body shop owner Bill Eveland said. NBC did reach out to Nissan for comment, but the carmaker reiterated that both it and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration do not consider the rust problem to be a safety defect. This video includes an image from Getty Images.

NHTSA probes Nissan Versa for potential pedal problem

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is commissioning an engineering analysis to investigate a possible problem with the 2013-2015 Nissan Versa and 2014-2015 Versa Note. The agency wants to gather more information about sections of the footwell that can potentially interfere with operating the pedals, and NHTSA estimates this could affect 360,000 vehicles if the agency requests a recall. The preliminary evaluation of this problem was opened last June when NHTSA received a report of a driver's foot being trapped by a trim panel on the right side of the footwell. Since then, the government agency has tallied 24 total complaints, including one crash and an injury, which might have been linked to this issue. It's also possible the HVAC relay actuator in a nearby area could be doing the same thing. Either might lead to unintended acceleration and delayed braking. NHTSA's new engineering analysis is meant to "assess the scope, frequency and safety-related consequences of the alleged defect." It also adds the 2015 Versa Sedan and Note to the list of potentially affected models but removes the examples from 2012 because of a different footwell panel design. "Nissan is cooperating fully to answer the agency's questions," the automaker said in a prepared statement emailed to Autoblog (embedded in full below). You can read the entire report in PDF format, including photos of the potential issue, here. INVESTIGATION Subject : Pedal Operation Interference Date Investigation Opened: APR 01, 2015 Date Investigation Closed: Open NHTSA Action Number: EA15003 Component(s): SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC , VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL All Products Associated with this Investigation Vehicle Make Mode lModel Year(s) NISSAN VERSA 2013-2015 NISSAN VERSA NOTE 2014-2015 Details Manufacturer: Nissan North America, Inc. SUMMARY: On June 24, 2014, the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened PE14-018 to investigate allegations that the tunnel carpet cover trim panel on model year (MY) 2012 through 2014 Nissan Versa, Versa Sedan and Versa Note vehicles has, in certain situations, interfered with the driver's ability to promptly release the accelerator pedal and transition to the brake pedal. This may result in delayed brake application or brief incidents of unwanted acceleration.

Nissan, Renault in talks to merge as one company

Nissan and Renault have been tied together as an alliance for nearly 20 years, but now the Japanese and French automakers are discussing whether to merge. Bloomberg, citing unidentified sources familiar with the confidential talks, reports that the idea is to form a larger, single publicly traded company to better compete against giants like Toyota and Volkswagen. It would also mark the end of the alliance that first began in 1999 and also includes Mitsubishi, in which Nissan acquired a controlling interest in 2016. A full merger would help the companies pool resources to develop electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles and car-sharing services. It would involve Nissan giving Renault shareholders stock in the new company, with Nissan shareholders also gaining shares in the new company, Bloomberg reports. The new company would be run by Carlos Ghosn, the current chairman of both companies. But any such merger, as you might expect, would be complicated, in part by geopolitics. The French government owns a 15-percent stake in Renault, and both the French and Japanese governments might be reluctant to let go of their respective home-grown brands. Currently, Renault owns a 43-percent stake in Nissan, while Nissan owns 15 percent of its French partner. Reuters reported recently that Ghosn proposed buying most of the French government's stake in Renault as part of plans for a closer tie-up. The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance already has been working to establish a $200 million mobility tech fund to invest in startups, a reflection of how seismic changes in the auto industry have left many legacy companies scrambling to stay current. Nissan in 2016 paid a reported $2.3 billion to acquire 34 percent of Mitsubishi in order to share platforms, technology, manufacturing and other resources. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Image Credit: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg Earnings/Financials Government/Legal Green Mitsubishi Nissan Renault car sharing merger