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REPORT: Nissan GT-R class action suit over transmission failures settled
It was nearly a year ago when we reported on a NAGTROC forum user getting hit with a $20,000 bill to replace his toasted transmission after using Launch Control (LC1) on his GT-R. In time for the second model year of the car, Nissan first dropped Launch Control, then they decided to include it, but with safeguards (LC2). In the meantime, a growing number of owners of the initial batch got together and filed a class action suit against Nissan in the hopes of receiving some compensation for their transmissions.
That suit was settled last weekend in California. The verdict: any owners with LC1 will have their warranties reset for 5 years/60,000 miles once they upgrade to LC2, and the LC2 transmission and internals -- including VDC -- will be fully covered by Nissan. If you use the LC2 with VDC on and something breaks, everything's covered. If you turn the VDC off and use LC2 and something breaks, you're in the poo.
However, if you turn the VDC off and use LC2, then turn VDC back on and everything is fine, then you drive for a while and then a few weeks later something breaks, Nissan will have to prove that turning the VDC off weeks earlier is what caused the breakage. Previously the burden of proof was on the owner; now it's on Nissan. Owners of 2009 cars will also get a $75 coupon for service at a GT-R-approved dealership. Owners will receive notices in the mail with the details. Whew. Glad that's over. Now can we get back to enjoying one of the finest cars on the roads today? Hat tip to Matt
[Source: NAGTROC]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
James 6:10PM (9/20/2009)
"Owners of 2009 cars will also get a $75 coupon for service at a GT-R-approved dealership..."
Kaching!...(cheap Nissan).
Reply
Jared 8:58PM (9/20/2009)
So that'll pay for what? 1 quart of the oil for their $20,000 trannys?
Andre Neves 12:50PM (9/21/2009)
You can put it in your "I shouldve gotten a 911 turbo" piggy bank.
the4thheat 11:02PM (9/22/2009)
Whining and lawsuits like this is the reason why US-spec BMW M3's didn't get Launch Control on the SMG transmissions even though it's Euro-spec brothers did. And even BMW limited it to a certain number of launches in Europe.
Nissan brought it stateside and unsurprisingly people broke their transmissions then sued Nissan. So now we have a less aggressive LC.
Gandhi 6:17PM (9/20/2009)
So does this means owners of first-year GTRs should never turn off VDC in the small chance Nissan can prove failure was caused because VDC was turned off? Is the transmission made of plastic that owners have to take such precautions when driving such a high-performance car?
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dal20402 6:25PM (9/20/2009)
No, the issue is that launch control is a bad idea. Manually doing launches LC-style was always brutal on the transmission and driveline, but it was difficult and felt strange, so people didn't do it that often. Now, all you have to do is push a button, so people are doing these brutal launches often, which would have broken something in the old days too.
But if manufacturers didn't include launch control, they'd lose several tenths off of their published 0-60 times, and sales would drop dramatically. Many, many dumb people judge high-performance cars by their 0-60 times without looking at anything else. These people thought the new, slightly faster 2010 GT-R was "slower" because 0-60 times without LC were higher.
LC or not is a Hobson's choice for manufacturers. Newer refinements of LC systems may sacrifice a bit of quickness for durability, but the systems will always be hard on cars.
Gandhi 7:00PM (9/20/2009)
Well, then Nissan should not have included a "feature" that would void a warranty. Do other manufacturer's include launch control? And if so, how is their warranty coverage?
Parlay84 7:34PM (9/20/2009)
Yep, Chevy clearly stated that their LC on the Vette won't void the warranty
BigMcLargeHuge 8:01PM (9/20/2009)
The transmission is quite robust, and it takes a fair amount of abuse to break it.
Nissan just should have known that supercar buyers are just as likely, if not more, to abuse a car. That was a big oversight.
And the warranty was never 'voided.' That's a convention that never should have been applied here. They just took exclusion to parts broken while VDC-off. The warranty was still intact for the whole car. Hence, not void.
why not the LS2LS7? 8:52PM (9/20/2009)
Big:
That's a hair split.
The warranty was redefined to not cover the expensive repairs these people's cars needed. Oh, it still covered replacement windshield wipers? Wow, that's great, I'll thank my stars of that while I fork over the $20K.
BigMcLargeHuge 10:07PM (9/20/2009)
LS7,
Its not splitting hairs, its technically correct even if you don't get it.
It doesn't re-write anything. The warranty never covered damage incurred with VDC-off. It's in the manual, and always was. The warranty covered what it covered.
Nissan, through settlement, is admitting that this is not enough consumer protection.
why not the LS2LS7? 12:14AM (9/21/2009)
Big:
And now with this settlement, it turns out it IS covering vehicles which had damage incurred with VDC off. But this time they say "but not this time it won't".
In the end, I think the issue may have been no matter what it said in the warranty, Nissan was advertising VDC off 0-60 figures, was demoing it with VDC off and as has been pointed out many times, high ups in Nissan (the head of marketing?) showed how to launch it with VDC off step by step on a YouTube video.
US Warranty law doesn't even allow Nissan to void your entire warranty for those actions anyway. A warranty is a warranty and if they want to not cover something and say it was due to your own actions, they have so show (within reason) this is the case. It clearly never would have been possible to show that launching with VDC off is the reason your power steering pump broke or something unrelated like that. So I'm not sure what the purpose of your hair split is other than to defend Nissan for trying to have it both ways, advertising their car by abusing it (according to their own definitions) and then denying warranty coverage.
Chris O 1:38AM (9/21/2009)
BigMcLargeHuge:
Having bought one of these, I can certainly tell you that you don't have the opportunity to read the manual before you place your deposit on the car. The dealer experience is a step up from buying an Altima, but worse than buying an Infiniti (ANY Infiniti).
It goes a bit like this (and I've talked to other GT-R owners, this is not just my experience):
1. Place a sizeable deposit on an incoming car - there really isn't much of an opportunity to order it the way you want. That's not really that big a deal because the dealerships pretty much only get the Premium trim, and there really aren't any meaningful options (iPod, floormats).
2. Get ignored for the weeks that it takes your car to hit the shore. Calls not returned and questions unanswered (in my case, I wanted to know the VIN for insurance purposes)
3. Once the car is in they want to hustle you into it ALMOST as quickly as possible. They don't mind it sitting in a roped-off section of their showroom for a day or two. Fortunately, nobody is test driving the car in the meantime.
4. They accept payment for the vehicle.
5. You are given the manuals for your car. You're also given golf balls, GT-R baseball caps, a GT-R pen, and other various pieces of swag. You're presented with a multi-page document to read and sign. The VDC thing was mentioned in the document, but LC was NOT mentioned at all in mine. I already had heard about the grenading transmissions, so I asked the GM about it. He said that my car already had the 2.0 programming, and that I could use it all I wanted. He did say that I had to bring in the car every 10 launches, just so they could "look it over".
6. You are taken for a ride in your new car. In my case, it was the GM of the dealership group. He was pleasant enough, and tried to explain my new car to me. Unfortunately, I already knew the car better than he did. Additionally, you could tell the guy was a heavy smoker, so my car smelled like him for a few days (ick). You are "allowed" halfway through the outing to drive your own vehicle.
I haven't LC'd my car, and I don't think I will. If I want to launch something hard, I'll take out my Z06 - the worst I can do to that car is kill some tires. The issue that I (and other GT-R owners) have, is that steps #4 and #5 are in the wrong order. If all you did was read the car buff books, you would think that you are getting a different car. Granted, the current GT-R is plenty fast, but it seems they should handle the full disclosure BEFORE taking the check for the full balance of the vehicle. Also, if I hadn't EXPLICITLY asked about the LC, they wouldn't have said anything to me.
One last thing... The mechanicals are good, but the transmission is only great after you replace 1st gear - fortunately, there are good gear swaps available now (PPG, etc.)
BigMcLargeHuge 9:09AM (9/21/2009)
"And now with this settlement, it turns out it IS covering vehicles
which had damage incurred with VDC off. But this time they say "but
not this time it won't"."
I don't see where it says they are doing that. What the AB summary
says is that as soon as you turn VDC back ON, anything that happens
to the transmission is still Nissan's responsibility. That's not
different than the TCM update they did in January.
That's the way its been all year. Nothing about that says 'void.'
I'm not referring only to the rest of the car. Turning off the VDC
does not 'void' anything or any part. You can turn it off 20 times a
day so long as you don't abuse it. As soon as you turn it back on,
the warranty covers anything and everything.
"In the end, I think the issue may have been no matter what it said
in the warranty, Nissan was advertising VDC off 0-60 figures, was
demoing it with VDC off and as has been pointed out many times, high
ups in Nissan (the head of marketing?) showed how to launch it with
VDC off step by step on a YouTube video."
That is indeed the real issue. I agree with this. Its false
advertising. If they'd have called it a SNOW mode, there wouldn't be
an issue. But they advertised a LC feature, and that was wrong of
them to do.
BigMcLargeHuge 9:23AM (9/21/2009)
Chris O,
Also having acquired one of these vehicles, I didn't have to make a deposit or wait for it. Sorry that dealers were not initially ready for this vehicle.
Steps 4 and 5 do not go in the order you described, at least not now, at the half-dozen dealers I visited in my long shopping experience.
I had the opportunity to read the manual before signing anything with a $ on it. I didn't get any golf balls, baseball caps or pens. Cheap asses. :P
I don't think 1st gear is an issue. The aftermarket 1st gear is better, for sure. It's withstood many launches from many drivers with many modifications taking it up to 600whp.
But I believe the stock tranny oil takes longer to cool than some of the aftermarket racing oils. Launching repeatedly at high temperatures breaks down 1st gear much more rapidly, from those I've talked to.
Nissan shouldn't require expensive oil in the engine or tranny that doesn't even work as well as aftermarket.
Sean Morris 11:34AM (9/21/2009)
The cars go quicker 0-60 with the LC2 than they did with the LC1.
0-60 in 3.1 video - http://www.2009gtr.com/2009/03/0-60-mph-in-31-seconds-launch-control.html
0-60 in 3.8 to 0-60 in 3.6 for their car. 1/4 from 11.8 to 11.6
http://www.2009gtr.com/2009/02/edmunds-inside-line-lower-launch-rpms.html
why not the LS2LS7? 11:25AM (9/21/2009)
Well Big, I guess I did some reading between the lines there. By my reading, those who had failures due to LC1 had their trannies covered due to this settlement and they will continue to be covered as long as they now upgrade to LC2.
I guess it's possible to read it such that if you fragged your tranny with LC1 you are left holding the bag unless you can manage to drive it into the dealer and get it flashed with LC2 before it completely falls apart.
BigMcLargeHuge 3:19PM (9/21/2009)
LS7,
I'm sure you're right that there is some form of reimbursement going on behind the scenes. But I don't think its implied here.
They probably don't want to open a loophole saying all broken transmission will be reimbursed, because then you might get some people that modified to some crazy HP number, knew they were running a risk, and then changed their mind when they saw the bill.
If they just keep it to a case-by-case, hopefully everyone that deserves retribution gets it, etc.
Mauterer 6:18PM (9/20/2009)
crapass Datsun
Reply
master_V12 1:28AM (9/21/2009)
Nah man... The Datsun had a soul