REPORT: Nissan GT-R class action suit over transmission failures settled

[ZilviaBot]

09-20-2009 05:03 PM

Filed under: Coupe (http://www.autoblog.com/category/coupes/), Performance (http://www.autoblog.com/category/sports/), Recalls (http://www.autoblog.com/category/recalls-tsbs/), Nissan (http://www.autoblog.com/category/nissan/)

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/09/gtr_tranny_settle.jpg (http://www.nagtroc.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=33578&hl=)

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 (http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/13/carsumer-advocacy-nissan-refuses-to-replace-gt-r-owners-busted/) after using Launch Control (LC1) on his GT-R. In time for the second model year of the car, Nissan first dropped Launch Control (http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/20/nissan-drops-launch-control-from-2010-gt-r/), 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 (http://www.nagtroc.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=33578&hl=)]

REPORT: Nissan GT-R class action suit over transmission failures settled (http://www.autoblog.com/2009/09/20/report-nissan-gt-r-class-action-suit-over-transmission-failures/) originally appeared on Autoblog (http://www.autoblog.com) on Sun, 20 Sep 2009 18:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).



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[HyperTek]

they shouldnt have to cover that shit.. thats like "blow your engine up street racing and get it covered under warranty"

[murda-c]

they shouldnt have to cover that shit.. thats like "blow your engine up street racing and get it covered under warranty"

Using the available features of your car should not void the warranty.

[VNG704]

drive the car how it's made to VS. you abuse you lose. I guess the later arguement lost. What I don't get is if having VDC off voids warranty, then why have that option equipped?

[RentonD]

Well, the car is designed to be a super car and perform well. If I bought one of these puppies and ran it hard, I would expect it to be fine. Sure, it was a little hard work for the car, but broken transmissions? I just kind of find that unacceptable.

[KOUKIboy]

^^^I second that If I were to purchase a sports car with a pricetag of $70,000 I at least would expect the engine and tranny to handle some abuse, cause god nows I would drive the sh*t out of the GTR....Then why buy a supercar if its not gona handle it???

[VNG704]

Well, the car is designed to be a super car and perform well. If I bought one of these puppies and ran it hard, I would expect it to be fine. Sure, it was a little hard work for the car, but broken transmissions? I just kind of find that unacceptable.

^^^I second that If I were to purchase a sports car with a pricetag of $70,000 I at least would expect the engine and tranny to handle some abuse, cause god nows I would drive the sh*t out of the GTR....Then why buy a supercar if its not gona handle it???
Don't turn off vdc and it will handle well and won't break. You guys should know the story.

[madd ocx]

well you gotta pay to play, even nissan.. if you wanna step into the big leagues and brag how good your car is against some of the worlds best supercars you gotta be able to back it up. i,m sure porsche, bmw etc would. cause of the certain type of owners your dealing with now, so thats a very smart move by nissan.. i'm sure if the tranny went on a porshe, hell a corvette, it would be fixed under warranty.

[VNG704]

Uhh Nissans been in the big leagues if you didn't already know. I bet you those other auto makes BS'd about not covering something or other under warranty too, it isn't only Nissan.

[madd ocx]

Uhh Nissans been in the big leagues if you didn't already know. I bet you those other auto makes BS'd about not covering something or other under warranty too, it isn't only Nissan.

uhhh when has nissan ever made a 72000 supercar released worlwide? I'm not talking cars on the race track made for for racing, I mean super car on the street.. and I highly doubt that if a porsche 911 turbo owner or a m6 owner waled to the dealership and the transmission went th dealership would not cover it under warranty. like I said its a different class of vehicle so you have to live up to those "supercar" standards..

[SuicidnS13]

^^^I second that If I were to purchase a sports car with a pricetag of $70,000 I at least would expect the engine and tranny to handle some abuse, cause god nows I would drive the sh*t out of the GTR....Then why buy a supercar if its not gona handle it???

Actually the car costs more than a hundred on average. You can take a zr1 and beat on it all day and it would never do that to you. All for around the same price per month. My buddy paid 104k OTD for his GTR and also had a tranny failure in les than 8k miles. If you designed a cars feature, owners should be able to use them. Bottom line, thats like marrying a hott ass chic and not being able to bang her when ever you want. You own her, but you cant use her for what god intended you to do? Same thing with the GTR. They build it to compete with the big boys, but your only alloud to do it once or twice before it wont put out for you anymore? Wow!

[chibo]

i'm sure if the tranny went on a porshe, hell a corvette, it would be fixed under warranty.
I broke a transmission in a E46 M3 like three years ago - I was sliding it around and I shifted from first to second in the middle of a corner spinning the tires... then lost all gears but second. Drove it up to the dealer in 2nd, they covered it 100% but were asking questions about how I managed to do it, since they'd never seen it happen before. :rofl:

[562nissan]

You do not need the "launch control" to play with the big boys. You don't think that Ferrari, BMW or won't deny warranty for abuse. They're in the car selling business not repairing abused vehicles. Nissan has been in super car league with the Skyline and its very american to think they are not just because the Skyline was not available in the usa. The GTR R34 was nicknamed "Godzilla" long before the GTR R35 was available. If you or someone you know paid over sticker for a GTR, that is very unfortunate. Now Nissan and their dealers cannot get ride of them at sticker!

Nissan does not deny warranty if you turn off VDC, they deny warranty repairs if you abuse the vehicle. Even with all of the information that is available today, ignorance is not an excuse.

[562nissan]

Other manufacturers cannot prove the abuse, Nissan can and is why this is an issue. Supercars arevgetting even more powerful and expensive every year its cheaper to put a "black box" in the vehicle then replacing engines and transmissions hand over fist. Nissan is just the first, Ferrari and Porsche are looking into the technology as you read this post.

[ixfxi]

20,000 dollar automatic transmission


when will nissan offer this fucking car with a REAL MANUAL transmission


im tired of this "shifts faster than a human being" playstation 2, bullshit.


this is why i say FUCK the new GTR, if they cant manage to offer it with a base of a standard transmission, then they can lick my balls. I'll take a corvette anyday over this thing.

[bardabe]

20,000 dollar automatic transmission


when will nissan offer this fucking car with a REAL MANUAL transmission


im tired of this "shifts faster than a human being" playstation 2, bullshit.


this is why i say FUCK the new GTR, if they cant manage to offer it with a base of a standard transmission, then they can lick my balls. I'll take a corvette anyday over this thing.

get over it, F1 cars use the so called "automatic Transmission" its superior and it has been proven. im not going to argue about it its been proven over and over and over again. im sure if you really wanted to you can put a Z33 / Z34 6 speed on it and loose out on tons of potential.

[SuicidnS13]

20,000 dollar automatic transmission


when will nissan offer this fucking car with a REAL MANUAL transmission


im tired of this "shifts faster than a human being" playstation 2, bullshit.


this is why i say FUCK the new GTR, if they cant manage to offer it with a base of a standard transmission, then they can lick my balls. I'll take a corvette anyday over this thing.

Im so with you on this one. Thus why my next purchase is a corvette to mod and to track. Heck my neighbor just had his block replaced by gm for oil starvation (which the gtr's are also getting now too) on the track. With no questions asked they also went ahead and upgraded his synco's to the newer design on his zo6 which he tracks and daily drives. Trust me gm also knows when their car is tracked. The damn car logs oil pressure levels and g's as well as top speeds. Heck if they want to they can shut your damn car off via On Star for their own reasons.

Nissan designed this car to not be modded. Priced it to be out of reach of most people who would mod it. (I can afford it, have driven it, and now tracked it, and the zo6(for less money) with a competant driver is faster in everyway around the track. Lap times prove it over and over. Heck we have 4 members in the corvette club who also own gtr's (as daily drivers) who also post on NAGTROC and corvette forums regularly. They all say the same thing.

[chibo]

get over it, F1 cars use the so called "automatic Transmission" its superior and it has been proven. im not going to argue about it its been proven over and over and over again. im sure if you really wanted to you can put a Z33 / Z34 6 speed on it and loose out on tons of potential.
We're not buying cars to run consistent 99.999th percentile laps, we're buying cars to enjoy and have fun. The DSG/SMG/etc transmissions really have no place being the only option in a sports car, sure the sequential transmissions are great for most people who must make compromises - but the option for a true manual must be available. The 'potential' is really only there for bench racing, because very few people are actually going to approach the true limits of the actual car (as opposed to their limits, which they think are the car's limits in some cases), and even fewer will ever get a glimpse on the street.

[562nissan]

The fastest cars in the world are some form of automatics.

[redwhale240]

Actually the car costs more than a hundred on average. You can take a zr1 and beat on it all day and it would never do that to you. All for around the same price per month. My buddy paid 104k OTD for his GTR and also had a tranny failure in les than 8k miles. If you designed a cars feature, owners should be able to use them. Bottom line, thats like marrying a hott ass chic and not being able to bang her when ever you want. You own her, but you cant use her for what god intended you to do? Same thing with the GTR. They build it to compete with the big boys, but your only alloud to do it once or twice before it wont put out for you anymore? Wow!

Agreed. If they put the option on the car you better be able to use or not use what you pay for. Total BS if you ask me. Even the TC and LC on Ferrari's is user programmable/adjustable w/e... Do you hear about warranty issues with them? Forget about the price of a Ferrari, when Nissan wanted to compete in supercar territory they threw everything out the window as far as price goes...


The fastest cars in the world are some form of automatics.

Yeah but the flappy paddle gear box takes the excitement out of driving. Cars should be about enjoying them, right? Even Jeremy Clarkson was fast as hell on the race track and he's a hack.

[SuicidnS13]

Aaahh as people start to realize the truth of motor trends 2008 car of the year!!! I had a major laugh when I read that! Trust me I am a hhuuuge GTR fan! But the new GTR is a prebuilt GTR for the guy who doesnt know how to work on cars. And the older GTR's were never ever considered supercars to all the other kids in here. Sheesh when was 300hp ever considered fast? Heck old ass corvettes had over 300hp. It took alot of dough to build a gtr to even keep up with so called supercars.