Nissan announced Friday that it would recall about 870,000 Altimas for faulty hood latches, the third time the automaker has recalled the cars since 2014, according to Reuters.
The affected models are 2013-2015 Altimas, whose secondary hood latches could rust and be ineffective at keeping 20-some square feet of sheet metal from blocking your view of the road.
The automaker attempted to fix the issue in February 2015 and September 2014, but like any good owner of a General Motors 3800 engine will tell you, anything worth doing is worth doing over and over and over again.
According to Reuters, the recall will cover 846,000 cars in the U.S. and about 25,000 cars in Canada, which begs the question: Is there some sort of Bermuda Triangle for Nissan Altimas in the Great Lakes? How are there not more Altimas in Canada?
How are there not more Altimas in Canada?
Doesn’t the stereotype of frugal Canadians tell us they are more likely to buy a Sentra or a Versa?
That’s right – my first thought was that the very large Altima is too big for the Canadians.
Not just that, but Nissan gets a (well deserved) bad rap for building rust buckets. And given the amount of problems with last gen’s rusty floorboards, it’s extra incentive to stay away from their junk.
I’m considering a base strippo Micra as a commuter though. I have no problem with cheap, honest transportation, and they actually have well sorted chassis.
Very large? Weird, as I own an Altima. And was at the store today, and seemed like every vehicle in the parking lot was much bigger. I was parked bet a 300, and a Taurus. Both are drastically larger. A Fusion was taller, and longer. Hell, a Dart was taller.
The Altima is large compared to what it used to be, and compared to other cars in its price class. That’s why I didn’t say “The Altima is the largest car ever.”
Canadians prefer smaller cars than the Altima generally. There are still some Canadians who buy larger cars, it’s possible.
I would guess there are more rental cars in US? Like considerably more?
Dat quality, tho…
On I71 a couple years ago, I was a lane over from a ratty looking 3-Series, which had a hood which was vibrating pretty badly. I thought to myself – wow that looks unsafe – so I moved over as far away as I could to the right.
Five seconds later THWAP the hood comes open, bends at the hinge area straight across, and is now a > shape, nearly touching the windshield.
Not good.
The driver didn’t slam on their brakes, IIRC they just put on their flashers and started coasting while getting to the right.
I had friend who owned vintage Ford Scorpio (called Merkur for whatever reason but it was one the best handling cars probably sold in US at a time). One day after fixing something under the hood he forget to check if hood was properly latched. The result was ugly – you not want to experience that on freeway. In my Fusion if hood is not fully latched an error message pops up on the IP, similar to open door.
shift_INTOYOURFIELDOFVISION
On further consideration, why not just use hood pins since Altimas are teh racecar now? The advertisment showing an Altima powersliding into a giant 0% banner telled me so.
This.
+100 internet points for you sir.
I was instructing a guy on track about a month ago and got the dreaded meatball flag, so we pulled into the pits. There were informed a corner worker had noticed the hood was completely down. Shame on me for not seeing this, but I have a good reason… it was a 911 Carrera.
What’s even more hilarious is this is the kind of brain dead marketing-speak I expect to see in Nissan commericals. I’m completely serious, imagine Nissan doing something with the windshield such as a holographic display or just eliminating visibility all together? Then is flashes too: shift_IntoYourFieldofVision.
Just like Tooyota aJust like Toyota’s “grounded to the ground.”
Ford, Toyota, and Honda make sure Altimas stay out of the Great Lakes Region. They are on guard for thee.
Ummm…I am in Warren. There are 4 Altimas on my street.
I’m surprised that NHSTA is letting them keep this recall limited. The secondary latch hook is just hanging out in space, there’s nothing forcing it to grab the hood when the main latch engages. Rust, ice, age, anything that weakens that secondary latch hook spring or increases friction in the joint could make it reluctant to grab that bit on the hood.
And that latch looks a lot like a lot of their other ones.
If the modified hood latch failed again, then one would asssume the hood latch is not the problem.
I do know the global Ranger and BT50 did have hood latch failures. This occurred mainly to the pickups fitted with bull bars and winches.
The cause was the design of the chassis horn. The chassis horns are designed to fold under the vehicles. The added weight of the bar and winch generated excessive flexing of the horn.
This in turn applied the stress directly to the hood latch, which in turn tranferred the load to the inner mud guards, crack them in half.
Ford’s fix was to use a doubler on the hood latch staple. So, as sure as sh!t the inner guard will split down the guts.
Some great and creative engineering from Ford. Not.
Did you even read the recall? Latch is rusting.
anomaly149,
Sorry, I grazed through the article and recalled an issue with the current Mazdas and Fords.
We don’t have those problems with our Altimas. How difficult is it for Nissan to find out what Nissan US is doing incorrectly?
It seems to me one hand not talking to the other.
Last year I had both a rental Sentra and Altima back to back and honestly did not see why anyone spend the extra money and gas on the latter.
If that’s the case then I wonder why anyone buys a Sentra. I was not impressed by the one I drove.
What is the magic of subprime for $200, Alex?
Because cheap. My dad is leasing on for around $100/mo. Their situation dictated a vehicle that he would keep short term.
For $100 a month I’d lease it if the lease terms were right. It wasn’t THAT bad.
I was pleasantly surprised, different strokes for diff folks. I guess. Actually liked it better than the previous gen Corolla.
Everyone knows what sells these two cars. Cheap prices and lease rates.
Two seconds in the front chairs of the Sentra told me exactly why I personally would be looking at the Altima. Hard, flat, short-bottomed, and misshapen may fit some body types, but not mine.
The additional second-and-a-half wheezing up to 60 would be another reason. The difference in interior space is non-trivial third reason. The awkward proportions of a C-class sedan puffed up to provide maximum interior volume is another beyond that.
Corolla/Camry, Civic/Accord, Elantra/Sonata. There are reasons for some buyers to step up to the next class.
Perhaps my standards are just too low, I can only remember 2 cars that I’ve driven in the past dozen years that would not buy under any circumstances, a 2 generations old Accent and a PT Cruiser.
Well, I don’t think the Sentra is a bad car, I just can see where the extra cash is worth it for an Altima. Or any midsizer, really.
The Sentra isn’t bad but it’s a long way from being best in class. It’s mainly just generic to drive. And it didn’t seem like there was much seat travel – I’m 5′ 10″ and it felt like I had to put it all the way back to get comfy.
Maybe they can recall my girlfriend’s 2010 Maxima while they’re at it for being an unforgiving piece of sh*t.
I mean, how they can manage to build a car with THAT many electrical issues (while having less than 100k miles, mind you) is truly remarkable.
With an inclined ear, I can almost hear my Accord (which is 4 years older and has roughly 80K more miles on the clock, mind you) teasing it.
Sigh. What happened to you, Nissan?
They got hitched to Renault, that’s what!
Bingo
“I mean, how they can manage to build a car with THAT many electrical issues (while having less than 100k miles, mind you) is truly remarkable.”
Did they ask Volkswagen for advice?
I was a passenger. My wife-to-be was driving down the highway with my then MY87 Nissan Stanza – the last high mileage car I got from my travels-for-work dad – when the hood popped open, bending across the roof, and destroying the little plastic windscreen in front of the sunroof.
She calmly stuck her head out of the open window and steered us off the next exist, which was an urban area. She had the same thing happen to her with a MY84 VW GTI!
Anyway, I managed to find some plastic strands, the kind used for bundling newspapers, on the ground. I tied the hood down and we took the side roads home. Once there I took the hood off, put my army boots on, and walked the metal “flat” again. Put it back on and kept the hood down with a bungee cord. I eventually got another car and the Stanza was kept as the ultimate winter beater.
The Stanza was the pre-Altima. Ha!
$100 month leases, bloody hell. Nothing under $300 here.
Re: hood flying open while driving.
<3 forward opening hoods.
</3 working on vehicles with forward opening hoods.