GTR Warranty pickle

Hmm. Agreed. Anything outside of "normal wear and tear" isn't really covered by any standard warranty on any vehicle.
So if he's launched the car too many times to fry his own transmission then that's his fault and should foot the bill accordingly to replace whatever is necessary.

"I know we shouldn't launch the car but why own it if you cant use this function, don't sell a car that goes 0-60 in 3.4 sec if the only way you can achieve this speed is to void the warranty , false advertising."

There you go. He KNOWS not to launch the car but he does and expects no repercussions? LOL at the 0 - 60 quote. Every car is launched hard to achieve their advertised 0 - 60 time. No way is that false advertising. Launch the car and you will get that advertised time. A car could explode into a fiery ball of flame after launching it once to achieve a 0 - 60 time it's still achieving the advertised time.

False advertising is saying the car can transform into a robot and cook for you.

Kidding aside, I feel bad for the guy. That's a crap situation to be in.

 

The Shelby GT500 KR's clutch is just getting warmed up at 500 drag launches
the Corvette ZR1's clutch will last about 200 drag laucnhes
the Porsche Turbo's clutch will last at least as long as the Corvette....

Each of the said mfr's will replace the said clutches under warrenty; even if sometimes you have to argue with the dealer.


GTR's clutches are small, and aren't designed to take the heat. Nissan knows and promotes this.

 

It's not the clutch that fried but the trans broke and Nissan won't warrant the trans due to the fact that he turned off the VDC traction control button. And the fact that he launched the car.

I have not used LC in my car,

 

I still don't get what the point of having the LC and VDC is for then. If you cna't use it the way they have been hyping it up for so many months, then they shouldn't have offered it in the first place. I mean, look at BMWs LC on the SMG. Yeah it will smoke your clutch if you use it too much, but it will not shatter the whole tranny. As a friend of mine stated, operation of the whole thing is essentially done in software. Given that level of control, the manufacturer should be able to program the mechanical controls to disallow component-exploding conditions. If (according to the owner's manual) turning a switch off is truly only to get a vehicle unstuck from snow, there's no reason for that mode to allow speeds above 15mph. Somebody's trying to have their cake and eat it too. You have to sue the LC to get the performance numbers that Nissan claims it can perform, yet you will void your warranty if you do exactly that. Sounds like a class-action waiting to happen.

 

epic fail

 

If someone used LC less than once a week and end up with a broken tranny, Nissan should cover for the repair. If the black box shows the car was at the drag strip and launched with LC 10-15 times a day mercilessly, than warranty is out of the window. Most if not all manufacturers reserve the rights to void vehicle warranty when they are driven on a race track whether it be road course or drag strip. (Take a F430 to the dealership and tell them the F1 tranny has been making a funky noise ever since you drove it on the track and see what they have to say about the warranty)

As far as class action against Nissan, I see the merits from both sides, but I don't think it's worth Nissan's time or reputation to get into one. The smartest thing to do is for Nissan to replace these broken trannys and figure out a way to beef up the tranny or dumb down the launch control.

 

I don't see any fault on Nissan. The clutch is a component that wears over time and varies with how you stress it. It's common knowledge that you will wear it out sooner by launching it. Why should they replace it? Do they expect Nissan to give them new tires if they do burn outs all day? The car has a gas pedal. Do they expect a refund for poor fuel economy because they have a heavy foot?

 

sure, that would be reasonable. But as of yet, is not the case.

 

So has the warranty already been voided for the owners whose cars were taken to the drag strip by the Nissan employees? Sounds like yes.

 

The GTR is a street car, right?
If using the launch control is acceptable street use, it should be covered.
If using the launch control will get you a traffic ticket, it should not be covered.

 

Another point I'd like to make is that this is an auto transmission. The LC is computer controlled just like in the e46 m3 smg. So how come the BMW tranny doesn't explode? And how can Nissan hold the driver responsible for an auto tranny? Unless the software is too aggressive for the gearbox, which is not the driver's fault. So every test drive and piece of marketing from Nissan has been with numbers that you ahve to void the warranty for to achieve (turning off VDC). That's misrepresentation.

Also, a question for Fred2. So, if I use the LC at every red light and just do not break the speed limit, then it will be ok right?

 

1) I am sure Nissan tuned the GT-R tranny and engine to be 'overly aggressive' for a street car. That's how they are able to best their rivals on most if not all comparison tests. The fact that LC destroys tranny is nothing new, BMW SMG tranny would be destroyed if LC was abused on the vehicle - same as the GT-R and any manual transmission vehicle.

2) Actually it won't be ok. Drag your vehicle to speed limit and then slow down will earn you a several of tickets from a unhappy police officer - a) Unsafe Acceleration, b) Exibition of Speed, c) Wreckless endangerment. Don't try it.

 

Maybe I'm just not making my thoughts clear, which would not be the first time. My point is that, taking street out of the equation because it is a) unsafe and b) unlawful to test the performance on the street, to get their performance on the track that Nissan advertised, you have to disable the VDC. This automatically voids the warranty. So in reality you can never, according the Nissan, get the performance that is advertised and for so long was hyped up, without voiding the warranty. To me their whole ad campaign and claims then become misleading at best.

 

I know Nissan shouldn't warranty wear items like clutches within reason, but is anyone else concerned that the entire transmission is shredded after such a short period of driving?

 

Exactly. And to quote a friend, did Nissan keep VDC engaged during their infamous 'Ring runs, which they made sure got heavy press coverage? Did they keep it engaged and avoid the use of LC to generate their factory-spec acceleration numbers? I bet not. The car doesn't "launch pretty good" without using LC, unless you consider 12-second quarter miles "pretty good." Without LC, you're talking about a car that accelerates about as well as a base-model Corvette or a base Audi A8 - both quite a different league of competition from the Z06 and 911 Turbo that Nissan wants us to think the cars plays in.

Look, I'm not bashing the car itself. It's a fantastic piece of automotive engineering that is making all of the exotic manufacturers take notice. I just don't like the shady way they are dealing with actual performance for the consumer.

 

The new GTR should have kept the R154 six speed manual that was in the previous variant that thing was bomb proof

 

they wrote it in the manual

in any case the guy knowingly abused the car, and as a result it should not be covered.

if i recall, BMW SMG cars with launch control launch at a higher RPM [3800 rpm , or even more i believe] in european cars...however, their warranty is void after X number of uses. US laws prevent manufacturers from doing something like this [voiding warranty as a result of something intentially built into the car], so BMW was faced with a dilemma:

1) keep LC, but lower launch RPMs
2) remove LC altogether.


they chose (1) -- by lowering the RPMs to about 1800, the car could still be (weakly) launched, but the lower RPMs would also reduce stress on the drive train, thus avoiding/preventing any expensive maintenance/replacement that they would [legally] have to cover under warranty here in the US, had they left it at the 3800-4000+ RPM launch of the EU cars.

 

A friend of mine broought to my attention that we are not looking at the (to me) bigger problem with this picture. That is the privacy aspect. Whe do people submit to this surveillance from Nissan?

It's has already been decided in the courts that the data in my car is owned by me and a subpoena is required to obtain it. So why would I give it over to Nissan for warranty work?

And where in the warranty book does it say "please bend over for your privacy colonoscopy before we will work on anything?"

As another friend posted in another forum:

You're asking the wrong question. The question is whether you would rather:
A) Nissan have not included launch control and be honest about the car's true acceleration ability; or
B) Nissan have included launch control, use it to falsely advertise the speed of the car, and have it grenade the $20k transmission without warranty coverage when it's used (as they did); or
C) Include launch control and install a transmission that won't grenade when I use it.

C should be the blatantly obvious answer, shouldn't it? But if you can't do that, then A is by far the next best.

 

To everyone that didn't read the attached thread: It was not the CLUTCH (which, I agree, is a wear item) that the guy fried, it was the TRANSMISSION. He was quoted $20K (that's $20,000) to replace the transmission.

Jimmy

 

That may work with a rear drive version, this GTR is All wheel drive. thanks Norm

 

Er, all GTRs are all wheel drive. He's referring to the 6 speed manual in the R34 GTR.

I personally think voiding the warranty for an advertised feature is complete BS. There's a switch right on the dashboard that you know will make the car significantly faster and you're telling me no one is going to use it? Please, that's what the car is for. If the transmission is that delicate it shouldn't have been there.

I think we're going to see a LOT of warranty issues with this car.