It’s been more than four years since the car market changed forever, and you know what? It’s still weird. While some manufacturers have seen roaring success, others aren’t doing as well, and Nissan in particular has found itself in a tight spot. Not only are profits down severely, a report claims around 38 percent of American Nissan dealers are losing money. So what’s going on here?
In addition, Volkswagen might be shuffling its EV plans so that the next ID.4 rides on the same platform as the current one; the real bottleneck in the EV mandate race might simply be friendly supply of critical minerals; and if you’re driving around with a Takata airbag, for goodness sake, take it in and get the recall work done. I’m not your mother, but even with our “safety-third” approach, safety is still on the list.
I’m taking over from Matt for The Morning Dump this week as the team heads to Pebble Beach in pursuit of classics, debuts, and perhaps debauchery. We’ll see how wild this week’s Tales From The Slack shakes out. Until then, pull yourself a shot of espresso and dive into our morning grab bag of automotive stories.
It Apparently Sucks To Sell Nissans Right Now
It’s been a terrible, very bad, no good year for Nissan. Not only did profits plummet by 99 percent in the first quarter of 2024, the brand’s continued to bleed market share in America, and that’s having some serious effects on dealerships. An Automotive News report claims that roughly 38 percent of all U.S. Nissan dealerships are losing money, and that trend’s showing no signs of reversing soon.
About 38 percent of Nissan’s 1,071 dealerships across the country are losing money, a retailer with knowledge of the matter told Automotive News.
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So, what’s actually going on here? My first guess is that Nissan might simply have too many dealers. With a 2023 market share of 5.4 percent, Nissan doesn’t need 1,079 franchises — more than even Honda. Secondly, dumping a new Rogue on dealers before clearing out excess 2023 inventory has led to significant discounts just to move metal. Nissan’s currently offering zero percent financing for 36 months and $1,250 on the hood of every 2024 Rogue. Finally, Nissan just hasn’t kept pace with where the market’s going. While Toyota and Honda are surfing the hybrid wave, Nissan doesn’t have any hybrid vehicles on sale in America at all.
While new product like a redesigned Kicks may help boost sales slightly, don’t be surprised if your local smaller Nissan dealer closes up shop if the bleed continues. This is the sort of problem that can’t simply be fixed with lower interest rates. Even with better product, attrition isn’t off the table, and you can only feel so bad when dealers had years of markups to stockpile cash through.
Born Too Slow?
It seems like the saga of Volkswagen’s software-addled SSP platform rollout will never end. After serious delays, it turns out there’s a chance it’s been kicked another generation down the road. According to Reuters, Volkswagen might be seriously shuffling its future mainstream EV plans, as the next ID.4 might not ride on the anticipated SSP platform at all. This feels like a big deal, given that the SSP platform will support an 800-volt architecture for faster charging, is designed to handle 1,700 horsepower, and is meant to rationalize Volkswagen Group EVs from top-to-bottom, unlike the current patchwork of EV platforms.
Originally set to launch a vehicle in 2026, the project was delayed by Diess’ successor Oliver Blume due to software problems at the group’s struggling Cariad subsidiary.
To plug the gap, the carmaker has created a new version of its existing MEB platform on which it plans to release another ID.4 in 2026.
In an internal document presented to the automaker’s board, executives reasoned there was no longer a need to release another larger car on the SSP platform immediately, and so pushed back the release of another ID.4 and SUV to the early 2030s, according to the person, who declined to be named.
If this report stands firm, this could mean that the first Volkswagen-branded product we see on the SSP platform is the next electric Golf, which actually doesn’t sound like a bad plan. Affordability is a key issue in the EV race, and launching a new platform underneath a less expensive model is a good way to get butts in seats. However, it’s also something to be met with trepidation because SSP was supposed to launch in 2026, so will it still be competitive under a Volkswagen product on the cusp of the 2030s? We’ll have to see, but there’s also a chance we’ll have bigger problems in the 2030s than just the competitiveness of a Volkswagen platform.
Can We Mine Fast Enough?
It’s hard to lay down a full-court press of EVs when friendly mineral supply might not be able to handle it. While eight U.S. states, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom all have EV mandates, there’s a chance the market won’t meet them, even if it wanted to. As Automotive News reports, we really need to crank up mining in order to build all these dang battery electric vehicles, because if we don’t, we’ll miss targets by a vast margin. From the news site:
So, build and expand on mining, right? Great idea, but you have to keep in mind, this is a slow industry. Although California’s Salton Sea is a rich deposit of lithium, construction of a seven-phase lithium extraction project there only started this year. What’s more, with just 25,000 tons expected to be extracted by 2025, and the fact that direct lithium extraction is still a relatively new technology, there are a few big potential hurdles for this project, and that’s just one example. If a supply crunch occurs, perhaps in the short-term, massive BEVs with 95 kWh battery packs aren’t the answer.
Ford, Mazda Issue Do-N0t-Drive Warnings For Takata Airbag-Equipped Vehicles
If you’ve owned a car in the past decade, you’re hopefully at least somewhat aware of the massive and deadly Takata airbag scandal. Well, cars with these defective airbag components are still out there, and Ford has placed more of its vehicles under a do-not-drive advisory, pretty much the most severe stage in a voluntary recall. Here are the details for affected Ford models:
The do-not-drive advisory applies to all customers who have not completed recalls 15S21, 17S42 and 19S01, including driver and passenger airbag inflators in:
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2004-2006 Ford Ranger trucks
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2005-2014 Ford Mustang vehicles
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2005-2006 Ford GT vehicles
And passenger airbag inflators in:
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2006-2012 Ford Fusion, Mercury Milan, Lincoln MKZ / Zephyr vehicles
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2007-2010 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX vehicles
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2007-2011 Ford Ranger trucks
As for the Mazdas, the list covers far fewer vehicles, some 82,893 compared to Ford’s 374,290. As published by NHTSA, here’s the full list:
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2004-2006 B-Series
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2007-2009 B-Series
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2003-2008 Mazda6
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2006-2007 MazdaSpeed6
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2004-2011 RX-8
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2004-2006 MPV
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2009-2013 Mazda6
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2007-2012 CX-7
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2007-2015 CX-9
So, if you own any of those affected vehicles and haven’t completed the recall, please take it in ASAP. While many affected vehicles are likely no longer on the roads but still in Ford’s system, some of them are still out there. You don’t want shrapnel coming towards you at Mach Chicken.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Interplanetary Criminal is something of a phenomenon amid the new school of UK Garage producers, and his track “Races” with Blanco has been an absolute earworm that’s earned a spot on just about every playlist I’ve made since March. From bouncy, rolling production punctuated by glitchy synths to some playful bars (“Halloween party, I’m comin’ as Jason /
Not that one I’m talkin’ ’bout Bateman”), this track’s practically made for top-down blasts.
The Big Question
Are you putting off getting recall work done, or have you recently taken your vehicle in for a recall? Either way, let’s chat about it, because service experiences for recall work can vary wildly.
I had a 2007 Ford Fusion that I used as a commuter vehicle and it had a takata recall on the passenger airbag. It took almost 2 years before anyone had the parts to replace it and that was before the pandemic.
On the other hand I had a 2009 GMC Sierra at the same time which also had a passenger airbag recall and it was done within months.
Generally, I will schedule my recall as soon as I’m notified of it because I don’t like holding out on that kind of thing.
I don’t don’t know why there is such a push towards expensive mining projects. Just yesterday, on this very site, there was an example of a huge inventory of unclaimed BEV batteries and plenty of stainless steel that could be monetized for appliances etc.
I’ve only had one vehicle need a recall done while I owned it, which was my first Saabaru. The thing i got in the mail had me take it to Glassman Subaru in Southfield, which is interestingly the same dealership that my 3rd Saabaru was originally sold from. Now, you may be thinking “sure, a Saab 9-2x is technically a Subaru, but it wasn’t sold by Subaru”. Apparently, as I found when I drove my car in and saw the large Saab logo painted on the wall of the service area, they used to sell Saabs! The person that took my keys even commented “A Saabaru! I haven’t seen one of those in a while!”
I got the car back the next day, the only issue was that I lived *just* outside their shuttle range, otherwise they would have driven me home and given me a ride back when my car was done.
On the other hand, I had a friend with a Pontic Vibe that was part of another Takata recall, and it was more messy. He was told to go to a Cadillac dealer, who then told him to come back later because they didn’t have the parts, but made no effort to let him know when they *would* have the parts. I think he almost gave up on getting it done, but eventually after weeks? months? of waiting and several calls, they got the car in and took care of it. Good thing too, since he eventually sold that car to my sister, and she likely would have put off getting it done for all eternity.
I drive one of these. I live 50 miles from the nearest dealership. I haven’t had that bomb removed. I need to.
I still have a Honda fuel pump recall that needs to be done, apparently they will have the parts sometime in 2025. This is according to two official recall letters.
My Acura has the same recall, they still need to do it. A couple weeks ago they did the recall work for the conrod/bearing failure (Acura MDX)
yah…I have one on our Acura and two of the local three dealers have said either “no clue on timing” or “we’re scheduling 8 months out”.
Took my truck in for a recall on the HPFP this summer. The service advisor looked at my history and said, “You’ve put a lot of money into this lately.” In retrospect that should have been a red flag since the truck stranded me (which I recounted in detail a few days ago here) a few weeks later.
Now looking for a new truck. Fool me once and all that. Which is too bad because I do generally like these service people, but looking back I only got about five years out of this one before it started to become problematically unreliable. That’s just not good enough.
I took my car into the ford dealer twice to get the recall done. They gave me a rental for a week then ended up “not having the part” and sent me on my way. This was within the last 2 years…
My 2016 Mazda6 had a recall for the passenger airbag wiring harness. Some rough weld spatter under the passenger seat could rub the wiring through and cause a short. That, in turn, could lead to the airbag not working and a lot of warning lights. The fix? Placing an adhesive strip of Velcro over the seat bracket that had the rough weld splatter. I had that recall done and it took…10 minutes.
Also, re: Nissan. Is it possible that the “Big Altima Energy” and “trashy Nissan driver” stereotype is hurting them because of them approving literally everyone with a pulse for a car loan over so many years? Seeing broken down or barely running Altimas terrorizing the streets has seemed to have caused even non-car enthusiasts to label Nissans as only driven by a certain type of people.
Absolutely regarding Nissan. Their strategy of “finance anyone for anything” has resulted in a lot of Nissans (the ones that haven’t had their CVTs croak anyway) looking like meth-mobiles. When (semi) responsible people are out shopping for a 30k transport pod, they’re unlikely to chose the model that they associate with tailgating, missing trim, and doing 90mph on a donut.
A lot of the non-car people under 50 I know ruthlessly make fun of Nissan. For whatever reason a lot of the olds seem to still associate the brand with 90’s Maximas (my in-laws), and haven’t updated their perception.
They’re basically repeating the same bad pattern that Mitsubishi did in the early 2000’s: finance everyone, focus on volume models over interesting models, destroy your brand.
“the SSP platform will support an 800-volt architecture for faster charging, is designed to handle 1,700 horsepower” !!!
They’re really small horses though, like shetland ponies.
Dang! Hope that’s enough for on-ramp merging!
Sea horses
Imagine having the power of 1,700 Li’l Sebastians at your command. The world should be so great!
Wasn’t Sebastian a crab?
Under the sea
Under the sea
Darling it’s better
Down where it’s wetter
Take it from me
Up on the shore they work all day
Out in the sun they slave away
While we devotin’
Full time to floatin’
Under the sea
Thomas, can you just send me all your playlists? You musical taste is exactly what I’m about.
Also, were you at Oblivion this past Sunday? Cause it was GLORIOUS.
I was at Oblivion with my Boxster! I’ll hopefully have a recap of the show because some of the cars there were absolutely glorious survivors that I never expected to see again in my life.
Oh man, we’re you in section O with the yellow one? Cause I was the slammed silver mercedes just down the row.
Yep, that was me. Beautiful 126! I love a tastefully modified Sacco Benz.
Maybe next year we need to organize an Autopian meetup spot. I know there’s a few of us in the great white north.
My cars have been the subjects of two recalls this year. One was the RAV4 battery size recall. The other was the Model Y frunk latch recall. The local Toyota dealer handled the battery recall just fine. I had to get other work done anyhow to pass inspection and no time to do it so it got thrown onto the list. The Tesla recall got handled by an OTA update. I hit “update” in the app and that was that.
I was laughed at for trying to pre-emptively get recall work done on my new to me Civic Type R. Honda doesn’t have the fuel pumps needed to change out every almost single car they built from 2018-2020 so they are only doing it on a need basis.
That seems to be where my wife and I are with her Accord. I’m hoping that if the pump fails while she is driving the car will be able to limp along as an EV so she can safely pull over. Telling your customers to piss off until a potentially dangerous failure occurs is not a good look for you, Honda.
On the mining shortfalls, this is one of the biggest reasons I think the industry needs to step back from EVs and take a serious look at PHEVs. The simple fact is you can electrify a much larger percentage of daily driving with PHEV’s on the same amount of raw materials. Charging infrastructure just isn’t where it needs to be for smaller battery capacity to sell in most of the country.
Matt regularly posts the graph of ICE/Hybrid/BEV breakdown by %. I feel like the timeline is going to move to the right by 10 years. So, “full BEV” by 2045 instead of 2035.
I did almost 100 EV only miles yesterday on my PHEV just running errands, commute, etc.. Despite it’s low range, I know I can always get to where I need to go and I’m motivated to take advantage of plugging in any time there is electricity available. You could build 8 of my PHEVs with a cybertruck battery. I think the real issue is that in the early days of PHEV, CARB did not fairly credit ZEV credits to PHEVs in proportion to the real world impact. My opinion.
Yep. Our PHEV has a 20 mile range. We fill up it’s 10 gallon tank every 6-7 weeks. Our previous PHEV had a 40 mile range. I had a few times where it made me burn through the gas because it was getting too old (about 6 months in the tank).
Hard agree. There are only so many areas you can economically extract a lot of the resources BEVs consume in disproportionately large amounts, and it’s not a clean process. PHEVs are clearly the min-max’d answer to the emissions puzzle, it’s insulting they get poo-poo’d by so much of the eco-nutjob crowd.
Too many people allow the impossible perfect solution be the enemy of any practical good solution to a given problem. I blame the death of nuance in any conversation on just about every topic.
My wife’s ’22 Kia Sorento has had a few recall items taken care of and contrary to many experiences, the Kia dealer was nothing but prompt and good to deal with. We did go to a dealer slightly further from our house that had stellar reviews though. We bought out of state (early 2022 was a different time for availability…) so we’ve never used that dealer for anything after purchase.
One of the major recalls was for the DCT. It was determined ours didn’t have the issue which I expected given we’ve never noticed the kinds of crazy problems people were reporting. They updated the transmission software anyway but frankly I haven’t noticed a difference when driving.
As for Nissan, well, I won’t repost my multi point plan for a return to relevancy. It’s all about cutting models and hybridizing in a nutshell.
I have a recall scheduled for Thursday with BMW. I get a loaner this time. The recall is for the passenger seat presence sensor that had to be ordered. This car has a CAN fault that I hope this solves. I doubt it will, but I’m hopefull. This time more things work than the last time I took it in. Can’t wait for the shame video review they send pointing out how fucked up the car is before handing it back to me. Thanks BMW, shame is such a motivator.
I’ve driven the Rogue as a rental a few times now and honestly it’s not a bad vehicle. It gets good fuel economy and has reasonable power for a three cylinder and has tons of room because of its handsome boxy design. I’ve only driven the base of the base rental spec, but I expect the higher trims are pretty much ok. My wife and I have even considered dumping our ’22 Tiguan SEL Premium AWD for a Rogue because the VW has so many annoying software issues (that VW acknowledges are problems and cannot fix them). The issue is those top trims of the Rogue are EXPENSIVE. $43k for a fully-loaded platinum awd Rogue with a 3-cylinder and a CVT? Nope. I can buy a 1-year old Audi q5 for less than that.
I had the previous generation Rogue as a long term rental when my then-employer accidentally let the registration lapse on the Escape I had as a company car. I was honestly shocked by how decent it was, given the usual Nissan bashing, but, at least compared to the Escape, it had significantly more comfortable seats, a better finished interior, and just generally a more solid feel, even seemed like thicker sheet metal. Yeah, not setting the world on fire, but not bad vs the competition. Also, the Escape was a depressing penalty box, I have no idea how they were as successful as they were, unless maybe fleet sales, like mine
Nissans have an uncanny ability to feel like garbage after a few years, regardless how nice they might have felt when new(er).
Doesn’t surprise me, my experience with Hyundai is about the same
Regarding Nissan… the interesting thing is they used to have some hybrid models. But it seemed like a half-assed short-lived effort with no long term plan.
Nissan screwed up so bad, they were one of the first to mass sold EV but dropped the ball after that. It would have been fine to kill their hybrid if they had some comprehensive EV plan for their whole line up.
There’s a recall on my car right now for the fuel tank pump with a fire risk, but parts weren’t yet available when I was in for my last service in the spring as they had only just sent out the recall letters. The dealer didn’t seem to indicate a timeline for when parts would be available.
I think my Corvair was recalled in 1965 for some sort of handling issue.
I guess I should take it in.
Checked my 1990 Pontiac Sunbird’s VIN and the site says “General Motors does not recognize the VIN.” I guess my car doesn’t exist.
GM didn’t just kill Pontiac – they disappeared it and removed any trace of existence from its records, like a Soviet official who displeased Stalin.
No hybrids, no sales for Nissan.My wife is in the market for a hybrid and Nissan isn’t even in the running because there’s zero to consider. I drove a new Rogue as a rental last week and it was actually reasonably decent except for it’s stupid shifter thingy. It even got pretty good gas mileage. But no hybrid options means nobody even going in to have a look.
A friend who bought a CR-V hybrid last fall was in a similar boat. She had been virtual window shopping for a while and we would regularly talk cars. She commented on the Rogue’s styling once when we parked by one, but I mentioned it didn’t have a hybrid option available, so no dice.
I still need to get the backup camera recall done on a Honda Ridgeline. I don’t think anything is going up in a fireball if I don’t get it done, unless I back into a gasoline tanker. I was going to get it done early on, but parts were not available for many, many months. By then I forgot about it.
So I guess the question to be asked again is what does Honda get from this.
Liabilities? Debt? Tarnished reputation if they rebadge any Nissan product?
Oh, I know. Rental fleet sales without diminishing the Honda brand.
Maybe a body on frame mid-size truck platform, but why bother when the Ridgeline is selling better and is arguably better overall. The Rogue is about the only thing I think could be worth anything, but Honda already has a CRV that is selling like mad cakes. They could bring the full size truck back to life, but I’m sure there are less costly gambles.
I think there’s more opportunity for Honda on a global scale, in some markets. They’ve always been very heavily invested in the U.S. and Canada for both production and sales (and have plants in Mexico too, can’t speak to their share of sales), but have shrunk in Europe and Australia. Nissan isn’t necessarily huge in every one of those but they still have more of a foothold and together, perhaps together gain some share.
This. Honda does great in the U.S. and Japan, but is completely floundering in Europe and Oceania. Nissan at least has a few Europe-specific models (Juke, Qashqai) and is investing to keep them competitively specced and priced vs Honda who seem to have given up on that—the price of a ‘base’ hybrid Civic (the only kind sold in Australia) is nearly the same as a starting A-Class Down Under.
Debt and a negative psychological reaction to the deal. It’s gonna be great. I LOVE Honda, but this deal would place them into my “Never Nissan” category forever. I hope they don’t.
Nissan continues the long slow slide. Of course in the 70s they were the happening thing in Japanese brands. The hookup with Renault and Ghosn may have saved them financially at the time but resulted in sub-par products and further deterioration to the brand reputation.
Nissan had a ton of buzz a few years ago when it was showing off it new Datsun line of small quick cars. Then…. nothing. It was nice knowing you Nissan.
Indeed Renault has suffered reliability with Nissan
When it comes to fixing safety issues like potential airbag failures, Americans tend to be like Ronald Reagan: I do not recall.
Mine had a recall for the fuel pump a couple of years ago. I got that taken care of during the next oil change.
I have an open recall on my Camaro for the seatbelt sheathing, but that’s only if it is noticed. My girlfriend is still waiting for Dodge to let her know when the parts are available for her Charger’s side airbags and it’s been months now.