Nissan recalls 50,000 Qashqai cars for urgent inspection after customer's steering wheel 'came off in his hands'
- Potential defect could affect the manufacturer's Qashqai SUV range and its NV200 vans
By RAY MASSEY PUBLISHED: 14:08 GMT, 13 September 2012 | UPDATED: 06:41 GMT, 14 September 2012
Nissan is recalling 7,300 of its popular Qashqai family cars in Britain car after a fault which led to a steering wheel coming away in the hands of a driver.It is part of a total worldwide recall of 51,000 of the UK-built vehicles – 45,500 across Europe - which are among the biggest sellers in Britain and Europe.
Brand new Qashqai models - one of those affected by the potential defect - rolling off the Nissan production line at its Sunderland plant
The recall follows an incident in which a driver parking his Qashqai sports utility vehicle in Finland had the steering wheel come away in his hand.
Nissan said the driver had not been injured as the incident happened at low speed.However, the recall began when the driver filmed his problems and posted them on the internet.A spokesman for Nissan said the fault had been traced to one faulty batch of around 600 steering wheels which had been delivered to the Sunderland factory in Tyne and Wear.
The problem is with the ‘boss’ – the joint which connects the steering wheel to the steering column.
The vehicles are made at the manufacturers' plant in Sunderland (pictured) from where they are exported globally
Nissan said this key link had been weakened in one batch because of of a change made by the supplier to the tooling settings on the machine which was making them.The Nissan spokesman said the fault affected a small proportion – around one per cent – of the cars built on the Sunderland line between February 27 and May 16 this year.
However, the problem for Nissan engineers is that they don’t know which of the cars built during that period have been fitted with the faulty steering wheels, so they have recalled them all for checks. The recall affects Nissan's Sunderland built 5-seater Qashqai, the seven-seater Qashqai+2, and Spanish-built Nissan NV200 van versions.
Owners are being asked to contact their local Nissan dealers to check wheel to confirm whether or not their vehicle has been affected. A Nissan spokesman said the problem came to light a week ago when the Finnish driver was parking his car and put weight onto the wheel. ‘There has been incident at low speed in Finland. It happened when the driver was manoeuvring to park his car at low speed.
The driver lent forward on the steering wheel. It wobbled and came away in his hand. He was moving slowly so he stopped. No-one was hurt, But he did take a video’.He added: ‘The batch affected is 1 per cent of the total we are recalling. But we don’t know exactly which ones are affected, so we are checking them all.Owners should contact their dealers to check. If their cars have the affected steering wheels we will change them free of charge. If they are not adffected, we will tell them and no further action is needed.’
Nissan has ordered the voluntary recall in Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Australasia to address the manufacturing problem. More than a million Qashqais have been built at Sunderland – at rates of around 200,000 a year - since the car’s launch in 2006, with a second generation version going into production in 2010. Some 80 per cent are exported, but it is regularly in the top ten of UK best sellers.
So far this year more than 31,000 Qashqais have been sold in Britain. Last year around 40,000 were sold in the UK. In 2010 some 1 in 6 of all cars sold was a Qashqai.
Nissan has asked concerned owners to ring or e-mail Nissan customer services on 01923 899 334 or email: [email protected]
Brand new Qashqai models - one of those affected by the potential defect - rolling off the Nissan production line at its Sunderland plant
The recall follows an incident in which a driver parking his Qashqai sports utility vehicle in Finland had the steering wheel come away in his hand.
Nissan said the driver had not been injured as the incident happened at low speed.However, the recall began when the driver filmed his problems and posted them on the internet.A spokesman for Nissan said the fault had been traced to one faulty batch of around 600 steering wheels which had been delivered to the Sunderland factory in Tyne and Wear.
The problem is with the ‘boss’ – the joint which connects the steering wheel to the steering column.
The vehicles are made at the manufacturers' plant in Sunderland (pictured) from where they are exported globally
Nissan said this key link had been weakened in one batch because of of a change made by the supplier to the tooling settings on the machine which was making them.The Nissan spokesman said the fault affected a small proportion – around one per cent – of the cars built on the Sunderland line between February 27 and May 16 this year.
However, the problem for Nissan engineers is that they don’t know which of the cars built during that period have been fitted with the faulty steering wheels, so they have recalled them all for checks. The recall affects Nissan's Sunderland built 5-seater Qashqai, the seven-seater Qashqai+2, and Spanish-built Nissan NV200 van versions.
Owners are being asked to contact their local Nissan dealers to check wheel to confirm whether or not their vehicle has been affected. A Nissan spokesman said the problem came to light a week ago when the Finnish driver was parking his car and put weight onto the wheel. ‘There has been incident at low speed in Finland. It happened when the driver was manoeuvring to park his car at low speed.
The driver lent forward on the steering wheel. It wobbled and came away in his hand. He was moving slowly so he stopped. No-one was hurt, But he did take a video’.He added: ‘The batch affected is 1 per cent of the total we are recalling. But we don’t know exactly which ones are affected, so we are checking them all.Owners should contact their dealers to check. If their cars have the affected steering wheels we will change them free of charge. If they are not adffected, we will tell them and no further action is needed.’
Nissan has ordered the voluntary recall in Europe, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and Australasia to address the manufacturing problem. More than a million Qashqais have been built at Sunderland – at rates of around 200,000 a year - since the car’s launch in 2006, with a second generation version going into production in 2010. Some 80 per cent are exported, but it is regularly in the top ten of UK best sellers.
So far this year more than 31,000 Qashqais have been sold in Britain. Last year around 40,000 were sold in the UK. In 2010 some 1 in 6 of all cars sold was a Qashqai.
Nissan has asked concerned owners to ring or e-mail Nissan customer services on 01923 899 334 or email: [email protected]
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