An exceutive from Nissan called Mr. Pelata said recently to Autoweek while talking about the future 2005 Nissan Sentra:
http://autoweek.com/search/search_d...647877&record=4
"While durability and quality are ciritical, Pelata says, Nissan needs to be cautious of "overquality."
"Does it matter if the door handle lasts 10 years or 20?" Pelata says. "No it does not, because the person will not have the car after 10 years."
If your car has 120,000 miles or more, you are around 12,000 miles per year at least, and that could be 10 years of normal use, easily.
Others like me, used their Sentra for an average of more than 16,600 miles per year. The odometer of my 1993 Nissan Sentra 1.6 lts read 166,649 miles the exact day and hour the car was 10 years old, on Dec. 18 '03.
I think Mr. Pelata's Nissan philosophy was in use since several years ago, maybe since the 80's.
I also think Mr. Pelata is wrong, because what he is doing does not contribute to create a good reputation about reliability among current owners and future owners. No matter if Nissan is forced to do this due to is critical economic situation.
Toyota-Lexus and Honda-Acura will benefit with Nissan's position, and the rest of the vehicle's brands will have room to sell too.
Instead, what Nissan and Mr. Pelata propose would have the negative effect of making Nissan loose followers and potential followers because word of mouth from the owners is a very strong point, better than marketing gimmicks.
I think that for all of the synthetic oil buyers, the message is there:
Nissan is not producing the Sentra in a way it could last more than 10 years.
Is the individual owner who could make that happen, with more than excellent routine maintenance.......meaning more money...
In my experience, my Sentra gave to me 9 years of service with routine maintenance, and the 10 year was with an intermitent erratic idle problem..Not ten years with routine maintenance, but almost 140,000-150,000 miles of service with routine maintenance.
And I want to use my 1993 Nissan Sentra for at least 1 1/2 - 2 years more!
If it is working well with not so costly repairs, I would like to go up to
15 years with my 1993 Nissan Sentra, just like the average life of the Volvos of the past, maybe more ! Maybe, until hybrids are well established with feedback from owners....
Sorry Mr. Pelata from Nissan, I don't subscribe to your point of view, as well as probably many others !
The unstable economy and poor job market not only made many of us buy expensive synthetic oil since our cars were new, but we have to think twice before starting to pay again those monthly payments for 3-6 years !
I will remember your comments when I am ready to buy a new car again, Mr. Pelata from Nissan !
Thanks