Owner: "It's an absolute disgrace that these vehicles are still on the roads."
Over the past week or so, UK news portals have been carrying reports that previous-generation Nissan Navara utes (generation D40, built in Spain between 2005 and 2008) have been splitting in half due to rust eroding the chassis. Reports also state that this issue may also affect R51 Pathfinder SUVs built during the same period.
Photographs circulating on social media sites show Navara utes splitting between the cab and the bed, leaving them looking a lot like drawbridges. According to a report by the DailyMail, affected Navara owner Richy Holmes said that his ute split in half while he was driving his 4-year old daughter and pregnant wife were in the car. He said hat it was a “disgrace that these vehicles are still on the roads,” and was thankful that he was only crawling at a few miles per hour at the time.
Another affected owner, identified only as Michelle, posted a photograph of her Navara ute being towed away, accompanied by a message that said: “Sad day, but it could have killed my mum and dad, as half an hour earlier they were going [96.5km/h] on the motorway.” Mechanics concur that the issue is widespread, but have refrained from public comment out of fear of reprisal from Nissan UK.
A Nissan Pathfinder owner, who bought his car second-hand in November 2016, said that his car didn’t even survive into the new year after his Pathfinder SUV’s chassis split due to chassis corrosion. The 24-year old furniture-maker said Nissan bought the car back for £6,500 (or a little over $10,000) after his ordeal, and said that Nissan “should recall them, 100 per cent.”
This is not the first issue presented by the D40 Navara. In 2013, no less than 40,000 Navara utes were recalled due to a towbar design fault that could lead to it breaking altogether. Nissan UK, commenting on this, said that the matter is “unrelated” to the chassis corrosion issue with no recall on the matter in Europe.
In a statement, Nissan Australia has assured that any affected customers will be backed by the brand. The marque is offering "free and independent inspection" of the models in question, and will do what they can "under our warranty and customer service policies."
Nissan Australia also said that "many vehicles which have been checked have had no issue," though there are measures in place should problems present themselves. Those measures include directing customers to repair procedures, supporting costs, repairing the issue itself, or even exchanging the vehicle outright. It is clear that Nissan Australia is handling this on a case-by-case basis, which indicates that the issue may be even smaller on our shores than it seems to be in England.
We would like to advise concerned Nissan Navara and Pathfinder owners to get in touch with their local Nissan dealerships to allay any concerns they may have about their vehicles.
For more information on Nissan, check out our Showroom.
