Post by
RickFlorida »
https://forums.nicoclub.com/rickflorida-u310231.html
Fri Sep 08, 2023 5:35 pm
Here's my 2 cents. And between my brother and me, we were huge Nissan fans having owned Nissan trucks, a few cars including a twin turbo Z, and even a Rogue Select (the ones assembled in Japan so I like it).
I noticed that my 2006 Frontier Truck had lots and lots of made in Japan parts. The Hitachi alternator, much of the small but important components like the slave cylinder for the manual transmission, the brake lines were well made I think by Hitachi. It even came with the BEST heavy duty brake pads I've ever owned. They were Hitachi made in japan brake pads and they lasted an incredible 75,000 miles before I decided to changed them due to age.
But then Renault, the French company purchased part of Nissan and the use of Japanese parts seemed to be immediately jettisoned as soon as Renault came into the picture.
The only Japanese part I have found on my wifes 2015 Rogue Select that was assembled in Kyushu Japan mind you, is a damn brake switch. That's literally the only damn Japanese part I've found so far. Why do I know this? Because it failed way too early. Hopefully the 4banger engine was assembled or made there at least?
Guess what failed on the 2015 Rogue Select that I never had failed before on my other Nissans? The made in France Valeo alternator that came in my wifes Rogue Select failed at a ridiculous 50,000 miles. I would always get 160,000 or so miles out of my made in Japan alternators. So even though Nissan assembled the Rogue Select in Kyushu Japan, Renault insisted it had the crappy French Valeo alternators in it! I didn't get a good Panasonic Japanese battery with the car either. It came with a crappy made in Mexico battery. (To be fair, I think Toyota does the same damn thing with the made in Japan 4runners that cost 50,0000 dollars). You used to get a made in japan battery with imported Nissans and even Toyota stopped doing that to be fair. Japanese car batteries seem to last like 7 to 10 years where of course the American owned battery factories that are in Mexico only build them to last 4 years.
Now I know what the Nissan fan boys are going to say: All the companies are leaving Japan for their manufacturing of parts. Yes and No. My Toyota Tacoma made in 2022 does have a lot of parts that were not made in Japan. BUT>>>>>>> The japanese companies like Hitachi that makes the shocks or Denso that makes the electronics keep their high Japanese factory standards as much as possible when they build factories in Mexico. So we are getting pretty much the same parts from Hitachi or Denso if they build and manage a factory in my opinion.
But Valeo, a French company building an alternator and then Nissan agreeing to put that in their cars?
I'm done buying Nissans made after 2008 or 2010.