Towing and Warranty

[From Virginia]

Will installing a hitch and/or towing anything of any weight void the warranty on a 2023 Nissan Kicks? Does anybody have any direct experience with this?

The exclusions in the warranty include: "Misuse, such as using the vehicle to tow," but the exact same language is used in the warranty for the Nissan Frontier and the Nissan Rogue. The Manuals and Guides section for Nissan Kicks on the Nissan website has a link to a Towing Guide, so the presence of that would seem to indicate that some potential owners might be contemplating towing with a Nissan Kicks. The Towing Guide says that it is a good idea to discuss your towing requirements with your dealer or a professional installer before you equip your Nissan for towing. The local Nissan dealer near where I live said that according to the data he looked up, a Kicks could tow up to about 1,000 lbs. He gave the name of a professional installer that the dealership recommended. He said it should be able to tow a small sailboat trailer of a few hundred pounds including a lightweight fiberglass sailboat that is 13-14 ft. long. He said people had installed trailer hitches on some vehicles and there had been "no warranty issues" with any of these. He said that the phrase "Misuse, such as using the vehicle to tow" referred to using a vehicle to tow something clearly overweight, i.e., beyond the 1,000 capacity, not for using the vehicle to tow per se. He said that is how they would construe "misuse." He said they would have to prove causation. That would seem to make sense, because why would Nissan use the exact same language for a Frontier or a Rogue. But I don't know if that is how the exclusions in the warranty are applied in real life.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has seen what happens for issues of this nature at the at the warranty stage.

[VStar650CL]

He's correct, misuse would be towing overweight (tongue, drag weight, or exceeding GVW) or in any other manner not recommended in the OM, but the burden of proof would be on Nissan if there was a possibly-related failure. Even for a small trailer, be prepared to change your CVT fluid very frequently (I recommend 15~20K miles to my towing customers), and positively add a cooler to it. Our TSM assured me that a properly-installed cooler will NOT void your warranty and will only cause a warranty issue if a wear-related failure could be blamed on over-cooling. That shouldn't be an issue if you live anyplace south of Wisconsin, and if you don't, find a thermostatic bypass rated 140~160F and add it to the system. From a warranty standpoint, I do recommend letting a dealer either do the work or inspect and sign off on it.

[macgiver]

I'm being honest , I teast drove a kicks , just wasn't for me , but I noted - most important to ME was it did'nt have enough power to get out of it's own way , not being a 'wise-guy ' but you MAY want to L O A D the car up w/ like weights / sand bags and REALLY SEE what it would be like - before a FULL commitment , ya ?

Shoot load 900 pounds of ' stuff ' (??) back seats , cargo area , front floors & rear floors ( I know handling won't be so 'relatable' here but.......) Maybe too dangerous ' blending ' fast moving traffic , ???

p.s. Just goto best BBQ in town and give 5 F O L K S a nice ride home , yeah .......long way home

[From Virginia]

The owners manual says "GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) - maximum total combined weight of the unloaded vehicle, passengers, cargo, hitch, trailer tongue load and any other optional equipment. " on p. 10-15. But also says "TOWING A TRAILER Do not tow a trailer with your vehicle." on p. 10-19. Is that a prohibition? It seems to conflict with what the dealer said about this specific model.

He's correct, misuse would be towing overweight (tongue, drag weight, or exceeding GVW) or in any other manner not recommended in the OM, but the burden of proof would be on Nissan if there was a possibly-related failure.

Also, what is your experience with trailers and Nissans? Do you install trailer hitches, have had that done, or have other experience in this regard?

Thanks

[VStar650CL]

Well, hmm, maybe that's a policy change. I don't see that particular proscription in any OM's before '19, but the gen6 Altima has it as well (not that anyone much tows with those). If true, it's a little weird that they didn't remove the references to trailering in the GVW stuff. I think a lawyer would have to sort that out, I'm not sanguine giving you an opinion. I'll ask our TSM about it next time I talk to him.