Nissan to recall 319K Versas

Nissan is recalling 319,000 Versa models, years 2007-12 due to government pressure over concern for front suspension problems.

218,000 of those cars were either sold or registered at one point in time, in what’s considered “salt belt states”: Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

According to Nissan, road salt may corrode front coil springs, which could result in the coil spring fracturing. The NHTSA opened an investigation in May, after receiving 93 complaints of incidents of front coil spring failures.

The coil spring failures can occur at any moment, without warning, at any speed. NHTSA said one complaint said the passenger side front coil spring broke while driving 65mph, which cut the inner sidewall of the front passenger tire all the way around. Another said the same coil spring broke while going 40mph, which punctured the tire and caused brake line failure.

Initially, Nissan claims they did not believe the coil spring failure was an unreasonable safety concern.

Time out! Coil spring failure, to include fracturing and breaking is a huge safety concern! It makes you wonder what they weren’t thinking when they told the NHTSA that. Back to Nissan’s testing they conducted on this.

The testing “showed that a fractured spring would result in a noticeable difference in the posture of the vehicle as well as audible noise to warn the operator of the issue. Nissan’s testing also demonstrated that in the event of a tire puncture, the driver could maintain vehicle control during turning and braking and could bring the vehicle to a safe, controlled stop.”

Another time out. Ever get a flat at 65mph? Then you know you cannot maintain control of the vehicle, let alone bring it to a “safe, controlled stop”. Geez, Nissan, what are you doing?!

Nissan also said it’s “not aware of crashes, property damage, injury, or fatality” related to this issue.

In all, they’re recalling 319,000 Versas, 2007-12; 101,000 in Canada and 218,000 in the US.

Click here to see if your Versa is part of this recall.