Summary:
Excellent vehicle choice overall
Faults:
Shaking in rear end when braking at 50,000 km. Rear rotors required machining.
Pulsation in front when braking at 72,000. Rotors and pads replaced.
Shaking in rear end when braking at 105,000 km. Rear rotors replaced.
Seems like a lot of braking issues for a woman driver who is not hard on her vehicle, and most of the mileage is hwy.
Regular maintenance only otherwise.
General Comments:
Vehicle is adequately powered for the average driver.
AWD is excellent in the snow and rain.
CVT takes getting used to for loudness and driveability.
The weatherstrip on the bottom of the door is made from plastic instead of rubber, and catches and traps dirt in it from winter driving. This caused the paint under it to get severely scratched. The dealer repaired this for free at 45,000 km. Nissan does not offer any assistance that I know of for this. I put a strip of 3M invisible bra where it rubs, and no more problems.
Driving position is comfortable, and visibility is excellent.
Rear visibility is terrible.
All controls are easy to use. Everything works very well with the exception of the rear wiper, which is always streaky, even when newly replaced.
No noises, no squeaks, no issues. The vehicle runs and drives as it did the first day.
We do not track fuel consumption, but it seems to be fairly good for a vehicle of this size.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 21st February, 2011
14th Jan 2012, 14:36
I know cars, and literally just started working for a chumpy Nissan dealer. I'll tell you right now that your brake issue has nothing to do with factory rotors or mechanical defects. Your driving habits are likely responsible. I'd assume with such heavy and abrupt braking, that you'd also run your car pretty hard, so I am happy to hear that the vehicle holds up well. I will use that as a key selling point.
Hard braking causes valleys in the otherwise perfectly straight rotor.
17th Jan 2012, 10:42
Rear brakes at 31k miles and front brakes at 44k miles? That's sounds more than reasonable. Something that folks don't understand about "highway driving" is that slowing down a vehicle from 70-80mph, even infrequently, wears more on the braking surfaces than frequent braking at low, city-street speeds. Sounds like normal brake component wear-and-tear, with a little bit of complaining in there.
12th Dec 2012, 23:15
One thing I have learned, that all drivers should abide by when stopping, either from high speed or especially going down hill, is to pump the brakes instead of just keeping your foot down the entire time. By pumping the brakes, you allow more cooling and less friction, and this prevents warp. When you constantly hold down the brake pedal, especially down a long steep hill, the friction causes heat to build up, and this in turn causes the rotors to warp when cooled down. This will cause the brake pedal to pulsate or the back wheels to feel not balanced when braking.
Also, just as important is to leave lots of room between you and other drivers to prevent hard braking. Doing these two things alone will lengthen the life of your brakws and rotors. Just thought I would say this, as warped rotors were mentioned in the review above, and can most of the time be entirely prevented.
Other than that, I thought it was a great review.
Tommaso