Nissan Hopes More Generous LCV Warranty Will Boost Sales
NV and NV200 sales are up through May but are a fraction of the volume generated by competing models from the Detroit Three.
June 20, 2014
Nissan ups the warranty on its light-commercial vehicles, a move the automaker hopes will boost both interest in, and sales of, the vehicles.
"We're doing this to reinforce the fact our products are very durable and with the idea it's going to make us more competitive, absolutely," Phil O'Connor, marketing director-trucks, SUVs, commercial vehicles and crossovers for Nissan North America tells WardsAuto in a phone interview.
The basic warranty on Nissan's LCVs, which include the large NV 2500 and 3500 cargo vans, large NV passenger van and small NV200 cargo van, is sweetened from three years/36,000 miles (58,000 km) to five years/100,000 miles (161,000 km), effective with '14 model-year vans, including those already sold. The LCVs powertrain warranty increases from five years/60,000 miles (97,000 km) to five years/100,000 miles.
Sales of the large NV van were up 21.0% through May, to 6,231 units, and NV200 deliveries rose 676.2% in the same period to 4,564, reflecting the vehicle's debut a year ago.
The updated Nissan warranties come ahead of the launch of Ford's new large Transit van this summer in the U.S. The European-designed Transit replaces the decades-old E-Series, the best-selling large van in the U.S. this year with 55,115 units delivered through May, a 4.4% increase from like-2013.
O'Connor notes Nissan still is one of "the new kids on the block" in the van sector, which includes General Motors' Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana, Chrysler's Ram and the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter. Ford competes against the NV200 with its Transit Connect and soon Nissan will supply Chevy with a version of the NV200 as the bowtie brand enters the small-van group. Chrysler has an entry on tap for the sector as well.
Nissan executives in the past have discussed the difficulty in breaking through in LCVs with such entrenched competitors, especially because many fleets using the Detroit Three vans have decades of experience repairing them, aided by plentiful replacement parts.
“I still hear, ‘I didn’t know Nissan was in that business,’” Joe Castelli, former vice president-commercial vehicles and fleet for NNA, told WardsAuto in April 2012.
However, O'Connor notes the new extended warranties are a "very tangible way to make a statement about the durability of our products," which he says up to now have needed few serious repairs.
Nissan touts the durability experience of customer Above and Beyond Delivery of Chandler, AZ, which put 550,000 miles (885,000 km) on a big NV cargo van the automaker lent the firm in 2011, with the only major repair being an alternator replacement at 382,000 miles (615,000 km).
Since then, Above and Beyond has acquired 18 to 20 NV 3500 cargo vans and has more on order.
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