Nissan plays catch-up on quality

Stung by slumping U.S. quality scores, Nissan Motor Co. will overhaul quality control in a bid to catch Japanese and Korean rivals boasting better customer satisfaction.

The new strategy focuses on two areas where Nissan acknowledges it trails the competition: perceived quality and soft quality, or the customer perception of quality through touch and feel, fit and finish and intuitive controls.

Kazumasa Katoh, senior vice president in charge of global quality, says Nissan will unveil the plan in November. But in a preview to Automotive News, Katoh said the initiative was spurred by Nissan's lackluster performance in recent surveys by J.D. Power and Associates.

In Power's 2011 Initial Quality Study released in June, Nissan slid to No. 24, down from 12 last year and 19 in 2008. In Power's Vehicle Dependability Study, Nissan was No. 25, unchanged from last year but down from No. 18 in 2008. In both, Nissan remained below the industry average, with lower rankings than in 2008 because rivals upped their games.

"On Nissan's side, we were surprised" by the survey results, Katoh said in an interview last week. "On the defects side, we have improvement. But on the dissatisfaction we have deterioration."

Quick fixes

As an initial countermeasure, Nissan will add a two-page quick-reference insert to the user manuals of 2012 models in the United States. The insert will tell customers how to cope with some problems that surfaced in the Power surveys, Katoh said.

Nissan will require dealers and customers to sign a document showing they've read the insert.

Other new quality measures will be rolled into Nissan's latest midterm business plan, Power 88. The business plan, announced in June, went light on quality and heavy on sales targets. It contrasted with the detailed quality goals in the previous midterm plan.

Katoh says Nissan has achieved the goals of the previous GT 2012 plan or is on course to reach them by next year. Those targets focused mostly on reducing breakdowns and defects.

The new challenge, Katoh says, is improving soft-quality issues that are not technically defects but can turn off customers.

For example, some customers complain that Nissan's heating and air conditioning controls are too convoluted, requiring them to push three buttons. U.S. customers, he said, prefer an easier-to-use dial system for climate control. U.S. customers also react poorly to Nissan's adoption of a rear wiper control stem that is activated by pushing forward instead of pulling or turning.

Nissan is tackling some of the weak spots.

Rear wipers, car clocks

Power's June Initial Quality Study indicated customers complained about hesitations in the new seven-speed automatic transmissions in some Infiniti models. Nissan studied the problem, changed the software and is implementing the changes in new cars, Katoh said.

"The driveability of the seven-speed transmission was one of the highest scores in dissatisfaction," Katoh said. "Four days after J.D. Power's announcement we started the countermeasures."

Since June, Nissan has pinpointed customer dissatisfaction with other areas:

-- Tire pressure monitors

-- Rear window wiper controls

-- Hands-free phone system

-- Air conditioner controls

-- Instrument panel clocks

-- Side mirrors

Katoh blames some customer dissatisfaction on frustration with complicated new technologies, such as onboard entertainment and navigation systems.

Nissan was susceptible to such complaints because the brand's customers are more likely to choose high-tech options than buyers of other makes, he said.

But he concedes the company disregarded the key metrics measured by Power. While Nissan used Power as a key benchmark in the past, it shifted to Consumer Reports under the GT 2012 business plan and neglected Power's market feedback.

Under Power 88, Katoh is adding Power's Initial Quality Study and Vehicle Dependability Study to Consumer Reports as the three key market indicators for North America. Its goal is to achieve a top three ranking for Nissan in nonpremium brands in those surveys by 2016.

For Infiniti, Katoh wants a top three finish among all brands in that time frame.

"We are accumulating the lessons learned," Katoh said. "So what we experienced with defects and dissatisfaction, we are applying to new model development."

By Hans Greimel- Automotive News