Nissan attacks capped service costs

Nissan has used this week’s launch of the new Qashqai compact SUV to roll out a new and aggressively priced version of its troublesome capped-price servicing plan.

Essentially, the new ‘myNissan’ plan doubles scheduled servicing intervals from six to 12 months for the Qashqai compared to the old Dualis, but retains the same 10,000km range. The company argues the restructure will produce cost savings, especially for low-km drivers.

And the figures seem to bear it out. Based on one service per year over three years of “normal driving” and excluding the replacement of wear and tear items, a manual petrol Qashqai will cost $693 to service. The predecessor Dualis would have cost $1752.83 over the same timeframe.

A survey of capped-price service charges for similar vehicles on the websites of rival manufacturers revealed how competitive the new Nissan pricing is. The Mazda CX-5 costs $900 over the same period based on the same 12 months/10,000km servicing regime.

The Toyota RAV4, which schedules servicing every six months, costs $1020 over the same period, while Subaru’s newly introduced schedule charges $2202.52 (a figure verified by the company when contacted by motoring.com.au).

The Hyundai ix35, which has 15,000km service intervals, comes closest at $777 for its first three services.

Qashqai is the first model to trial the revamped plan, but Nissan
makes it clear it will spread to other members of its range over time.

“We have revised our capped price service program using data from the field and feedback from customers and we have been able to reduce the frequency of dealer visits for scheduled servicing,” New Nissan managing director and CEO Richard Emery confirmed at the launch of Qashqai this week.

“As a result the cost of servicing this car is lower than the previous model.

“The Qashqai is the first to benefit from this change to our capped-price service offer and more Nissans will follow over the coming months.”

Nissan began a review of the plan in July 2013 after its capped-price servicing schedule was revealed as significantly more expensive than rival plans.

It was found the capped-price servicing of a Micra mini was more expensive than a Toyota LandCruiser.

Nissan’s review is said to have gained extra impetus when Emery arrived at the company in April. Nissan insists no servicing standards have been compromised by the change from six- to 12-month intervals.

It is believed a non-negotiable of the change was that cost savings on service would not be recouped in other areas such as the vehicle price, which would have effectively left the customer no better off.

The Qashqai is also another trend-setter for Nissan Australia, as the pared down model line-up delivers on Emery’s publicly stated determination to simplify model ranges and, if necessary, cull entire lines, such as the Almera small sedan, which has now been officially despatched.

Pricing and specification for the Qashqai range were revealed last month and reported here.

A five-star ANCAP safety result for the Qashqai was confirmed earlier this week but the independent crash authority also criticised Nissan for not fitting Autonomous Emergency Braking. Nissan’s response is here.

The Qashqai is offered in six variations rather than its predecessor’s eight, while the options of all-wheel drive and seven seats have both been deleted.

AWD and third-row seating have now been restricted to the new-generation X-TRAIL, which was launched in April and sits on a 59mm longer wheelbase version of the same new Nissan-Renault CMF-C-/D (Common Module Family) architecture as the Qashqai and has a 263mm longer body at 4640mm.

Around 15 per cent of Dualis buyers took up the +2 option, but Nissan’s research found that most of them were after more boot space than more seats. The Qashqai’s luggage capacity is 430 litres (20 more than the standard Dualis), while the +2 had 550 litres.

Overall, the Qashqai is a bigger car than the old Dualis, being 47mm longer and 23mm wider. It is also 11mm lower. However, the Dualis +2 is 164mm longer than Qashqai.

Only about five per cent of Dualis buyers opted for all-wheel drive, once front-wheel drive became available in 2009.

Only five per cent of Dualis buyers also took up the diesel option, but the R9M 1.6-litre Renault-developed turbo-diesel engine has been retained for Qashqai alongside the MR20DD 2.0-litre petrol four-cylinder and now comes standard with a continuously variable transmission, rather than the manual it was tied to in Dualis.

Given Australian buyers’ preference for autos, Nissan is hoping diesel share in Qashqai will rise to between 10 and 20 per cent.

The diesel/CVT combination delivers a stellar claimed fuel consumption average of 4.9L/100km and CO2 emissions of 129g/km. The power and torque outputs are unchanged at 96kW at 4000rpm and 320Nm at 1750rpm.

The petrol engine comes standard with a six-speed manual and averages 7.7L/100km and 178g CO2/km. Pay the extra $2500 for the CVT and that drops to 6.9L/100km and 159g CO2/km. The engine’s power and torque outputs remain virtually unchanged at 106kW at 4000rpm and 200Nm at 4400rpm.

Nissan estimates the Dualis will be outsold about 2:1 by the X-TRAIL, although it wouldn’t translate that into specific numbers. It’s an interesting forecast considering the two cars have been quite close on annual sales tallies in recent years, with around 1000 per month a good result.

If they combine to produce 2000-plus sales per month, then Nissan has two strong players in the booming small and medium SUV segments to take on the heavyweights like CX-5, RAV4, ix35 and the Forester. All average over 1000 sales per month, with the Mazda selling close to 2000 per month in 2014.

We will publish our first Australian drive review of the new Nissan Qashqai tomorrow morning