Juke recall gives new meaning to sticker shock

Don’t worry, it seems only the neighbours are upset by this issue.

COULD it legitimately be called a jack-up? 

A recall action for the latest Nissan Juke, that seems not to have impact on examples shipped to New Zealand, is certainly something out of the ordinary.

It seems the car has become subject to a precautionary check-over action across the Tasman because the jack that comes with the car does not comply with Australian safety standards.

The problem isn’t with the device itself – it’s in perfect condition to undertake the job of lifting the vehicle off the ground to change tyres. 

It’s all down to it not having a label that passes muster with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

It says the jacks do not comply with Australian safety standards due to the omission of a correct instruction label. Not having this could potentially cause an accident if a vehicle is not jacked correctly by the operator.

Affected vehicles were sold between 20 May 2020 and 2 September 2020. Nissan Australia is contacting owners to organise inspection and repair of the defect. 

As for New Zealand? Well, we take the same stock as Australia, but there has been no word from Nissan New Zealand – whose new boss in still stuck in Australia, due to coronavirus travel restrictions – and, from a quick check with a local dealer, the consternation raised across the Tasman has not been felt here. ‘All news to me’ was the local comment, with thought no action is required here.

Manley’s record run keeps rolling on

Covid-19 is preventing a leading New Zealand motor industry executive from retiring.

manley took over when the nz vehicle assembly industry was in a state of flux. closing the line at wiri was an early job.

HE’S the world’s longest-serving Nissan managing director and wants to retire – but the Covid-19 pandemic is preventing it.

John Manley runs Nissan New Zealand. He was supposed to retire at the end of April after 39 years working for the Japanese brand – 20 of them in his present position.

The plan was for his role to be taken over by Ben Hamilton, on transfer to New Zealand from Nissan Australia. But then the pandemic hit, and both New Zealand and Australia went into lockdown – which meant the Australian couldn’t get across the ditch to take up his new job.

Not that it mattered – because Manley couldn’t do what he planned to do anyway.

“We were supposed to head off on a trip to Canada,” he explains.

“But then in what seemed the blink of an eye I was unable to retire, my wife Helen was made redundant as a flight attendant, our daughter was also made redundant, and we ended up stuck at home.

“It’s amazing how quickly things changed. Everything looked tickedy-boo – and then the whole world closed down.”

john manley - world’s longest-seving Nissan ceo

The plan now is for Manley to continue with Nissan New Zealand until his replacement can get across the ditch to his new job.

“It’s not a hassle at all,” says Manley. “All our plans went pear-shaped anyway, so I’m more than happy to help out.”

When John Manley does retire, he will finish as New Zealand’s longest-serving motor industry executive. He’s also considered to be the world’s longest-serving Nissan managing director.

His motor industry career began 39 years ago when he started work as a new vehicle salesperson at Newmarket Nissan in Auckland. Prior to that he was a bricklayer.

“I was sitting on a job one day, it was absolutely pissing down with rain and I thought ‘there’s gotta be more to life than this’.

“I flicked through a newspaper and saw this job advertised by the local dealer offering a car and the promise of pretty good money so I thought ‘that’s me.’ And that’s how it started.”

At that time the dealership was a factory shop, Nissan NZ’s head office was in Lovegrove Crescent in Otara, and the brand’s assembly plant and national parts warehouse was at Wiri.

 He progressed up the corporate ladder, becoming sales manager and fleet sales manager before being appointed dealer principal at Takapuna Nissan. Then in 1997 he moved to Nissan NZ as national sales manager, and was promoted to managing director three years later.

Manley took over the big job at a time when New Zealand’s motor vehicle assembly was in a state of flux.

The Government’s plan had been to gradually decrease import duty on vehicles over a period of years to allow the importation of fully-built up product. But in the 1998 Budget it instead made the sudden announcement to drop all import duties several years ahead of schedule.

This had an immediate effect of making motor vehicle assembly un-viable in New Zealand, and Manley – like the heads of every other brand involved in CKD assembly in the country – had to begin the process of shutting down assembly operations.

At that stage Nissan NZ had about 400 employees building 40 vehicles a day at Wiri. But thanks to their high levels of training, the vast majority were able to be re-employed in other industries by the time the plant closed down a few months after the Budget announcement.

“It created some immediate difficulties, but it was the correct decision and a better option than a slow wind-down,” Manley recalls.

“And from that point on we at Nissan NZ had access to a wider range of Japanese domestic product that had a greater specification level.”

From a business perspective the halt of CKD assembly, and move to a fully CBU regime, represented dramatic change. In one fell swoop Nissan NZ went from manufacturing to becoming an operation focussed more on sales and marketing.

overseeing the release of the latest juke should be manley’s last big gig.

Adding to complications at that time was the fact that Nissan Motor Company had entered into a strategic partnership with French manufacturer Renault to form what was known as the Nissan Alliance. Manley says this in itself caused a quantum shift in focus and priorities – all of which had a major impact on operations. But the impact was positive, he adds.

One such impact has been the ability to source product from all over the world. For example, today New Zealand sources a selection of vehicles from Japan, Thailand, USA, and United Kingdom that best suit the Kiwi motoring environment.

And the benefits of that wide international choice are best illustrated by what vehicles John Manley will take with him when he is finally able to retire. He’s going to have a Thailand-sourced Navara ute, while his wife Helen will have a United States-built Pathfinder SUV.

“That will cover every eventuality,” he quips.

And what does John Manley see of the future of the motor industry in New Zealand?

“I see the industry constantly evolving to meet the requirements of consumers,” he says.

“The current pandemic will provide further opportunity for revision, but basically we are a people industry – an industry building vehicles that fulfil consumer needs and aspirations. The personal interaction with the customer is the highlight,” he says.

And insofar as his career goes? Lots of memories, no regrets, plenty of quiet pride.

“Not a bad effort for a brickie, I’d say.”

Juke’s NZ spec, prices revealed

The new Juke represents as a new start in familiar territory.

THREE versions of the Juke will hold Nissan’s corner in the compact crossover class.

Pricing and specifications of the model have been announced ahead of launch in June, a process the New Zealand distributor has already admitted will be affected by supply constraints resulting from the plant in Sunderland, England, being closed by coronavirus https://www.motoringnz.com/news/2020/5/6/shutdown-jolts-jukes-nz-arrival.

Nissan NZ has indicated it had a shipment already en route when the factory shuttered, but has not divulged how many cars are coming on that first boat or if every variant is represented from the June 1 release date. There’s no additional comment on when reinforcements will arrive.

The models it will foot this time are an entry ST at $32,990, a mid-grade ST-L for $5000 more and a flagship Ti, retailing for $44,390 – or just $100 short of a Qashqai Ti. The previous Juke Ti was finally selling at $31,990.

This is just the second generation of Juke, replacing a car that ran in the market for 10 years – around two-to-three years longer than most rival makes keep their cars in circulation. However, it’s pretty much entirely fresh in every major facet.

There’s big change under the bonnet. Whereas the previous car presented with a choice of 1.6-litre aspirated and turbocharged petrols, generating between 85kW/190Nm and 140kW/240Nm, this time the entire family runs a 1.0-litre turbo-petrol three-cylinder unit producing 84kW/180Nm.

The constantly variable transmission has gone. Now there’s a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission with paddle shifters, the three-cylinder engine drives the front wheels exclusively and comes with an official combined fuel consumption figure of 5.8 litres per 100km.

The platform is also fresh, being an underpinning developed with Renault, and is said to be stiffer by 13 percent stiffer and six percent lighter. It maintains MacPherson-strut front and torsion-beam rear suspension.

The switch allows for an increase in all major dimensions. In measuring 4210mm long, 1800mm wide and 1595mm tall, it is 75mm longer, 35mm wider and 30mm taller than the outgoing car. This of course allows a roomier cabin and also improves luggage capacity, which increases from 354 litres to 422 litres with the seats in place, expanding to 1305L with the 60:40 split-fold fully utilised.

The Juke being well-provisioned on the safety front has seen it land with a strong ANCAP score. Standard kit includes autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection, lane departure warning with intervention function, rear cross-traffic alert, forward collision warning, blind spot warning, traffic sign recognition, intelligent driver alert, active speed limiter hill start assist, intelligent trace and ride control, rear parking sensors and a reversing camera.

The ST grade has a rear spoiler, 17-inch alloy wheels, daytime running lights, auto- LED headlights with high-beam assist and power-folding and heated door mirrors.

It takes an 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system with voice recognition, and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility, a 4.2-inch instrument cluster display and cloth seats with six-way driver and four-way passenger manual seat adjustment. 

The ST-L builds on the ST’s spec and adds LED foglights, satellite navigation, heated front seats and front parking sensors. 

The ST-L grade lifts up to 19-inch alloys, 7.0-inch instrument cluster display, six-speaker audio, electric parking brake, leather-accented steering wheel and shift knob, cloth/leather trim, rear USB port, three-level drive mode selector, ambient interior lighting, and new safety kit including moving object detection, adaptive cruise control and a surround-view monitor.

The flagship includes adaptive headlights, sticks to 19-inch alloys in Akari style, illuminated sill plates, quilted leather/Alcantara seat trim, Alcantara dashboard, knee pad and door panels, shark-fin antenna, eight-speaker Bose audio system and tyre pressure monitoring. 

Nissan NZ managing director John Manley has expressed confidence the car will set the bar for small SUVs, recalling also that its predecessor was a successful sector disruptor in its early days.

In addition to giving out information about Juke, the Auckland-domiciled brand has also identified intent to sell its special edition Navara, the N-Trek Warrior, for $74,990.