Nissan Tries Mega-Warranty on Titan
August 15 2016 - 1:10PM
Dow Jones News
Nissan Motor Co. is rolling out the Titan of truck
warranties.
Long a laggard in the U.S. full-size truck market, the Japanese
auto maker is offering its new 2017 Titan pickup with a five-year,
100,000-mile bumper-to-bumper warranty this year—coverage that far
exceeds what rival truck makers are offering. The average
comparable truck warranty stands at around three years and 36,000
miles.
The move comes as Nissan tries to reboot its image with truck
buyers and put a dent in the Detroit car makers' long-running
dominance of the U.S. full-size truck market at time when low
gasoline prices are fueling demand for brawny pickups.
The diesel version of the redesigned Titan hit dealer lots late
last year and a higher-volume crew cab is expected to arrive this
month.
Nissan believes the new truck could easily triple or quadruple
sales of the previous-generation model, but so far, the Titan has
gotten off to a slow start.
The company has sold only 7,242 trucks in the first seven months
of the year, up 0.9% from the same year-ago period, according to
Autodata Corp. Ford Motor Co., the market leader in trucks, sold
65,657 F-series pickups in July alone.
Phil O'Connor, marketing director for Nissan, says the company
is hoping the new warranty offer will help the Titan stand out. He
stressed the offer isn't a response to the truck's sluggish sales
this year but rather a way to highlight reliability.
"What we have found is that advertising is only so effective,"
Mr. O'Connor said in an interview. A five-year, 100,000-mile
warranty offer on Nissan's cargo vans in 2014 helped it to boost
sales.
Dave Sullivan, an analyst with consulting firm AutoPacific,
Inc., said the warranty could help boost potential buyers'
confidence in the truck's quality. But Nissan is likely to face
steep challenges poaching customers from rival truck makers, he
said.
"It is an absolute bloodbath to try and get converts right at
the moment," Mr. Sullivan said.
Spokespeople for rival truck brands Ford, Chevy and Fiat
Chrysler Automobiles NV's Ram declined to comment on Nissan's
warranty offer but defended the quality and coverage of their own
trucks.
Nissan has largely sat on the sidelines of the U.S.'s
highly-profitable truck market since launching the full-size Titan
in 2004 during the last pickup-truck boom. Delays redesigning the
current Titan have left dealers struggling with an aging pickup
model that has sold poorly against the more-established brands.
While Nissan doesn't expect sales of the new Titan to match
rivals Ford and General Motors Co. in sales, it is relying on the
pickup to move it closer to meeting Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn's
goal of 10% U.S. market share in early 2017. Nissan's U.S. market
share was 8.7% in July.
Nissan, along with Japanese rivals Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda
Motor Co., have long trailed the U.S. car makers in truck sales,
putting them at a disadvantage when gasoline prices fall and demand
for full-size pickups rises.
Truck buyers tend to be fiercely loyal and winning over
defectors is even difficult for leading brands like Chevy and
Ram.
Christina Rogers contributed to this article.
Write to Jonathan Bach at jonathan.bach@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 15, 2016 12:55 ET (16:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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