Nissan to recall 9,000 units of Micra, Sunny

The recall will cover cars manufactured between 2008 and 2012 that use safety airbags made by its supplier Takata. Photo: S. Muralidhar

Japanese auto major Nissan has announced that it would recall about 9,000 units of India-built compact car Micra and mid-size sedan Sunny to fix a faulty airbag. While the exercise is part of a global recall, this is fourth time that Nissan is facing issues in its India-made cars.

The latest recall will cover Micra and Sunny models, manufactured between 2008 and 2012, that use safety airbags made by its supplier Takata.

“Nissan is conducting a voluntary safety recall campaign on the certain Nissan models for Note, March/Micra, Sunny/Almera/Versa, Patrol and Cube, which are affected by a driver airbag concern that Takata reported to Nissan. Nissan plans to begin notifying customers soon. Nissan dealers will replace the driver airbag inflator with a correctly manufactured part at no cost to the customers for parts or labour,” said a company statement. Nissan had earlier faced issues in its models and announced recalls.

In May 2013, it recalled 22,188 units of Micra and Sunny to replace a faulty braking system. In February 2012, Nissan recalled 9,600 units of India-built Micra cars as part of the global recall of about 2.5 lakh units over faulty sensor.

Also during end 2010, Nissan had to carry out some changes in Micra cars produced for European markets, due to some technical issues relating to noise levels.

Nissan has been trying hard to boost its sales in the Indian market.

Even its latest small car Datsun failed to bring any big fortunes for the company.

However, after revamped dealer business, which was earlier outsourced, the company has aggressively been working on marketing strategies to increase sales.

During the first half of this fiscal, the company’s total passenger vehicle (PV) sales stood at 25,739 units, up 109 per cent when compared with a year-ago period.

Its share is just two per cent in the Indian PV market.

But, Nissan is the third largest exporter of cars from India with a share of 18 per cent in total PV exports. It exported over 55,500 units of Oragadam-built vehicles to various countries during H1.