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Barbadian Nissan pickup owners are being assured the model recently recalled by the Japanese company will not affect them, once they bought their vehicle through Courtesy Garage, the established local Nissan dealership here.
Regional Product Manager of Courtesy Garage, Samuel Gaston told CBC News that the Nissan Frontiers and Titans identified as having a defect with safe parking earlier this week in the United States are not likely in Barbados because Nissan vehicles that they import for the local market tend to be manufactured in different countries to the ones typically sold in the United States.
“The vehicles that are in the U.S., there is no direct connection with the vehicles that we get in the Caribbean, except for in some cases the names. They used different names for different markets before, now they are standardising the names; they’re using Frontier in Barbados, they’re using Frontier in the States, but it’s a different product,” Gaston said today..
“They look the same in terms of physical structure, but vehicles are not made the same place and U.S. laws and stipulations for vehicles going into the U.S. don’t apply to our region,” he added.
While the Nissan statement did not limit the recall to a particular country, it said the pickup trucks could roll away because the transmission parking pawl, which prevents the vehicles from moving, may not engage when the trucks are in park, and owners ought to use their parking brake every time they park.
The statement from the vehicle brand confirmed that the Nissan Frontiers and Titans from to 2023 were the models affected by the recall and 203,223 were sold.
Gaston explained: “Those pickups that they are talking about are made in Mexico and the U.S., which are left-hand-drive vehicle countries, so our vehicles don’t come from there. Our vehicles come from Thailand. So, there is no similarity whatsoever except for the name on the vehicle.
“A couple of people called because we didn’t know anything about the thing. I know if it had anything to do with us we would’ve been contacted before. So, when I contacted the area manager for this section he clarified that, ‘No’.”
However, he said that people who have imported those Nissan pickup trucks individually, for example, after sourcing them from different countries online, and not through Courtesy Garage, they ought to verify whether their vehicles may be affected. (SNR)
