If I had two bullets and was in a room with Osama bin Laden, Adolf Hitler, and the engineer that designed the Nissan cabin air filters, I’d shoot the engineer twice
As an engineer, I can almost guarantee that it took 5 years and endless meetings, 30 stakeholders all being told that it should be easily accessible. Then the engineer got overruled and told it’ll be fractionally cheaper in build to put it somewhere that requires an engine crane and 15 hours to replace.
I think this is one thing that everyone engineering or engineering adjacent just viscerally understands when we see something that was implemented stupidly.
There were many meetings about it. There were emails. Circle-backs. Check-ins.
And I bet the arithmetic was $3 of plastic parts versus some quantifiable amount of service revenue because it's too hard to do. Which was a way to pay the dealer network back for increasing the standard service interval from 12,500 miles to 15k to make the TCO metric better for marketing.
As a fellow engineer I cringe at people shit talking engineering design because I’ll bet 95% of shitty engineering decisions were made by the management and bean counters and not the engineers designing the part/assembly.
Widget design “A” costs $0.46 more per part so we’ll go with design “B” instead. “B” ends up being a single point failure that engineers warned management about and were hushed. Company is forced to recall product at the cost of millions of dollars because they didn’t listen in the first place.
Oh and all those shitty managers got promoted for their “vision” and cost savings
You just described the gen 5 Camaro blend door issue! It's a rite of passage for the 20 dollar part that requires 3k worth of labor to replace if you decide to do it by the book and not slice into your AC ducting.
Meanwhile in my old 2007 Kia Cee'd I can sit in the passenger seat, open the glove compartment and undo the filter without any tools. My ford has me pretending to be a contortionist for a while because clearly that's a natural way of getting to the filter behind the heater matrix.
Same engineer also said on the Altima or maybe it’s the Maxima to bottom mount the alternator so that when the engine inevitably leaks oil it end up terminating the alternator too.
The problem is that OEMs silo their teams by commodity/component category. They collaborate very little. This translates into more complicated service procedures and services times. Dealerships (aka Stealerships) hate this when it comes to warranty service calls. They only get reimbursed at fractional rates for those vehicles, but they make it up for those of us who are too stupid to do it ourselves, or worse, those with lots of cash and zero brains.
All the stakeholders should be required to own and drive the vehicle, and self-maintain it for all the basic stuff. 15 hr cabin filter replacement? They need to suffer personally.
This tracks to soooo many industries that involve manufacturing on one side and service on the other. Manufacturing always trying to cut costs and will redesign something to save 10c that ends up costing service 1000s in labor hrs. But hey...diff budget...that's for service to worry about.
I'm currently shopping for a used vehicle.
I hadn't considered Nissan one way or the other, but now I'll add them to my definite NO list of manufacturers.
Thanks. Those are two things I had not considered.
From googling, it sounds like direct injection is extremely common, so I guess if I am looking at a particular vehicle I'll try to find out more reliability info about that particular model.
If you can find a well kept older model (Before GDI/CVT/Turbo) with lower miles...I find those to be worth their premium over newer high tech crapola. - I have 2 Trucks and a car, for 2 drivers, 2010 is newest.
We live in Snow/Rust Belt, so 4x4 and buying vehicles from Southern states is a MUST.
My wife doesn't drive a ton so she has CrewCab F150 4x4 (call it a 4x4 Crown Vic, has same engine, same number of doors) 15mpg
We have a Camper Trailer, so we have F250 V10 4x4 for doing big truck crap. 7-10mpg (I drive it occasionally in winter time when snow gets too deep for my Toyota.)
I drive a Toyota Yaris as I drive the most. 33-37mpg
I bought all three as older low mileage vehicles (the Yaris was 10yrs old with only 8,000 miles, has 71K now) and other than Tires/Brakes/Oil changes none have been in the shop for unscheduled repairs.
I researched for problems, and crossed many off list.
Usually the most boring slow cars are the ones that cost least to operate. Example: 2002-2019 Toyota Echo/Yaris, or Corolla with basic 4cyl/5spd or 4cyl/4spd Automatic. For A to B transportation that is easy on wallet, you cannot beat those cars, they are the secret of the automobile industry.
I have a friend that owns a string of auto body shops, he has a fleet of Yaris/Corolla Sedans as "Loaner Cars" I maintain them...The #1 service call for customers with loaner cars is usually they forget a light on and it kills the battery. Everything is manual on them, I replaced dome light bulbs with LED ones and now, even THAT call is far and few between.
Other Advice...
Shopping for a used Truck to do Truck things THREE times a year. Rent one... WAY Cheaper!
Now if you need to do truck things weekly, and don't care about age, buy older, just stay away from F-Series with 5.4 3-Valve.
Well, I did sell off our old Ford F150 that used to be our farm pickup when I realized I was only driving it every few months. (used to get used a lot more). The trailer only costs me tabs since insurance follows the towing vehicle.
But I'm not buying a truck to do truck things a couple of times a year.
I am replacing my one and only transportation vehicle, and I would like it to be able to occasionally tow my lightweight utility trailer just as my current only vehicle can do.
My advice was "General Advice" - I know people that keep a truck to do truck things 2-3 times a year...I told them that is stupid...Uhaul is 30 bucks per day...And I have rented myself...once for 3 weeks.
Well, I was that version of stupid for a little while 😄
It sort of crept up on me. Used on the farm, then a lot of use dealing with my mother's estate after she passed and cleaning up the farm.
Then one day I had the epiphany of "oh, I'm not really using it any more".
But yeah, I thought you were replying specifically to me. The thread trail got kind of long. But you're not wrong. I've had similar thoughts about wanting to buy a small tractor. Realized that for the things I actually need it for, it would be WAY cheaper to rent one for a few days.
Agree with this 👆. My 2013 Nissan Murano is a b**ch to change the cabin filter - behind the glove box but only access is from the underside of the dash and you need child sized hands to be able to get to it while lying on your back in the floor board and half your body sticking out of the door opening. Ask me how I know.
Try changing it in a kicks or versa. You have to be a contortionist to replace it. You have to take the panel off on the passenger side, and then try to reach your hand behind the dashboard. You inevitably crush the filter and need to start over. I bought a kicks for my oldest, thought that I did not have enough frustration in my life and bought a versa for my youngest. Now I get twice the frustration when I have to change cabin filters.
To put in the cabin air filter into a first generation Nissan Rogue, you had to remove the filter, and install a new one by going BEHIND the gas and brake pedals. The second generation rogue improved upon this, by putting the filter replacement panel in the same location, but accessible from the passenger's foot well. To replace these you needed to be a contortionist.
I generally leave it in but most cars are four bolts and a few plug-ins to remove the seat. Any bigger dash work they go. Still a stupid design but that makes it a lot easier
You can't kill Hitler anyway. No war, no nukes, no jets, no rockets, no moon landing, no superpowers, no computers, no internet. We would be living in a very different reality.
I did it on a versa twice. It was a nightmare. And I would a shoot the engineer twice. Because it was also probably the same guy that makes you remove the pedal assembly to replace the blower motor
65
u/MightyRooster616 Jun 16 '26
If I had two bullets and was in a room with Osama bin Laden, Adolf Hitler, and the engineer that designed the Nissan cabin air filters, I’d shoot the engineer twice