Nissan’s Sales Growth
Nissan appears to be making significant progress. In the third quarter of this year, the company recorded a 5.3% sales increase compared to the same period in 2024. For the full year 2025, the total growth is 1.5%, attributed to several factors. One, often overlooked, is the reliability of the current model lineup.
Comparison with Competitors
To date, General Motors has announced 36 recalls, Chrysler 46, and Ford set a record with 138 recalls. Meanwhile, Nissan (together with Infiniti) announced only nine recalls for the entire year. After visiting the company’s production facilities in Tennessee, an understanding emerged as to why this figure is so low.
Full Control Over Production
A close analysis of most recalls occurring monthly reveals that suppliers are often part of the problem. Nissan also has numerous suppliers, but the brand’s internal quality control is impressive. In Decherd, Tennessee, the company fully manufactures engines from raw materials. Steel coils arrive at the facility, and finished, fully functional engine components are produced.
From stamping to casting and part machining, Nissan controls the entire process. There are no anonymous suppliers manufacturing blocks in another state or country. Nissan views its Tennessee plant as a vertically integrated engine workshop. This is important because outsourcing requires negotiations. Nissan’s method turns tolerances into a guarantee.
Laboratory Precision
Inside the production hall, we saw something akin to a scientific laboratory. Parts are inspected with micron-level precision, each micron being 1/70th the thickness of a human hair. Even more impressive is that this happens right next to the stamping and casting areas. To ensure measurement accuracy, the laboratory has a special foundation to eliminate the influence of vibrations.
Furthermore, Nissan conducts rigorous testing of its engines. Have you noticed how many old Altimas are still on the roads? This is partly due to the efforts of technicians who test engines on dynamometers. They develop and test production engines to the point of destruction. Engines are tested with low oil levels, overheating, at maximum RPM for hours, after which they are disassembled to identify weak points.
X-Ray Room
Every day, a separate team takes parts off the assembly line for X-ray and computed tomography scanning. For this, a Nikon VOXLS 40 c 450 machine costing over $1.2 million is used. It allows engineers to look inside parts and detect potential problems before they enter the real world. It is this meticulous quality control that has helped Nissan spend most of 2025 with recalls in single digits.
Recall Details
Looking at Nissan’s nine recalls this year reveals an interesting pattern. The second-largest recall involves 173,301 vehicles and is related to a supplier in Mexico, where the affected cars were produced. Other issues include incorrect weight labeling, air bubbles in the windshield obstructing view, and malfunctioning daytime running lights.
Caution in Conclusions
Clearly, no one claims that Nissan produces perfect cars. No automaker does, and the brand’s largest recall this year affected over 440,000 vehicles due to an engine bearing issue. Notably, Nissan recently published an updated report stating that less than two percent of the affected vehicles are likely to have an actual problem. This might explain how it even managed to leave the factory.
Ultimately, Nissan seems to be doing something right at its US production facilities. Full control over the manufacturing process appears to have a significant impact on the long-term reliability of the product.
Photo by Stephen Rivers for Carscoops
This approach to quality control could be an important lesson for the entire automotive industry, especially in the context of increasing technological complexity and the globalization of supply chains. Implementing similar practices could not only reduce the number of recalls but also increase consumer trust in the brand, which is crucial in the modern competitive environment.