No Launch Control for 2010+ GTR

[Atlblkz06]

It appears that GT-R owners won't have to worry about voiding their warranties if they use Launch Control -- for the 2010 model year, the car won't come with the feature. Inside Line is quoting a Nissan exec as saying "It's gone. We just don't want to deal with the warranty nightmare anymore. It'll make the 2009 GT-R really special. It'll be the only R35 with launch control."

We've previously reported cases where Nissan GT-R owners have brought their cars to the dealership with transmission trouble only to be told their warranties won't cover it. It turns out that disabling the car's VDC (Vehicle Dynamic Control) too often, in order to use the Launch Control function, meant Nissan wasn't covering the repairs. The cost to fix/replace the transmission is only $20,000, so you can imagine owners weren't too upset. Apparently the GT-R owner's manual states that damage to the transmission is not covered if it is proven to be the result of using Launch Control with the VDC turned off. In fact, the manual states that the only reason you should turn off VDC is to "rock" the vehicle when stuck in mud or snow. We await Nissan's revised performance numbers.

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/20/n...rom-2010-gt-r/


I guess this makes the 2009 pretty unique - congrats to the folks that bought em!

[Revmaynard]

What times do those things run with and with out the VDC?

[JITB]

thats cool..dont think it will hurt the track times too much... but hard launching it manually, will still break it..eventually i suppose(just like any other car). So it still wont matter....lol

[OnURleft]

What a terrible and lazy company. Beef the drivetrain up you pile of pussies. You don't see Porsche and BMW claiming "oh we can't deal with the transmission breaks and blah blah blah," they encourage their customers to use it and it doesn't void the warranty.

[JITB]

What a terrible and lazy company. Beef the drivetrain up you pile of pussies. You don't see Porsche and BMW claiming "oh we can't deal with the transmission breaks and blah blah blah," they encourage their customers to use it and it doesn't void the warranty.

man ive heard that porsche just tarted working on their own transmissions, recently. All they used to do is replace them... If you take ANY car otu and hard launch it over and over it will cause damage. its physics..and it cant be stopped..

[1SLWPOS]

How many people need to launch there cars.......I mean unless you are drag racing your car honstly whats the point unless you are trying to race Thacker....

[Atlblkz06]

I think it'll hurt the 1/4 mile times but not the track times.

You can still manual launch-control it and hit 11.6, but the general public will probably drop to ~11.8 or so. We'll see what Nissan says.

[Tracy]

I'd be pissed if I bought the first round only to find out that the new model won't have the same issues as I have.

[87 Turbo II]

I'd be pissed if I bought the first round only to find out that the new model won't have the same issues as I have.

I would expect it buying the first wave of anything. cars, iPods, computers, TVs, the first of everything is always the test mule. If you buy first, you really can't complain when they fix stuff, just be glad they heard you out when you started to complain and did something about it. No amount of controlled R&D will prove as many flaws as customers using the objects in practice with multiple independent variables.

[Tracy]

I would expect it buying the first wave of anything. cars, iPods, computers, TVs, the first of everything is always the test mule. If you buy first, you really can't complain when they fix stuff, just be glad they heard you out when you started to complain and did something about it. No amount of controlled R&D will prove as many flaws as customers using the objects in practice with multiple independent variables.

You can do all the complaining you want when you spend good money for an expensive product. Just my It's not really a good idea, IMO, to do any R&D on your customers dime. Just imagine if our shop said, "We have this new bad ass turbo like none you have ever seen. It's going to kick all of the other turbo's asses! AND it's going to cost you $5k, but if you want to buy it first you will have to pay about MSRP to be first." Then our customers get it and it makes no power or breaks when you boost. Do you honestly think we could just say, "Oh well. It was a brand new product, screw all of you who bought it first. You should have known there would be some issues and that's your bad. It says right in the fine print that the turbo was not really meant to boost. But no worries, thanks to all of your complaints, we're going to improve it for the next round of buyers. It will actually boost this time. You, on the other hand, are fucked and we aren't going to warranty it."

I think we might be in a whole lot of trouble.

Just my take on it.

[Kaiser]

You can do all the complaining you want when you spend good money for an expensive product. Just my It's not really a good idea, IMO, to do any R&D on your customers dime. Just imagine if our shop said, "We have this new bad ass turbo like none you have ever seen. It's going to kick all of the other turbo's asses! AND it's going to cost you $5k, but if you want to buy it first you will have to pay about MSRP to be first." Then our customers get it and it makes no power or breaks when you boost. Do you honestly think we could just say, "Oh well. It was a brand new product, screw all of you who bought it first. You should have known there would be some issues and that's your bad. It says right in the fine print that the turbo was not really meant to boost. But no worries, thanks to all of your complaints, we're going to improve it for the next round of buyers. It will actually boost this time. You, on the other hand, are fucked and we aren't going to warranty it."

I think we might be in a whole lot of trouble.

Just my take on it.

Your take on it, takes things to the bizarre far end of the logic-train involved here. Nissan obviously doesn't feel the transmission is bad, instead they feel that idiot users who feel the need to flap their e-peens in the launch-control induced winds don't deserve to have their transmissions replaced and thus they're simply going to remove the feature altogether, which is the right move in my book, it should never have been there to begin with (But hey, then people would bitch about not having it, you never win do you?).

Second: Hard launching it might break the trans, but because the VDC won't have been repeatedly disabled (Especially during the break-in period of the engine and trans) it will still be covered.

Third: Almost every car in existence has gone through mid-production changes to fix problems. Early NA Miatas had shortnose cranks, later ones had longnose cranks for example. If you were one of the first to buy a Miata, how pissed would you have been to find out that they fixed the problem later? Well, that's what you get, isn't it?

[EJ25RUN]

I'm all for this.

Launch Control = talentless driver. All that is left is that computer 4wd turning into a real man's setup.

[OneSlow5pt0]

yep,still gotta put a real gearbox in it.........and i serious doubt these cars can run mid 11s,thiers no way a GTR should beat a Z06 in 1/4

[Atlblkz06]

yep,still gotta put a real gearbox in it.........and i serious doubt these cars can run mid 11s,thiers no way a GTR should beat a Z06 in 1/4

Bone stock with GTR using LC or with an excellent launch:

The GTR will leave the Z initially but in the end the Z should win by a small margin consistently. From a roll its a no contest, the Z will win because of power/weight ratio - traction is no longer int he equation.

A mediocre driver can lose to a GTR in a Z, AWD and a computer shifting for you has its benefits!

[Tracy]

Your take on it, takes things to the bizarre far end of the logic-train involved here. Nissan obviously doesn't feel the transmission is bad, instead they feel that idiot users who feel the need to flap their e-peens in the launch-control induced winds don't deserve to have their transmissions replaced and thus they're simply going to remove the feature altogether, which is the right move in my book, it should never have been there to begin with (But hey, then people would bitch about not having it, you never win do you?).

Second: Hard launching it might break the trans, but because the VDC won't have been repeatedly disabled (Especially during the break-in period of the engine and trans) it will still be covered.

Third: Almost every car in existence has gone through mid-production changes to fix problems. Early NA Miatas had shortnose cranks, later ones had longnose cranks for example. If you were one of the first to buy a Miata, how pissed would you have been to find out that they fixed the problem later? Well, that's what you get, isn't it?

I don't really care about the details of the mechanism or the history of auto production, to be honest. That's taking it way to deep for me. I almost care about the overall point, which is, IMO: It's not cool to R&D on the publics dime especially on a car that costs that much. If they are going to make those changes, then they should grandfather the first round of buyers and their warranties. If that's what they are doing and I missed it...then silly me and I am sorry. Otherwise, Like I said – I'd be pissed and that is only my 2 cents. So, don't take it too seriously. I'm not.

[87 Turbo II]

I don't really care about the details of the mechanism or the history of auto production, to be honest. That's taking it way to deep for me. I almost care about the overall point, which is, IMO: It's not cool to R&D on the publics dime especially on a car that costs that much. If they are going to make those changes, then they should grandfather the first round of buyers and their warranties. If that's what they are doing and I missed it...then silly me and I am sorry. Otherwise, Like I said – I'd be pissed and that is only my 2 cents. So, don't take it too seriously. I'm not.

Well, they were also told not to turn VDC off, so I still find it hard to complain. Also, the R&D isn't planned to be on he customers dime, things just show up and need fixing as things go along. It's not like htey released the GTR and said "now let's wait to see what problems arise", they already nailed as many as they could forsee, and now they're tackling the ones they couldn't forsee. Recalls are one thing to pay back for a seriously faulty part, but the customers screwed themselves when they decided to drive it hard using the computer's skills.