Nissan confirms stop-sale order for automatic-equipped 2023 Z

Nissan issued a stop-sale and delivery hold order for 2023 Z last month, targeting models equipped with the nine-speed Jatco automatic transmission. As of August 29, any vehicles shipping from its Tochigi Plant in Japan are being held at all stages of delivery due to a potential rollaway issue. Autoblog confirmed the status of the new Z with a Nissan spokesperson Tuesday.

The automatic 2023 Z is equipped with the same transmission that has exhibited a defect that can lead to rollaway incidents in the 2020-2022 Nissan Frontier and Titan pickup trucks. This issue has now prompted two separate recall campaigns. Information provided in the second recall notice (issued this month) indicated that the Z was equipped with transmissions from the same supplier, built with the same components. 

“Nissan initiated a quality hold on MY2023 Nissan Z automatic-transmission-equipped vehicles on August 29, 2022 while it investigates this issue. The investigation is ongoing at this time,” Nissan spokesperson Jonathan Buhler told Autoblog, confirming that this constitutes “[…] a stop sale for any AT model whether it is on a showroom floor or in any other stage.”

Per Nissan’s report to NHTSA regarding the Frontier and Titan, the issue appears to stem from loose tolerances in manufacturing of transmission components. The parking pawl (the tab that locks the vehicle in place when “park” is selected on the transmission) is reportedly getting caught on other components in the gearbox, preventing it from fully engaging. During a plant audit conducted in August, more than 10% of trucks examined (11 out of 83) exhibited issues with parking pawl engagement.

The development of a remedy is currently ongoing.

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