The Sunday News
Lovert Mafukure
Japan has engineered some of the best looking cars of all time. Cars that tickle the right nerves with aggressive styling that will make you buy them. Nissan is no exception, Nissan designers are always busy at work trying to bring out the best and their Nissan Liberty is of no doubt a good looking family car.
Introduced in 1998, it ran its mile up to 2004. It has some niceties like the electrically controlled rear sliding doors, digital speedometer and of course — that Japanese comfort.
On that poached technology tip, we are looking at poached technology coming in with grey imports. It may not be worthwhile for the users in Africa as it is not yet sustainable. Basically its technology that’s a bit problematic and not really backed up by local dealers and it makes us miss our good old cars which you could fix in your sleep. Now, back to the Nissan Liberty — is it a good buy or its goodbye?
The Nissan Liberty came with the SR20 engine and later on it was replaced by the QR20. The SR20 is better because it is the engine that has stood the test of time. It can either be a DE or DET. The DE simply means Dual Overhead Camshaft and the E is for electronic fuel injection.
The DET on the other hand is the same but the T means that it is turbo-charged and it should be a bit of fun. The SR20 engine has proven itself to be reliable over the years and the DET has been used in sports cars like the Pulser GTir and the Silvia.
These are some of the most iconic sports cars to come out of Japan.
The QR20 motor replaced the SR20 on later models but it has not proven itself as reliable as the SR20. It became more advanced and in most cases that is the problem with modern automotive technology, everything has become more advanced, less reliable and lacks simplicity.
The end result is more problems. Much of it however, is the disadvantage of grey imports. When all is put together modern technology makes for more efficient engines with fewer emissions that are harmful to the environment.
The Liberty has a FWD setup with 4WD options. The FWD liberty is driven by a CVT transmission — this is the point where you might want to start walking away from the Liberty but if you get the 4WD, you get the four-speed automatic transmission. It’s kind of funny that Nissan knew from the start that the CVTs cannot handle that much strain that a 4WD setup brings. If you get the 4WD you are better off because it’s the Automatic and not the CVT.
The CVT is good and offers better fuel economy and smoother acceleration but for reasons better for your pockets, you are better off without it. CVTs are totally different from automatics and are more expensive to service. Others confuse them for automatics and service them with Automatic transmission fluid which ultimately spells disaster.
The problem with this car is that when the continuously variable transmission (CVT) decides to give up the ghost, it plays an unpleasant and un-thrilling horror movie. The most common problem being that after a while it goes into limp mode when hot and consequently loses power. Not much can be done to it when it starts acting shady like this except for replacement or repair, the latter is quite a long short considering we are in Africa and again this is poached technology most of us here are still guessing and trying to find our way around it. Replacement is usually the most feasible route.
Considering that CVT technology was significantly new in the early 2000s. These CVTs were and still are very sensitive and with slight mistreatment, they malfunction. Nissan recommends the use of Genuine Nissan CVT Fluid for their CVT gearboxes — but again these are grey imports and you will not find this fluid by your local Nissan dealership and eventually you use generic oils.
Apart from the QR20 being a weaker engine and the CVT transmission being less reliable than the automatic. The Nissan Liberty is a good buy but if you do get the model with the QR20 and the CVT then it may be a goodbye because one day you may be singing — “I knew you were trouble when you rocked in’’. Get the 4wd automatic and you will be okay. Till Next Time — Keep it JDM!
CVT — Continuously variable transmission
FWD – Front wheel drive
4WD – Four wheel Drive
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