If you’ve just purchased a Nissan’s newest car model, the Altima or Infiniti recently, you’ve gotta handle your lovely car’s new shinny I-Key with care, especially keeping it away from your cell phone. Else, I’m afraid that you’d end up of having to call a cab, even though your new shiny car just parked right in front of you but you failed to unlock its door to get in.
According to Nissan North America, it’s the best that you could keep your cell phone at least 1-inch away from the I-Key. As putting the cell phone and your I-Key close together, will cause the keys to be erased, which in return that it’ll fail to unlock or start your car. The culprits are the incoming and outgoing calls, which have the potential to alter the electronic code within the I-Key. Of course, this will happen only to small percentage of the total sold. And a version that has the glitches fixed will be expected in this fall and you can get a replacement from nearest Nissan dealers.
via [Engadget]
May 29th, 2007 at 8:05 pm
I would have thought a big company like Nissan would have already tested for this sort of thing.
– GoldCoaster
September 18th, 2007 at 2:28 pm
Nope they didn’t test and sent a letter saying they would ship new keys in the fall of 2007. I asked my dealer today when would I get my new key. They asked if it was messed up by a call and I said no and they said we can replace it for $18. I said no thank you I will call tomorrow and tell you it is broken, his response was that they need to test it and if it is not defective they will not replace it. So sorry for the trouble they will not replace them. Great news for all us women that have only one pocket in our tiny purses….no way to guarentee they are always an inch away. Thanks Nissan, you suck, you should replace all the keys defective or not.
September 24th, 2007 at 10:09 am
Yes, this happened to my family last night. I will NEVER buy a Nissan now after this and I am spreading the word. My car is stuck on the driveway and I expect a new key from Nissan. You can bet I will tell everyone I know about the poor manufacturing and customer service I received!!
January 3rd, 2008 at 7:10 pm
this is not ture because i just got a brand new nissan altima and i always have mykey next to my phone and nothing has ever gone wrong. anyways i will take this in consiterate.
April 7th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Just to clear some things up.
1. Nissan is replacing ALL keys made during the defective batch, whether it has broken or not. The dealer should be cooperative and be able to tell you based on your VIN whether your key needs replacement. (all first batch keys need replacement)
2. By the time this story hit, Nissan had already replaced all the keys for the cars in the dealer, and this does not effect any new Nissan cars. It’s safe to assume that only cars purchased before summer of 2007 are effected by this.
Just wanted to clear that up so people don’t freak. Yes, Nissan messed up. Yes, for those who got stuck out of their car, it sucks. Yes, Nissan acted proactively and properly when they learned about the issue. But, I don’t think it’s fair to completely rule out Nissan based on this.
I’m just worried about what happens if the battery in the key dies? They should have included a regular key in this case. Otherwise you’re locked out and cant drive.
April 17th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Re the key battery dying and leaving you stranded … should be no problem on the newest Altimas. There’s a door key integrated into the key you can use to open the car, and then you can plug the key into a slot in the dash and start the car as always, even if the key batteries are dead.
My dealer told me the batteries should last two years in heavy use.
More of a concern, though not really Nissan’s fault, is losing your key. Since it never leaves your pocket or purse or whatever, it’s easy to simply forget about it. I’ve already got one missing key. The replacement is only $30, not too bad, but $75 to reprogram all your keys to a new code. That’s a rip off. I’ll bet Nissan is making a bundle while people retrain themselves to always account for the key you don’t need to handle.
Any body out there know if we can reprogram the keys ourself?
November 6th, 2008 at 6:32 am
[...] who’s got a digital camera or cellphone and managed to take a close-distant shot of your keys, they can then send the photographs to the teleduplication system to copy [...]
December 18th, 2010 at 1:30 am
I have a Altima. I LOVE It, other then it sits SO low!!! But, one night at 4 in the moring I went out to start it, and when I started it the car went crazy! The headlights were going on and off the wipers were the radio was going throught channels, the windows were going up and dow, truck was popping open, the locks were going off and on! I called Nissan and told them to get the truck down here to tow, they were here 4 HOURS later! The car finaly went dead after 2 hours, they show up and say nothing is wrong with it, so we jump it and it’s fine! One week later I was at the mall with some friends and a friend had a Iphone, and the Iphone screwed with it again! The car freaked in the parking lot, I just had it towed, I took the car to the dealer they gave me a brand new one! A year newer and it’s working FINE! Thanks NIssan!