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It’s not just Hyundai and Kia that have a program that tunes the steering and suspension of its models to suit Australian tastes.
Nissan Australia also makes tweaks to the global tune of its models to ensure that they are better suited to Australia’s unique - and often challenging - road conditions.
The two Korean brands conduct extensive testing and engineering work in Australia to get a more comfortable ride than the same model that might be offered with a European or Korean tune elsewhere.
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Nissan Australia managing director Adam Paterson told CarsGuide that the company does ensure its models are tailored to local roads and environments before they go on sale.
“We do have engineers who come from Japan and engineers from production locations globally that come and do road testing with our local quality team,” he said. “And that happens often throughout vehicle development programs as well as once the cars are in market to ensure quality is as expected and planned.
“So those are regular operations that continue and while vehicles are similar to those sold in other markets there’s a unique Australian spec to some of them.
“There are unique requirements for the Australian road conditions versus other parts of the world globally. So the suspension tuning of a Pathfinder is not exactly the same as one that's sold in the US market.”
Mr Paterson further highlighted the work done on the Navara ute over and above what’s offered to its home manufacturing market of Thailand.
“Pathfinder is one of our most recent models, but that work has been done on the suspension tuning for Navara, even though it's built in Thailand, it’s very different than the vehicle that goes on the road in Thailand. And also very different than the vehicle that goes on the road in South Africa, that’s built at the South African assembly plant.”
Speaking at the new-generation Qashqai’s media launch, Nissan Australia general manager of corporate communications, Karla Leach said the new small SUV also came in for some local tuning, but the process wasn’t without its challenges this time.
“Qashqai had significant testing done but it was done under camouflage. It was during COVID. There were some challenges with the Japanese engineers getting in between states and things like that. I think it's quite an extensive process. It's done regularly before any vehicle launches in Australia from a Nissan perspective.”
A small team of Nissan Australia engineers, based in Melbourne, work in parallel with engineers from the factory to evaluate vehicles in various road and weather conditions. The team also conducts evaluations on Nissan's suite of genuine accessories for its models.
Some of the most recent local market testing has been for Nissan’s ProPilot system that combines adaptive cruise control with steering and lane keep assist tech for semi-autonomous driving.
Nissan used to have a much more significant presence in Australia, manufacturing vehicles like the Pulsar, Pintara and Skyline at its Clayton factory in Melbourne’s south-east until 1992. It still has a casting plant in Melbourne that makes parts for the Leaf and other global models.
