Fire Hazard from Garmin Nuvi Prompts Recalls from Suzuki and Nissan

After Garmin announced a voluntary recall of 1.25 million units of its popular Nuvi GPS system at the end of August amidst concerns that the batteries could overheat and catch fire, Suzuki and Nissan followed with a recall on several vehicles equipped with the affected Garmin Nuvi navigation systems including the 750, 760, or 765 models for the same reason.

The recalled Garmin units can be found on certain Suzuki vehicles including the 2008-2010MY SX4 crossovers, 2010MY Grand Vitara SUVs, and 2009-2010MY Equator vehicles, and the 2008-2010MY Nissan Altima, Frontier, Pahtfinder, Rogue, Sentra, Versa and Xterra vehicles.

In both cases, the automakers will notify owners of the affected models, and the repairs will be performed by Garmin technicians who will replace the battery and insert a spacer on top of the battery free of charge.

More than 240,000 Nissan Pathfinders, Frontiers and XTerras Recalled

Today, the National National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that Nissan is recalling 242,720 MY2005-2009 Pathfinder, Frontier and XTerra vehicles sold in certain States of the country (see details after the jump) which use heavy concentrations of road salt in the winter. A mixture of snow/water and salt can enter into the vehicle's front crash zone sensor (CZS) housing causing it to rust. If this occurs, then there could be a signal interruption resulting in the non-deployment of the driver and passenger front air bags in the event of a crash.

Nissan said that the vehicles affected were originally sold in or, are currently registered in the States of Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and the District Of Columbia.

Nissan said that dealers will replace the front CZS with a redesigned sensor free of cost while owners in the other states will receive extended warranty coverage for the sensor to 10 years. These owners will be notified of the warranty extension by mail and will receive a sticker to place in their warranty booklet explaining the extended warranty coverage.