2018 LEAF S - AWP No Heated Steering Wheel!

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sintax

New member
Joined
May 16, 2018
Messages
4
I haven't seen anyone posting about this, so I'm sharing in case anyone else ends up with this problem. I purchased a 2018 S model with the all-weather package 3 weeks ago. During checkout at the dealership, I confirmed the heated seats and figured that was enough - too hot for the steering wheel to be necessary yet (but my wife will need it in the fall/winter). Last week, I got curious and decided to check out the steering wheel heater, but I had to check the manual to understand that the button is simply missing! :shock:

I called up the dealership and it took a while to get through to them that I DO have heated seats, so it's not just an All-weather-package missing kind of thing. The service department doesn't want to touch it because they don't have any experience messing with those buttons and harnesses, so they send me to sales. Sales says that there's nothing they can do because it's a factory installed option, and Nissan tells me to file a dealership complaint!! :lol:

As odd as it feels to say, I'm on the dealership's side on this one - there's nothing they could have done. I'll post updates as it develops. I haven't identified if it's just the button that's missing, if the harness is missing too, or if the steering wheel is missing the heater as well. I'm going to try to get a refund on the whole AWP, because warming my wife's fingers was the whole point of getting the AWP, and I don't see an aftermarket installation being worth the effort.

In the meantime, I've consoled myself in the knowledge that this makes my LEAF a potentially one-of-a-kind configuration!
 
I just looked up the package on the Nissan site.

The heated seats package in ALL of those cars have that advertised level of equipment, including the heated steering wheel.

They are liable to make it as advertised...

Must have been a factory mistake to not put in the switch??
 
They are liable to make it as advertised...

Must have been a factory mistake to not put in the switch??

I hope it's just the switch because that would be a real quick fix. We'll be finding that out next week.

It sounds like this issue got past the front-lines of customer support at Nissan HQ and they're pulling out all the stops to fix it. I got a few call-backs from all parties and it sounds like the local dealership is being given the parts necessary and Nissan is writing a blank check to make it happen.

So much effort for half of a $450 dollar option, but my impression is that they are more concerned about the implications for general quality control than just making sure I've got my heater. They weren't able to figure anything out from the QA paper trail at the factory, so they probably want to open it all up and see what happened.
 
sintax said:
The service department doesn't want to touch it because they don't have any experience messing with those buttons and harnesses, so they send me to sales. Sales says that there's nothing they can do because it's a factory installed option, and Nissan tells me to file a dealership complaint!!

I think transferring you to Sales would have been in-order if they had sold you "the wrong SKU" (product item). But there is no SKU for a Leaf in the configuration you have, so it is not "the wrong SKU." It's that part of the AWP is broken/missing.

Imagine if they delivered the car with nothing inside one headlight (no bulb or parabolic reflector). Would they say that this was a "sales issue"? I'd say that it's a repair item. The dealer saying "we don't mess with those buttons" is the funniest thing I ever heard. Like Microsoft support saying "Oh, we don't know about this technology thingy. Why don't you call Corporate?" :roll:
 
The dealer saying "we don't mess with those buttons" is the funniest thing I ever heard. Like Microsoft support saying "Oh, we don't know about this technology thingy. Why don't you call Corporate?" :roll:

Yeah, it was kind of a surreal experience. I do think that an aftermarket installation of a new steering wheel is a bit excessive for half of a $450 option, which was probably the service department's concern about the buttons. Their attitude changed when Nissan came in with a blank check to cover it. I actually suggested that a straight-up refund of the AWP would be more efficient, so I didn't think being transferred to sales was out of line.
 
The parts came in last week and I dropped the car off for a day. It turns out it was just the switch, nothing else was needed.
 
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