You know how it is in the car business.  You are always on the lookout for another brand that’s topping you, never content to rest on your laurels, always aware that it’s a dog eat dog world.
   
And Nissan has certainly proved it, beating Volvo by better than 36 to one.
   
In recalls, that is.
   
Nissan is recalling 650,000 Altimas and Sentras built over a sold in the United States for a period of four years with a four cylinder engine that the company now says may simply stop running.  According to Automotive News, the vehicle has a defective crankshaft position sensor.  This sensor tells the engine computer where the crankshaft is in its rotation.  If it cannot read that sensor, engine computers will not fire the engine, as the computer has no way of knowing what pistons are on the compression stroke.
   
When the Nissan sensor gets too hot, it stops sending signals.
   
Nissan will notify owners of the recall in early December.
   
Of course, some of them already know.
   
It is, however, interesting to note that there are two possibilities here: either it took Nissan five years to figure out that they had a problem or it took them five years to admit to it.
   
Either way, it appears that quality is not Job One at Nissan.
   
But they sure did beat Volvo.
   
Volvo is only recalling 18,000 cars, all current model vehicles, due to a side airbag problem.
   
They didn’t wait five years to issue the recall, either.