Nisssan Elgrand E52, a Cracking car

 As there is so little known about the E52 Elgrand models, I thought it best to come clean and admit to some of the issues that have come up, this post is all about cracks.

One of the disappointing points when I first picked my car up from Southampton docks is that I noticed a crack in the dashboard.  Its very difficult to see these in pictures and so when I bought the car it was not noticeable from the pics sent by the garage in Japan.

I have conducted a little bit of a survey and it seems that this is a common issue rather than just my car.  On one of the E52 Facebook groups when I asked about cracks, approx 50% of the replies said that they also have the same or similar cracks in there car.  Seems odd!

Anyway, it seems that the plastics used in the dashboard are prone to cracking in the hot sun, so if you buy a good quality car from Japan there is a high chance of cracks as it would of been driven in the warm areas. (Buy one from the snowy cold region and you are likely to have rust!)

The most common crack seems to be one down the side of the passenger airbag which you can see below.  Other smaller cracks also appear around the air vents, and others seem to of reported bigger cracks than the ones I have.



I did ask a local car trimmer about the cracks and he wasn't keen to 'repair' them. He thought you would see the repair and also did not want to work near an airbag in case of a future problem with it.

Some owners have purchased a dashboard mat/cover especially those in Australia where the cars continue to be in the hot sunshine.  Personally I do not like the look of the mats and luckily in the UK we do not have the extreme heat that others get, so I am going to just put up with the cracks.  One other option is to put some interesting sticker on it, perhaps a Zip, or a stitched scar.😉

Do comment and include pictures if you have the same issue, and if you have come up with interesting solutions.👍

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