Your still missing the point the AVERAGE buyer would have the vehucle for about 4 years than change over even if you planned for a 3% failure rate within that and replace the engine under warranty you would still be ahead in terms of R&D costs
Modern market wants alsmost sedan like comfort and economy out of their utes so that is what they are given. As long as the engine lasts say 250,000 which would take the once again AVERAGE punter 10 years to get to the vehicle has operated within its design purpose
but i'm not the average buyer. i plan on keeping mine well beyond the 4 year mark you have specified.
and so, based on this, i chose my vehicle with engine considerations (size, torque, etc) taken into account.
i get better fuel economy out of my 5-cylinder 3.2L than i did out of my 2.4L 4-cylinder, with about the same workload.
i'm sure everyone in this discussion understands the nature of the decision from nissan's point of view (as you have pointed out), but that doesn't change the fact that every single usage case is different, and based on this, why wouldn't you select a vehicle with an engine that supports everything you want to do, without having to worry about the engine working its guts out for a fair portion of that time?
and, based on this, why wouldn't nissan provide a motor (that they already have, mind you - link below) and give consumers the best of both worlds?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V9X_Enginemy opinion, once again...
