A 2013 Nissan Pathfinder, donated by Nissan USA, has joined Flint Hill Technical College’s (FHTC) now five-car fleet of vehicles within the Automotive Technology program.
The Pathfinder will be used by faculty and students within the program to learn about vehicle repair and maintenance. Robert Sieberns, Automotive Technology Instructor, said that the vehicle will be purposely “bugged” so that students can learn to identify problems within vehicles.
“The idea is that the students are going to have to diagnose it and find the problem,” Sieberns said. “This is owned by the school. We can be a little more free to do that with a donated vehicle then someone’s personal vehicle.”
Jim Dietz, the Fixed Operations Manager at Nissan USA in Kansas City, remembered Sieberns from time spent as friends at Pittsburg State University. Nissan North America had the pathfinder at a Wichita location, and Dietz offered the car as a donation to Sieberns.
Dietz has aided in donating two other vehicles to technical colleges across his coverage area over the last five years. Donating a newer vehicle, like the Pathfinder, lets automotive technology students work with updated technology systems.
“One of the things that Nissan tries to do is when we’ve got the opportunity to provide a vehicle to a technical school for students to learn, a lot of times they’ve got older vehicles that they’re working on,” Dietz said. “This helps provide a newer vehicle with newer technologies.”
Brett Oelke, a first-year Automotive Technology student, operates on vehicles daily in the FHTC workshop. The hands-on experience is meant for him to handle problems that might be found in a dealership or mechanical shop.
“I’m getting the experience that I need for when I step into the shop and actually apply for the job,” Oelke said. “I have the experience already at hand. That’s where the Nissan will come in handy as well, whether that’s working at Nissan dealerships or just the factors of finding electrical or mechanical problems on these newer vehicles.”
The end goal, according to Dietz, is to ensure that technicians are knowledgeable and experienced with vehicles that come through dealerships.
“It’s all about customer satisfaction, when it’s said and done and having the technician know our vehicle better than any other vehicle,” Dietz said. “It helps the vehicle get repaired quickly, diagnosed quickly, and ultimately in the end, the consumer is who benefits from it because their vehicle gets back to them quicker.”
