Hatchback/liftgate Lock Problems of Nissan Murano

The rear hatch of my 2004 Nissan Murano se has a hydraulic lift that causes the rear hatch to move to a fully opened position without any human assistance (beyond pulling on the external rear hatch lever to initiate the process). On Sunday, September 12, 2004, the rear hatch hydraulics failed on 5 separate occasions to lift the hatch open by more than a few inches. When I manually lifted the hatch to an open position, the top center edge of the hatch caught on the rear center edge of the roof, causing body damage. More importantly, now the hatch will does not open fully with any consistency, either automatically or manually due to the body damage. When the damaged rear hatch top edge catches on the rear center edge of the roof, anybody trying to exit the vehicle through the rear will have difficulty squeezing through the opening. I'm trying to get a Nissan dealership to repair the damage (surprise, surprise, they are trying to exclude coverage for repairing the damage from the vehicle warranty), but thought NHTSA should be aware of the rear hatch failure and the potential for trapping people in the rear.

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