ONTARIO, Calif. -

For the second time this year, Nissan North America unveiled a new comprehensive training center for franchise dealer service personnel.

The opening of the new Ontario Training Center — located about 40 miles east of Los Angeles — is geared to provide technician product training on both Nissan and Infiniti products for service center personnel at dealerships located in southern California, Arizona, Nevada and parts of Utah.

The Ontario facility is one of two new technical centers Nissan opened in the Western United States this year, joining another facility in Livermore, Calif. 

Located in the Inland Empire region of southern California, the automaker explained this newest center is located centrally between Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego. Ontario Airport is in proximity to the new center, for what the OEM said should allow for easy and relatively quick access from key neighboring markets, like Las Vegas and the Phoenix/Tucson area.

Covering nearly 27,000 square feet of operational area, Nissan highlighted this new center includes multiple classrooms and component repair area, a vehicle demonstration area featuring wheel service and alignment areas, 25 service bays and 14 vehicle lifts.

In addition, the automaker plans to conduct courses on core curriculum at the center, covering topics such as heating and cooling systems, chassis integrity, on-board diagnostics and emissions. Other meetings covering related sales and fixed operations training are to be held at this facility, too.

The company pointed out a total of nine other centers support Nissan and Infiniti’s total of more than 1,300 retail locations and 9,000 technicians nationwide.

An open house ceremony was hosted by Mark Zinger, Nissan’s director of customer loyalty and training, along with Ontario mayor Paul Leon. Brian Carolin, the automaker’s senior vice president of sales and marketing, also was joined by Ontario city council members and chamber of commerce representatives.

Management and staff from 93 Nissan and 25 Infiniti dealerships in the Southwest also participated in the facility’s grand opening.

“Both Nissan and Infiniti continue to bring forward exciting new products to market and our consistent focus on ensuring a quality ownership experience to our customers will be strengthened by this new facility,” Zinger declared.

“The late 2010 launch of the Nissan LEAF — the first all-electric vehicle for the mass market — will be directly supported by all-new and sophisticated training efforts as conducted at our new Ontario center,” he concluded.