I had twelve cars before that and never had these problems until the Audi (and now the Nissan). I've had six Fords in my life, and the longest any of them spent in the shop was two days. And the Acura Integra I had never spent more than a couple of hours at a time in service (and all of that based on external factors. Once to replace a headlight cover that was chipped by a rock and once to replace some fuses). And I ran that car over 100,000 miles in three years.
My Altima didn't have anything wrong with it for nearly two years. And honestly, with the repair being under warranty, it shouldn't be any big deal. But when you have to wait months on end for parts (and the part didn't come in yesterday, so Nissan has once again lied about when the part would be at the dealer), that's unacceptable. For that matter, my A4 only had one minor repair in the first 50K miles.
I was thinking about to dump my 10 years old Toyota Camry to get a Nissan Altima when I read this thread...
The local Nissan dealership that is one of the sponsors of my radio show has offered me a sweetheart deal I've accepted. They are giving me the use of an Armada, free of charge in exchange for me extolling the virtues of a vehicle I've dubbed the Armada "Urban Assault Vehicle." It has a ton of power (I picked it up yesterday) and I'm going to tow my boat down to Lake Lanier this weekend. The kids love it, especially my son, who thought it looked like a tank. He loved playing with the nav system. Shame is he has figured it out quicker than his old man. If I like the truck at the end of a year, they'll sell it to me at a substantial discount. It helps my family because when we want to take the boat back home to my parents' house down in Mobile, AL, we can all ride in one car.
Molotov Cocktail, I bought a 2004 Acura TL. I'm hoping it's as reliable as my last car, a 1997 Maxima that hardly ever gave me any sort of problems. One repair not covered by warranty (dead starter) in 130k miles. mrpaige, Wow, I feel for you man. Not having your own car is a PITA and pretty demoralizing, especially when it's new. The new Nissans are not all that which is one reason I did not buy the new Maxima when it came out. Nissan's biggest claim to fame lately was the VQ engine, but now apparently they're having issues with transmissions and the engine from what I understand. It's a shame, but they seemed to have rushed things out a bit too fast. I hope you can get back into a reliable car one day. If it were me, I'd set the damn thing on fire and run it through their dealership's windows. Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating a wee bit...
Talked to Nissan North America today and the finger pointing has started. Courtesy Nissan says that back in March when Nissan North America said they found the part and overnighted it to my dealership that it was the wrong part. Nissan North America claims that the part I'm waiting on was only ordered on March 18 and that the part they delivered on March 8th was the right part (a part which was ordered February 23, when my car had already been in the shop for almost a month), but the dealership didn't order another part they needed to fix the car. So somebody is lying to cover their butt. My theory is that Nissan cancelled the order for the part when they found and delivered the wrong part. They then re-entered the order when the mistake was found. To bolster the dealership's argument, the quoted delivery date they quoted me for the part that was supposedly found was April 1st. When the part order was re-entered on March 18th, the delivery date was the same AND Nissan North America did not EVER mention that it was a different part order. As a matter of fact, my file was escalated to a parts coordinator during a period of time when Nissan is now claiming I had no outstanding parts orders (between March 8th and March 18th). Personally, I'm more apt to believe the dealership. Anyway, just like when I called in March, the parts coordinator at Nissan North America has miraculously found the part at another dealership and is arranging to have it overnighted to Courtesy Nissan (this despite the fact that the part ordered on March 18th, according to Nissan's records - earlier by Courtesy Nissan's records, was due to arrive last Friday... Monday at the latest). The last time this happened, I still didn't get my car back. We'll see if it works out this time. But my question would be this: 1. Why would the part be delivered to another dealership that apparently doesn't need it when my order has been outstanding (and "escalated" at Nissan North America) for at least a month (by Nissan's count. Three months by the count in the real world), and 2. If this dealership had the part, why didn't the parts coordinator find it before I called and asked again? So, the order has still not been fulfilled. They may or may not have found the part needed at another dealership, and even if you take Nissan North America's word that the part was not ordered until March 18th, that's still too long to wait for a $29 part. Either way it works out (either the part that was ordered being delivered or the part coming from a different dealership being delivered), Nissan North America says I'll have my car back by Friday. We'll see if that actually happens.
Email me and I'll give you the number and name of my cousin. Tell him you're a friend of mine and he'll help you straighten this whole mess out.
No, he works for a big Nissan dealership in New Orleans as a parts manager. He once worked at the Memphis distribution facility for Nissan auto parts in the U.S. so undoubtedly he has some connections.
I will email you. The mafia thing might've led to a more personally satisfying conclusion, even though it wouldn't have ended up getting my car fixed.
I got my car back today. The part they found elsewhere actually came through and turned out to be the right part. So, they fixed it and returned it to me... of course, the speedometer didn't work when they gave it back, so I had to make a return trip, but it turned out to be nothing of consequence, so I got the car and drove very carefully home (since both the license plates and inspection sticker expired while it was sitting in the shop). A guy from WFAA called me yesterday. He was interested in the story. Seemed ridiculous to him. But, of course, having my car back lessens my interest in the story.
Well, the car is once again going back into the shop. While it was there the first time, they managed to break the speedometer and the air conditioning. Since I got it back, it's already been back twice. Once to fix the speedometer, once to fix the a/c. The a/c still doesn't work, so it's got to go back. And Nissan has conveniently forgotten about offering me a free month on the lease (even though they had the car for three months, they only offered one).
Its not just Nissans, i think most cars have problems. I have a 2002 Pontiac Trans Am and the transmission just broke, i don't race it or anything, I just went to the gas station to buy some chips one morning and when i tried starting the car at the gas station, it just broke right there, i was so embarassed because my car looks kind of cool IMO, and there i was with my car all clean after buying it like a month ago and the tranmission goes out on me at the freaking gas station. it took like two weeks to get the transmission and like two days to fix it, it was a nightmare.
My first real car was an '86 Trans Am, and it had all sorts of transmission problems. I went through three of them in the nine months I owned the car. I actually sold the car while it was in the shop getting the second one put in. That one actually failed when they were driving it down the block to the company I sold it to after it had been repaired. I've never willingly driven another General Motors product (I did have another GM car at one point. It had a lot of problems, too, but I didn't pick it out or anything. My father decided I would just drive it for a little while when I was in high school) and would certainly never buy another one. Personally, though, I don't think most cars have significant problems. I've owned something like 15 cars since I turned 16. Only three of them have had significant problems (Altima, A4 and the Trans Am). My Acura was pretty well indestructible (and I put over 100K miles on it in three years, and I think I changed the oil twice that whole time). The Fords I've had (Explorer, Probe, Mustang, F150) never had any issues. The previous Nissan I had (NX1600) only had a bum gas gauge that I never fixed. My 1990 Eclipse Turbo was trouble-free during my ownership. The 1988 Toyota Celica I had had only one issue that was fixed in a matter of a few minutes for free (the speedometer went out one day very early in the ownership of that car).
Uh-oh. The dealership just called, and it turns out I need another part. I hope the wait for parts isn't as long as it was last time. I don't think I can deal with being without my car for another three months. I still don't understand how the dealership could break the air conditioning while they had the car. The A/C worked when I last had it (and December and January both had many sunny days with highs in the 80s, like the weather has been recently). Considering they broke it somehow, I better not be getting a bill (perhaps that's the scam, though, break stuff when it's in for warranty repairs and then charge customers when they have to come back and get those things fixed).
Got it back again. On Saturday, they told me they replaced the fuse that they had just replaced. Today they said they didn't have to replace that fuse on Saturday. Whatever. It seems to be working for now, though. We'll see if it holds up. Courtesy Nissan's service manager is not very customer friendly, though. Even though it worked fine when they got it the first time, so whatever went wrong did so while it was in their possession, he doesn't feel they should be responsible for fixing whatever may be wrong with it. So, I guess "you break it, you bought it" doesn't mean anything to them (so I suppose that means if you have one of their loaner cars, you're more than welcome to abuse the hell out of it. Because whatever you break isn't your problem. I'm sure their philosophy goes both ways, right?). It's an interesting way to drum up business. Break things when the car is in for warranty and then charge customers when they come back to get what you broke fixed. You could probably make quite a living doing that. Conveniently, though, Nissan is now denying they ever offered to make my lease payment one month. Personally, I'd like a free lease payment for each lie I've been told. Of course, I don't have that many payments left, but still....
