Hi all,

Starting today, I have now been the owner of a 03' SE auto and need to vent and say that I am surely not very pleased with my first Nissan product.

Positives:
Great engine
Good styling (inside and out)

Negatives:
Terrible paint (chips)
Terrible stereo system (head unit skips in cold weather, left speaker fades in and out, volume level changes when changing tracks)
Terrible dash noises in cold weather
Bad Nissan service

I don't know if I would buy another Nissan right now but the above negatives are extremely disappointing for a sedan just under $30000..

I have not tried to fix any of the above negatives yet b/c I have read so many bad stories in this forum of dealers making the above problems worse rather than better (especially the head unit and dash noise problems). The head unit and dash noise problems do not happen always so I am somewhat hesitant to see the dealer but I suppose I am stupid not to get them fixed since they are under warranty....

any thoughts?...

 

there are fixes for most of the problems you stated. You can either let them exist and complain about them, or get them fixed to your satisfaction and be happy.

if I was you I'd go to the dealer and tell him you'll wait while they fix the stuff, then you'd like to take the tech on a ride to check out his work. It might get him to pay a little closer attention than usual.

You should also consider that nobody (hardly) comes and posts "I had a great experience at the dealer today!" so all you're hearing is the horror stories. The dealer near my house is pretty good. Their sales dept. made me drive 100 miles to buy the car, but the service dept. has been better than service from other cars I've owned (mitsu, ford) but not quite as good as others (honda, volvo)... but we really shouldn't compare volvo service and nissan service, they're in different classes, and hondas never break so I never really went to service there except for minor stuff and routine maintenance.

 

Same here,

I just try to ignore problems that come up, and everything seems better.

I do have to go to service and get the rotors done. My steering wheel shakes like crazy when braking. I had the exact same problem on my 2000 SE, you would think they would make better rotors by now. Also need to go and do that clutch TSB.

 

you can always ask to speak to the tech who will be working on your car, slip him a $10 and ask him to be careful not to scratch anything. It can be done tactfully. I've had decent luck with that.

 

I have an 03' as well. I have 6k miles on a two and a half month old car. And I am very pleased with it. Your issues:

1) The paint, yep its pretty bad, but I solved the nicks problem by using clear bra on the front end of the car in the first week of ownership. Now, no more paint problems.

2) The stereo, well yes that stinks as well. The second week of ownerhip, I replaced the stereo, and am very pleased with the sound now.

3)Dash noises, the answer to that was a roll of felt tape, and about 140 sq feet of Brown Bread. My car is solid as a rock now.

I drive my Maxima at Auto-X, and race it in the 1320. I am very rough on the car in that regard, but I still, (knocking on wood) haven't had any other big issues in 6k relatively hard miles of ownership in two and a half months.

 

YEah, like someone said, there are fixes for those issues. Well, maybe not bad service. But if the service stinks, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE.

Just try another (if there is one) and see if they're better. Let them know the other dealer stank and you'd rather come to them if they can get the job done right.

ARFF

 

I agree with those positives, though the styling of the 5G Max's rear is ugly. Besides my MAF sensor,Hood Vibration and Transverse link repairs I can't really say that my 2K2 was a total disappointment.

I havent had the misfortune of paint chipping, stereo problems or dashboard noises; coming from a 6G Honda Accord, I actually expected to experience this with a Nissan but havent so far. From what I've seen on this board, I'm glad all I leased was a base model SE; it seems as though the more options it comes with, the more problems keep popping up.

As for the dealer service, I think part of the problem is that Nissan itself doesnt push customer service as a priority to the dealer network. Honda Motors is BIG on customer service; thus Honda Dealership Service departments shoot for very high CSRs (Customer Satisfaction Ratings).

Case in point: My 99 Accord has only seen the inside of a Honda service bay twice in the 4 years I've had it; a rear spring went defective @ 18months and the tranny went bad @ 2 years. For both repair jobs they: a) fixed my Accord for free despite it being visibly modified with boltons, no to mention out of warranty (tranny) and b) followed up the repair jobs with several phone calls just to make certain that there were no lingering problems.

To date, Nissan has never called to checkup on how my Max is doing after its several repairs in the first 6 months of ownership. To sum up: Nissan = Import Car/Domestic Service.

Peace.