Went for 100 point Courtesy today @ Mystic Nissan, Medford, MA.

The Service Manager seemed OK, untill we started talking about TSBs and ECM reprogramming.

Car went for test drive, and was done in about 30-40 minutes. I had hum-hum noise from the front and I suspected wheel bearings. I also got 101k miles and suspect that clutch will need to be replaced soon. So here is what turned up on the list of things to be taken care of:

1. Oil needs to be changed.
2. Tried to sell me fuel injector service. Said that TB was clogged. (I cleanned TB myself twice in the past 6 months. Used Seafoam twice.) He said that that could be the source of bad milage that I get.
3. Two front wheel bearings need to be replaced. Price was $390. Parts and labor.
4. Steering links and something else related to that, forgot the word, need to be replaced. He said that one of them is slightly bent. That could be the source of hum-hum noise from front end. With that, alignment needs to be done. That was around $500.
5. Belts are still OK, but need to be replaced.

When i told him about my bad mpgs, he said its mostly clogged TB and oxygenated fuel. I asked him about Fuel Cut TSB, he said I shouldn't trust those things - that they aren't even written nor endorsed be Nissan.

So I may go for another 100 point check to another dealer next week. Would like to have another opinion.

 

man I'm telling you Nissan stealership SUCKS big time....

 

The flyer is designed to get you in and they use the paper as the condom that they use to f888 you... It's business to them.

 

I knew it was business to them. But, there was no one at the sales dept. No one to ask to take a car for a ride. How do they expect my business, if they say that TSB is crap from Internet. I don't get these people, nice cars but people who manage them here - they suck. Maybe I should move to Japan.

They did have a nice yellow Z on the floor.

 

Nissan dealerships have, and always will, SUCK!! Last time I went to one (against my better judgement), to discuss the TSB's on my car, the service rep gave my a rash of sh#t, then proceded to lock my keys in my car all within the first 2 minutes that I was there!!!!!! WTF!!!

 

its funny, I got a differnt experience, I went to FROST NISSAn today in newton, MA. The mechanic looked like he knew less about cars then me. Either way, all that was recommended was an oil change, and at 30 bucks i passed (I do my own). Anyway I thought the brakes were running thin(as per opinion of NTB wheel installer) but the nissan buy said they were fine. The whole thing took 30 min and I have doubts as to what they actualy did..I Think they just check everything unless u have obvious problems.

 

nice analogy...

 

Go to Frost Nissan in Newton... ask for Ruben... really nice guy!
If you want... say Manoj ('02 White Max) sent ya.

 

Im a regular Frost customer... just curious... who did u deal with there? I always deal with Ruben.

 

Next time go to Quirk Nissan in Quincy,MA. I live out in the metro west area and decided to go there instead of the dealears nearby like Marlboro Nissan and Glick Nissan in Westboro because they charge too much for the same services. For example both Marlboro and Glick Nissan are charging $500 plus for a 30,000 mile or 60,000 mile service. Quirk charges $379 +tax and they will tell you if anything else is wrong in fact they brought me out to the car in the garage and showed me other stuff that would need replacement for example brake pads which I alredy knew about. I don't like most stealerships just because they rip you off and charge way too much, but I have heard good things about Quirk and that's why I went there and I stongly recommend them.

I ended up paying about $580 for a 30,000 mile service and new front bake pads with the rotors resurfaced. Now I could have changed the brakes myself, but the thing is I had a coupon so it would be just about the same as them doing the brakes in terms of price. Otherwise I would have done the brakes myself which is what I was planning on originnally.

 

So how was this different? They didn't tell you anything about breaks.. Maybe you had other problems.. that they didn't see. About all of my car's problems, I knew about all of them except stearing linkage that is bent.

I'll try Quirck in Quinsy. This is like going to doctors...damn..
Only if I met with National NIssan Service manages, I'd him.

 

I was at the dealership just a few weeks ago for some nissan factory covered work and if they had spent as much working on my car as reminding me to fill out the service with high marks my car would been done in 10 minutes.

 

Guys....you don't need to pay $500 or $379 or whatever for this "check-up"

Spend $20, get a Haynes manual or Nissan Factory Service Manual, and you can check 90% of the things they check by yourself, even if you have limited automotive experience. Then if there are a few specific things left over, take it to the dealer and ask specifically about them....

 

I think he went for the free 100 point check-up.... I got a flyer in the mail about that too...

But either way, like Irish said... get a FSM... there's a thread in the General Discussions about downloading em from some guy's website.... I just got one recently that there's more than ya ever thought you could know about your car in there.... definitely recommended.

 

Irish44J you got to remember you need to go to the stealership and have this service done so it can be documented in the computer system as long as your car in still under warranty. You can always take the car someplace else or do it yourself before it hits 60,000 miles and the warranty expires, but if someting happens forget about trying to get Nissan to fix it for free. The first thing they will say it you neglected to have to car reparied by Nissan and they well give you hell about it. Just my word of advice.

I have a FSM too and and I can do a lot of the things the stealership charges an arm and a leg to repair but I am just waiting till hit 60000miles and my warranty expires and then I can do it myself. And for those of you who don't believe anything I just said just pick up the phone can call Nissan and see what they'll tell you regarding fixing stuff yourself while still under warranty.

 

That is total BS. With any warranty claim denial, the burden is on the dealer to PROVE neglect by you as a DIRECT cause of the warranty failure. This is a LAW. If something happens and they claim "you didn't change your oil" - tell them to do an oil analysis, which will prove that you did change the oil. Same thing with any other fluid. Hell, if you want to, take a digital photo of you holding today's newspaper while you install a new oil filter, if you are that paranoid about *proof* of maintenance.

My car with 70K+ has NEVEr gone to a dealer for maintenance (I do it all myself), and has been to the dealer several times for warranty work. Never a problem.

Again, for warranty purposes you are not required to have NISSAN do the maintenance, as long as you have service records, receipts from Autozone, etc. to prove that maintenance has, indeed, been done. I keep a log on my computer of when I do fluid changes, brake work, parts installations, etc.

The burden is on the dealer, not you.
Do you believe everything Nissan tells you? If you do, then go ahead and waste $500 for them to tell you your blinker fluid is low and you need to have your carburetors cleaned. If someone at Nissan told you that, they have NO legal ground to stand on. The Nissan warranty (including Gold/Platinum extended warranties) specify only that the maintenance be done, not that Nissan be the one that does it.

If they tell you otherwise, tell them you'll see them in court.

BTW, I have most certainly discussed this with my local Nissan dealer service managers - everytime I have had warranty work done. Never a problem.

Also note that MODs do not void your warranty EITHER, unless the dealer can PROVE CONCLUSIVELY that a certain mod caused a warranty part failure.....

 

By the way, I paid an extra $1K for a 100,000 extended Nissan Gold Warranty, so I made damn sure that it would not be voided by doing my own maintenance...

 

Thanks for all your great posts...I have a question:

I have a 00 max with 55800mi. on it. Is the 60000 powertrain good till 60000 or a certain date after the date of purchase? How do I go about proving to them that something needs to be fixed? Ie. a problem that occurs occasionally but I know it's a problem there.

 

Yeah come in for a FREE 100 point check up on your car and then we'll tell you all the things that are wrong with your car (which if anybody had half a brain and a manual could figure out) and charge you through the azz to fix them. And by the the way if you don't have all this work done here it could void your warranty..... BULLSH!T. I agree with puppetmaster.... I do all the non-warranty work myself with my trusty CD ROM manitenace manual, which I got off of e-bay for $10.00.

"belts are ok, but need to be replaced"

 

One thing I fogot to mention. They guy said: If there is no SES light - the ECU cannot be reprogrammed.

I am also wondering is it likely that two bearing in front can go bad at once at the same time.. ?

 

Good man... btw... I got my FSM from another .Org member for free and there is some info about getting em in this thread:

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=384640

 

I'm glad you had a good experience at Quirk, but I have to say that you're the first person I've ever heard recommend them. I lived in Quincy for 4 years, and for the last 2 years only live about 10 miles away. So I've dealth with them several times since they were so close by. After my last experience with Quirk Nissan, I will never go back to any Quirk dealership. Ever. I've had nothing but unpleasant experiences with them (both with sales and service), and have read nothing but bad on the internet on them. Consumer affairs.com has some horror stories about them you can read. Believe me- they're NOT worth the trip.
I haven't dealt w/the service dept. at Frost, but their sales people were some of the nicest I dealt with recently. They get my nod for the best of the Boston/Metro west area for Nissan sales.

 

this post is exactly why I will never buy another Nissan again. I love the car, but the dealership experience is less then first class. They treat everyone like they know nothing and get very defensive when you question them. That has been my experience at all three Nissan dealerships in Las Vegas. That is why, my next car will be an.........Infiniti. Dealership experience is 1(insert Google of zero's) better and they give a loaner car for repair work. When you buy a car you need to factor dealer experience because inevitably you will have to take it there for some kind of repair and you shouldn't have to dread the experience.

 

I agree, but you pay 50k for a car you'll get customer service. I understand that the maxima isn't a luxury car and althought I expect good service I don't expect the dealer to act like I bought a 50k car and bend over backwards for me. I've had good luck with my service because I make sure that I go in there with a good demenor and am pleasant to all, informed about what problem i'm having, and ready to answer any stupid quesions that they may have. AND I DON'T TAKE ANY BS!

 

Good point. But let me give you a quick example. You can buy the new 2005 Maxima and you are gonna be spending somewhere near $30000 depending on options etc. This is just a rough estimate. Now you can also buy the Infiniti G35 which in some cases has a base price starting below the Maxima, but overal the price is roughly about the same . Honestly If I were in the market looking for a new car and I was thinking of a Nissan, then I would definitely go for the Infiinti instead of the Maxima. Now not everybody is gonna feel the same way I do, but from my personal experience dealing with Nissan I would perfer to buy the Infiniti instead even though it's still part of Nissan Corp. You are getting your money's worth with the Infiniti. So why pay the same $$ and put up with the kind of crap the Nissan stealerships give you.

 

Yeah all the dealerships suck. Norwood Nissan of Warwick RI charged me $280 to change the rear three spark plugs. I changed the front three. Another $23 for the intake manifold gasket (they have to take off the whole intake manifold to get to the plugs) Plugs cost me $43 on e-bay for NGK IX. So a grand total of $346 to change three plugs. To add insult to injury, on another occasion, I was getting my crankshaft position sensor fixed (recall item), so I figured hey, might as well have the car inspected. The charged me fifty bucks for the inspection, and failed me because of tint. They knew all along that it wasn't going to pass, but "it's their policy to go ahead with the inspection regardless." So I asked the manager if I showed up with no doors, bumpers, or headlights (you know, obvious automatic failure items) if he would have still proceeded with the inspection. He tried to laugh off my sarcasm, but he knew I was right. F**k them, that's the last car I buy from them because they suck.

 

This is why I try to avoid going to the dealership a much as possible and instead do some of the repairs myself. I only go in there if it's just way too cold to work on the car like during the winter months or if I believe I am gonna really screw something up, then I just take it. Although this does'nt happen often.

 

I've been debating about scheduling one of these appointments just to see what all they say is wrong with my car.

 

just to make things clear - I know whats wrong with my car.. I am just trying to see what they say, to really prove myself that they suck..

 

I'm done with Nissan stealers. A couple of years back, they claimed to have changed the fuel filter, but I saw no evidence of that. I had a pretty messy dog matt on the rear seat that was attached to the child seat anchors and front seat headrests that had not been moved one bit so I knew they hadn't touched the rear seat, much less change the fuel filter. They claimed they did but even the towels I had on the edges were as I had them, to the last dog hair.

I see Nissan made the 1 million sales quota they set themselves for March. I wonder how many new owners will be happy with their new dealers (although I suspect many of those cars will actually be serviced by fleet mechanics...).

 

Of course he doesn't want you to get the Fuel Cut TSB because he doesn't get any money out of it!!

 

well, I brought my wife's Altima to the dealership for the 100 point check-up, they listed what needed to be replaced and how much they would cost including labor, then I went to a friend who has an auto repair shop (30 years and still running...) and told him these are what the dealership said that needed to be replaced. He checked those things, and replaced all of them for half of what the dealership quoted. I think Im gonna bring in my maxima for a "free" 100 point check up and let my friend do the rest...thanks Nissan for the free service!!!

 

Its a FREE 100 point inspection.

 

Me too, looks like I'll do it myself.