Weimar Ben

iTrader: (5)

I have a 2000 maxima 5spd whose differential and input shaft bearings failed. I had a nissan certified 100,000 mile warranty.

At 99960 miles, I broght the car into the dealer because the transmission was leaking oil. The stealership replaced the axle seal and called it a day. Within 100 miles, the tranny was leaking oil again and made the classic bearing noise.

I took the car back to the stealer and said the bearings were bad and that the tranny needed to be replaced. $3300. Nissan refused to pay. I opened a goodwill case with nissan, and they refused to pay again.

I'm getting it rebuilt for $1100.

Basically, the dealer made the wrong diagnosis for the problem while the car was under warranty. Shouldn't Nissan be responsible for the cost? Can I sue nissan directly in small claims? Should I sue the dealer? What legal action should I take?

NJ Devils Fan

iTrader: (2)

Hell yea they should, thats complete horse crap. THey probably did that on purpose just to not pay. I would definitely fight it with nissan, theyscrewed you over

Jeff92se

iTrader: (82)

As long as you mentioned the problem BEFORE the warranty was up (as you did), you should have plenty of legal ground to stand on. I'd prepare all your knowlege ie... leaky axle seals are a common sympton of bad bearing as it allows the axle to move up/down, causing the leak.... etc..... then mention if you don't handle the warranty, I will be forced to take legal action.

But you might talk to Nissan Corporate first. 1800 nissan or whatever.

upstatemax

iTrader: (15)

They are responsible, get him to write that down if you can. As long as you have documents showing the problem existed under the warranty it is still covered under the warranty. the only time it is not covered, is when the problem shows up outside of the warranty. If you first brought it in at 105000 miles, then you would be screwed. but if you brought it in at 99,999 miles you are covered till it is properly fixed.

It should not have to go to a lawsuite, call Nissan of North America and they should have you covered.

Weimar Ben

iTrader: (5)

I already talked to nissan consumer affairs and they told me to F**k off. I even took it to another dealer that basically said, "yeah, it's the bearings. It's leaking again because the bearing, not the seal, was bad."

I have that down on paper. I'm having the rebuilder save the bad parts for me.

Nismonkey

iTrader: (2)

fight it! I love my Nissans, but some Nissan techs don't feel the same way we do about our cars.

Jeff92se

iTrader: (82)

Is there any particular reason the dealer would do this if they are attempting to avoid handling the warranty claim??

upstatemax

iTrader: (15)

BTW, who are you having fix the problem?? Nissan?? If they are good. If not, stop!! they might fight over paying for someone elses work.

Dont pay a red cent till you talk to NISSAN not a dealer.

steven88

iTrader: (28)

damn that freakin sux...hopefully u get everything straighten out...let us know how it goes!

upstatemax

iTrader: (15)

He just said a dealer told him that... They are dumb.

I had my local service manager write and sign a paper detailing all the stuff they were going to fix on my car because THEY F'ed it up. I got the car back, half was not done... He told me he was not going to do it, he changed his mind.

Weeeeelll I just faxed my copy of that paper to the owner of the dealership and the next day it was all done for me plus some extra free stuff.

Most of the dealers just talk not knowing the hole they are digging...

Mass_Media

Dang dude that really sucks. Id sue both the dealer and nissan corp.

igzy

iTrader: (18)

Man, this is why I hate Nissan. I love everything about the car, but the customer service SUX.

Sorry for you that you are going through this pain... I know how you feel... I got screwed recently by service too...

Weimar Ben

iTrader: (5)

Another thing that pisses me off is that the tranny only had 41,000 miles on it. Nissan paid for a brand new tranny in it at 59,000 miles because of the same damn problem.

MaximaPolak

iTrader: (9)

Aren't you the lucky one...go to a lawyer that deals with this type of case and talk to him/her about it.

upstatemax

iTrader: (15)

Thats the problem now... You should not have to talk to a lawyer about something so simple. I urge everyone I know to take at least a few business law classes. You can learn quite a bit in just a few of them. One of my law professors told the class that the best way to avoid being screwed in business is to know that you are being screwed.

This subject was the first thing he talked about. He hated dealers, he called them bottom feeders.

I cannot tell you how much money that professor has saved me...

DJ2Max

iTrader: (11)

did they diagnose it as the bearing before your warranty? do you have it in writing? Nothing will fly in courst unless its documented. Unless you have something ni writing that the dealer wrote saying, "I am at fault", you will have a hard case to fight.

i know how you feel man, i had the dealer rip me off once. nowadays i get several opinions from various garages before i do anything.

Weimar Ben

iTrader: (5)

The dealer misdiagnosed it as being a seal that was bad. The dealer will not admit to misdiagnosing it and basically says the "gears are worn out and the tranny needs to be replaced." Basically a BS, non-descript answer.

The other dealer says that the tranny is leaking and making noise because differential and possibly input bearings are bad.

An independent shop has the tranny cracked opened and says that the diff and input shaft bearings are totally shot and that the other bearings and sychros are worn enough to recommend replacement. They said the gears themselves and the shafts are fine.

Dubbya

iTrader: (16)

Have you tried setting up an appointment with the Nissan Zone Representative? I had to do this with a Dodge Stealership and had great results. If you do get a meeting with the rep. make sure to go in with every peice of evidence you can.

Zone Rep > Dealership

Weimar Ben

iTrader: (5)

is a "Zone rep" a dodge term for a district manager?

Progress

iTrader: (26)

Shouldn't there be a grace period right after the warranty expires considering you took it in for a repair just prior?

chr0nos

iTrader: (1)

you are in the right on this one. if the dealer mis-diagnosed teh problem, and will not admit it, you should be able to get a second/third opinion in writing from a sertified transmission shop. if they state that the problem is not what the dealer fixed the first tyme, you can win in court, or with Nissan NA, or whoever is the higher authority above the dealership. these things take time, several weeks or even months untill you get it resolved to your satisfaction. you pretty much have to pay for the repair anyway, so just suck it up for now. save all your bills, and quotes and anything and everything pertaining to this case. then start going up the ladder from the dealership. maybe district rep can come out and see your car and bills. maybe talk to the attorney general in your state. in a lot of cases you can get legal pressure from attorney general's office on the business at fault, and they will re-emburse you. you may have to submit all the information to them. just be patient about it.

5thgenmaxima

iTrader: (1)

+1. You have them do the work you will most likely get NOTHING...Hell do what everyone else said...Call the BBB, Call Nissan Corporate, write a letter to the owner, call a good attorney that specializes in lawsuits. (Good ones will only get paid if you win.), call anyone else you can think of..... At anyrate a few threatening quick phone calls from you and your lawyer will probably clear ths up....

OOmaxSE

iTrader: (19)

you will tackle this down considering how you brought up the problem covered under warranty before the deadline (100k).

BTW, where are you getting your tranny rebuilt for 1100???

chr0nos

iTrader: (1)

oh yeah, pay with a credit card. if anything, you can dispute it though the credit card bank. it will give you an extra layer of protection. most banks have their own lawyers to fight exactly this sort of thing.

Weimar Ben

iTrader: (5)

Tannertransmissions.com. They're a local shop. They're kinda ripping me off. I delivered the transmission to them into their hands. They quoted me 5.5 hours of labor to replace the sychros and bearings. They're want to charge me $1100 for parts and labor, 740 of which is parts. I called Dave B and he can sell me the parts for about $450. The fawking bastards won't let me supply the damn parts.

They want $225 for the labor to crack open the tranny and put it back together. So, if I don't get it fixed with them, I'll be out $225 for that.

I hate mechanics, car salesmen, politicians, and Realt-******, they are the scum of the earth. There are exceptions of course. I just wish I could just rebuild the tranny myself.

Nomad

iTrader: (5)

off topic: they call it service I CALL IT R*P OFF

paralyse

Sorry to hear about you getting screwed like this by a dealership.

My thoughts...

1. Nissan isn't responsible for the dealer's failure to diagnose the problem properly. This is between you and the dealer, not you and Nissan; and it's the dealer you should sue, since their actions, not Nissan's, were negligent.
It is unlikely that a court would hear a cause of action against Nissan on this case point since there is no negligent conduct or misrepresentation on the part of Nissan. The only way Nissan could be conceivably held responsible for this problem is if they DENIED your warranty claim while you were still within the terms of your contract (eg. denied a covered repair at 99,999.9)
Bottom line is, most dealerships are franchisees under licence from NNA, not directly owned by Nissan itself, and therefore, Nissan cannot be a direct party to the suit. It would be like suing Exxon because Cooter's Garage, Taco Stand and Car Repair pumped Exxon diesel into your car's tank instead of Exxon unleaded.

2. If you haven't already done so please file complaints with BBB, your local city, county and/or state DA or AG's offices, and Nissan North America. Another tactic that is sometimes helpful to nail this shti is to find a friendly local investigative reporter. You have these idiots at this dealership over the barrel; now shoot them.

Weimar Ben

iTrader: (5)

The way I see it is that the transmission failed because of faulty workmanship, not because the dealer misdiagnosed it. Nissan should be reponsible financially since the dealer is basically a factory authorized warranty "service" center. Nissan doesn't fix cars, the dealer acts as an agent on behalf of nissan.

Just because an agent of nissan misdiagnoses a problem, in my mind, does not absolve nissan of financial responsibility. The transmission should have been diagnosed correctly at 99960 miles and nissan should have opened their wallet for the repair.

KyMan

iTrader: (2)

Ask around and get some recommendations on local lawyers (I wish I knew some). You aren't always better off getting a lawyer that doesn't charge until you collect, sometimes paying the lawyers $200/hr rate for a few hours is much less than their cut when you will collect. Sometimes a nice letter on a well known legal firms' letterhead can get you a long ways.


Just be careful about it. I fired one of those accident attorney in 2 days caused they caused me a lot of trouble and didn't do jack-I DID ALL THE WORK. Why the hell should I give them 1/3 of my money for creating more problems that still pester me 4 months later?

5thgenmaxima

iTrader: (1)

cooter's Garage, and Taco stand
All good points...I especially like calling one of the local news reporters.
It's probably for the better. You will most likely get further with suing a dealership over a multi-million dollar a year laywer anyways.
Like it was said above. Don't have anyone else do any work to it, you may lose out.....You have been warned.

max929

iTrader: (3)

BlackBird,

I've just about had it with these stealships and their BS. Let's give them a little payback and let them know their hurting them selves by doing bad business. First off, defiantly sue their a$$es, hit them where it hurts those greedy bastards the most. Second, which dealership in particular was it?? Why don't u post a link to them and everyone on the 5th gen can let them know what we think of their business practices. Better yet, post a thread on the General Maxima Discussions board with a link requesting that every one leave this stealership some feedback about the way they conduct business. I would love to see the look on the stealship's general manager's face when he sees 35,000 e-mails in regards to the way they treat their customers. At the least, all the e-mails will crash their computer systems.

GBAUER

iTrader: (2)

Get a lawyer to simply write a letter to the owner of the dealership informing him that if they are unwilling to fix the problem, you will sue. Have the lawyer outline your situation in the letter so the owner of the dealership knows all the details (dates, times, what the problem was diagnosed as, what it actually was, milage, ect). Usually all it takes is a good letter. The lawyer should charge no more than $100.

filtor1

iTrader: (7)

Wow, this situation sucks. I would def get a lawyer involved. This isn't a $200 MAF.

Marnoot

Noticed you're in SLC. +1 on the tv reporter idea. Contact Bill Gephardt from KUTV (TV Channel 2). He does news segments ("Get Gephardt") where he confronts businesses that are screwing people over, situations just like this one, and usually gets them to make good through the power of bad publicity. Contact info here: http://kutv.com/consumer/local_story_157154454.html

bebandit

I have just about had it with dealerships and my supposed extended security plus warranty. If they say they won't honor my warranty, why did they charge me a $110 diagnostic to pull 2 codes? They said i case I wanted them to fix out of warranty, so they do work w/o asking me. Plus, since when does it take a Consult 2 over an hour to pull 2 codes? I already told the dealership the 2 codes that I pulled in 2 minutes using my obd-2 scanner. I was pissed and got the employee and the manager in the same room and asked them if they thought it was fair to (over) charge a diangostic when they knew they wouldn't cover it by my warranty? They said nothing but said "the bill is the bill, if you want your car you have to pay".

Well here is the kicker, b/c 99.9% of people do nothing or do not know what to do, they get away with it. I am an attorney and I am currently writing letters to both the dealer (refund of the charge) and Nissan (extended warranty). Different angle, but, contrary to what my warranty states, they will not honor the warranty if the car is not stock/oem parts. GROUNDING WIRE KIT! they saw, the said they won't cover fixing an O2 sensor (and we all know about 5th gen O2 sensor problems). They even told me that they have refused service when a part had to be replaced (e.g., alternator) because there was a non OEM battery. Those guys have to read their own warranty and teach all their customer service folks. I wouldn't care so much (i'm selling the stupid warranty) if it was standard application of rules, but, it seems each dealer and each warranty authorization person they get a Nissan have different ways of interpreting. If my letters are not answered, it takes me not more than tens of dollars to claim fraud, breach of contract, unfair dealing, illegal contract (you can't have the company that sells the warranty decide how/when it applies, why woud they want to give you service), etc.

cutter

iTrader: (1)

Well my dad is a mechanic and we had this discussion the other day about bringing your own parts into a shop. I was like I would bring my own parts in all the time, but my dad my a great point. When you go to a restaurant and order a steak, do you bring in your own steak because you get it cheaper and let them cook it? No, you let them do everything for you. Also the shop might not warranty their work if you bring in outside parts because those outside parts "might have a defect". Granted talking about the steak is like 20-30 bucks and the auto0 parts are into the thousands it is still the same concept. I know, I want to save money too, but I am just playing devils advocate, just to show you how the mechanics feel.

igzy

iTrader: (18)

Blackbird, sue Nissan, dealer is their rep and ultimately Nissan is responsible for their reps, in States you can sue anyone easily... In Canada we do not get such luxury as easily... And sue them for frustration (on behalf of all of us that screwed over time too )...

MaxBoost925

iTrader: (33)

That's a good point.

I personally believe you should sue the dealer though, Nissan does indeed control all operations, BUT, it's how the dealer carries it out that effects the consumer. Some dealers are crooks, but other dealers are very good people such as Tim the parts guy from my Nissan. Mechs are usually very crooked. My dad taught me a lot about tricks, he was also a mech back in the day.

For example, my dad was making some kind of repair on an engine and somehow (i forgot exactly what he did) the engine made knocking sounds (i think it had to do with the valves) He told the boss what happened and the boss said, "Don't worry, put some manual gear oil into the engine oil." This was VERY WRONG but nonetheless, the motor made NO SOUNDS becuase MT oil is very thick. The customer never found out...

GBAUER

iTrader: (2)

actually, gear oil or transmission fluid contains lanolean (sp?). It's the same stuff that's in soap and, ding, ding, ding, engine flush fluids. I've run a quart of AT fluid in mine before changing the oil (about 500 miles or so) and it cleans out all the residue in the engine. I wouldn't suggest doing it too often or for too long, but it'll do the job when you need to do it. If you look into my valve cover you'd swear my 143,000 mile car has 20k miles on it.

Edward Lee

iTrader: (3)

Since you had the leak fixed at 99960 there should be a warranty on the repair for about 90 days or so many miles.
However, your best bet is to go have the case mediated through the BUREAU OF AUTOMOTIVE REPAIR. If you don't have one of these in your state, go to the BBB and ask for assistance.

GOOK LUCK and I hope that you get what you deserve.