Ok, its a little long but I guess I should post this to prevent anyone else from making the mistake of going there that I did...

I was looking at a used '97 Maxima and decided to have gone over by Town and Country Nissan in Seattle on Monday. They gave it a relatively clean bill of health except for: needs brakes, belts and a coolant flush. They also found that it was affected by a recall for alternators that could catch fire - so they put in a new alternator. Based on their report, I bought it.

Normally that is where the story would end. For me, however it continues... a mile from the Nissan dealer the check engine light goes on... I turn around and bring it back. What set it off is an evaporative valve in the emissions system. I mention that it doesn't seem like they did a very thorough job since they obviously didn't drive it more than a mile... They agree to give me a cut on the price (which is under $120 anyway including labor.) but they will have to order the part. I drive home without incident. When I get home, I go over it much more carefully (you have 3 days to get out of a car if you need to.). I find that the dash lights don't work... Neither do the tail lights... Both were checked off on the inspection. The oil is dirty(which I knew) a quart low and the drivers side wiper is disintegrating. Both checked off again...

I called the next morning and read them the riot act. They apologized and had me bring it in. This time they had the shop Forman do the inspection. Fixed the lights (completely missing fuse - no owners manual and I couldn't decipher it from the fuse cover) and did a proper inspection. They found a seeping rear main. To be honest I've never seen a drip so its probably a pretty slow leak. While he was under the car he pulled the emission valve and freed it up. (it was stuck.) They also found a slightly leaking oil pressure sender. I paid them to do the oil pressure sender (sort of good faith since they'd already done so much work for free.) and bought a set of wiper blades. They changed the oil and filter for free.

Yesterday as I was leaving work, I noticed a single drop of oil on the ground. When I was leaving the grocery store I noticed two drops. When I got home I looked under it and noticed 6 drops AND the oil pressure sender pigtail unplugged! Didn't really notice that I hadn't been seeing the oil light when I started it since I've only started it about 4 times since I got it back from the dealer. So, I figure that I got a bad right out of the box sensor that they installed and decide that I should go back to the dealer. Then I think of all the irritation that the dealer has caused already and that maybe the sensor just needs to be tightened a little more, unlikely but worth a look... What I find is that not only was the pigtail not attached (so I wouldn't have a low oil pressure light) but THE SENDER WAS SO LOOSE IT HAD ALMOST UNSCREWED ITSELF FROM THE BLOCK! It was too dark to see if it was actually a new sender or not but I called the dealer today and let him know they almost bought me a new motor... What a bunch of idiots... Boy am I glad I checked!

They wanted me to drive it in again and have them "clean it up" for me and I said "No, thanks. I'll quit while I'm ahead..." No offer to refund my money of course...

Sorry for the rant, but figured that if I just said 'don't go to Town and Country Nissan' without backing it up, I'd get flamed.

Jim

 

I'd return the car while you still can, sounds like future trouble to me...

 

I would have given it right back

 

Too late the three days expired this morning... Although none of the problems with Town and Country have been with the car or the dealer I bought the car from... I just HATE spending money to have them do something and either have them not do the work or worse do something damaging to the car. The car generally does seem fine.

Jim

 

Just to warn ya, Younker's nissan isn't much better...

 

Normally I do all my own work. I just figured that since I was buying a car from a generic used car lot that I should take it in to an actual Nissan dealer to check for problems specific to that model.

Are there any ok nissan service departments in the seattle area? It would be nice to know if I do want to take it in sometime...

Regards,

Jim

 

That's good to know. Town & Country is where I bought my car, and their sales dept. is pretty bad. Didn't realize their service dept. was a problem too.

 

Blame that big goofy kid that drives the parts around town.

 

Yeah ever since he started working there, it's just been downhill...

 

Well, I can now confirm what you guys have been saying. I took my car into Town&Country for the Transverse Link recall a couple weeks ago. I look closely at my car the other day, and notice the rear wheels have some serious camber issues. I pull out my level, and the 2 back wheels aren't even off by the same amount.

They were supposed to do a 4wheel alignment, but obviously that didn't happen. I called the service department, and they claimed that an alignment is part of the recall, and was performed. Is that true? I couldn't find anything saying they had done it, on the paperwork I got afterwards. I need to take it back in and get an alignment! Then they're saying it will take 2 hours? Isn't that way too much time to do a simple alignment?

Also, how long until my tires start to wear unevenly?