rochel

Hi - this is my second post here, and I wanted to ask what is the best way to follow up on a negative Nissan service experience.

I have had my car into the dealer 3 times looking for the cause and solution for an MIL with code for EGR valve high/low flow. I posted my question on this board and got some great replies, which I took to the dealer. With these ideas, they were quickly able to find that the EGR valve was sporadically failing to work. From what I understand, this problem isn't exactly uncommon to the Gen 4 Maxima.

1st dealer visit: Checked car out "thoroughly", couldn't find anything, reset MIL, and told me to come back if it came back on.

2nd dealer visit : MIL came back on after 289 miles, took car back to the shop with a printout of all the feedback I got after posting my EGR question in the 4th Gen forum. They found the problem within a couple of hours, but did not have the parts to fix it.

3rd visit : (yesterday-today) : Car in shop currently for installation of parts.

So basically I have had the car in the shop 3 times for a problem that should have taken a single visit to resolve - maybe even 2 visits if you allow that these parts might not be commonly used, and they wouldn't have them on hand.

In each of these cases, they have needed the car for an entire working day. This is my only car, and thus I have had to rent a car to get to work. There is an Enterprise rent a car right next door to the dealership, so it doesn't present a great difficulty, but it's still additional $$. Not to mention the several hours I have spent dealing with this so far.

The last 2 times I have been to the dealership, the service personnel were outside playing frisbee when I drove up. Honestly. Based upon my experience, it seems like there are plenty of other things that they could be doing - like providing adequate service, or polishing up their diagnosis skills.When I asked the service person who checked my car in yesterday whether the dealership could provide me with a loaner car, seeing as how this was my 3rd visit for this particular problem, he said that he would be happy to, and their rate was $20/day. He wouldn't budge from this.

I am really disgruntled right now. This dealership is very convenient for me, but I don't feel that I can justify returning there in the future. I have gone there since the car was new, and service conditions there have really gone downhill. I'm pi**ed enough about this that I am considering selling the car this summer and moving on to a nice BMW or Mercedes. I have had a lot of Nissan brand loyalty, but this experience, and my perception of their incompetence, has just about scrapped that.

I have always heard that Nissan takes their service surveys seriously. My question is : how seriously would the corporate office take this if I were to contact them on these issues? I am looking for some sort of resolution here. I'd be happy if I could get a couple of the rental car charges covered.

Also tell me if my expectations with regard to service/technical knowledge are reasonable. I do recognize that I have a 9 year old car, and that my happiness is probably not a big focus or concern for the company/dealership at this point, but I expected better than this, and I have always had good experiences in the past.

MaximaPolak

iTrader: (9)

Call Nissan and complain about the dealer.....seems that all he wants there is money form you........OR.......you can go in a corner like nissan want's u to and .

Jatan

iTrader: (3)

http://www.nissanusa.com/form/1,3402...tactus,00.html
In the dropdown menu, pick "I have a question/comment about my dealer" and then pick "I would like to tell you about a recent service experience." Not sure what they'll say, but you can try contacting them

nick778

I would suggest calling the dealership's general manager and setting up an appointment to speak to him and the service manager together. Present you situation factually and what your expectations were versus what actually happened. Inform them that you are trying to help them help you and other customers by providing feedback. If they ask you what would it take to make you happy, think about a fair answer before you go in. Thank them for their time regardless. If they make it better, I'd stick with the dealer. If after this meeting, they still treat you poorly, find another dealership. Tell them you haven't filled out the survey yet and you wanted a chance to talk to management before you did.

Zero Deuce SE

Since you have a car that is not under warranty, I would not expect a loaner car at Nissan's expense. It's hard enough getting one while under warranty. There is nothing wrong with having high expectations of the dealer's service department. It just does not pay to have them set too high as you found out. It could be due to a lot of things. I had bad service from a Nissan dealer in Chicago one year and ended up waiting until I got back to Florida to get my car fixed under warranty. the difference was night and day.

OneToughMax

so you think that if you get a bimmer or benz you're going to have better reliability? think again. they are great cars to drive, but are plagued with reliability issues...

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

Realistically you had an intermittent problem that set a code pointing to the EGR system. Upon your visit to the dealer the EGR system was working correctly. They cleared the error code and it took almost 300 miles for a device to fail again and set a code.

Would you rather have had them just replace various parts even if they checked out OK at the time of your first visit just because it set a code? There are many devices within the EGR system that could have set the hi/low flow code. I'd rather have proof that the device they replace was indeed not functioning, rather then a guess.

Nissan could have just started to replace things within your EGR system wasting your $$$, but instead waited until they found a device that they could prove to be non functioning, your EGR valve.

I don't see anyting wrong with the service you got from your dealer. Especially being that your problem was intermittent and the code stored pointed to the EGR system, not to any specific device.