I have had every single problem from a leaky sunroof to a bad strut. I made a mistake of spending of about 8k in stereor stuff and guess what! My front door speaker goes out so I go back to my shop to exchange it and after they pull bot of the speakers plus cross overs and everything else its freaking rusted!!!!!! I spend $1200 just on the front speakers and it will not be covered because of water damage!!! I have had every problem that this POS car could ever have and I have been nice but this is it. WTF should I do? I am not the kind of persont to sue but I will do if necessary, input please!!!~

 

Welcome to the reason I will never buy another Nissan ever again. I would be pissed too.....

 

I love my Max...and will buy it again!

 

This is all u need to know about nissan....Below is an article on the VQ engine taken from Wards:

By Bill Visnic
WardsAuto.com, Jan 4 2005

Nissan’s dominating 3.5L DOHC V-6 wins its unparalleled eleventh consecutive Ward’s 10 Best Engines award.

 

I have no reason to buy anthing else but Nissan.

 

Throw that bullcrap away and aswer me this.

My Maxima spent more time at the dealership, than ALL the cars I owned in the last 12 years. My max had a tranny replaced, 3 Maf sensors, 3 crank sensors, 2 cam sensors, 2 wheel bearings, warped front rotors, constant wind noise from the left rear, shaky hood , chipping paint in the front, rattling Bose....All within 2 years. My friend owns a 2k4 Quest , with that same great motor, and he just went in for his 5th dealer visit, and had his Maf replaced, and his cam sensor, and rack and pinion. He had to have a recall done for his front seats, which left him without a mini van for 10 days. My other friend has been through 4 sets fo front brakes on his g35 sedan. I have personally been at the Nissan dealer, and seen a Murano, 350z and an Altima, all come in with bad Maf sensors......

Great Nissan quality for sure.

 

man, that sucks for you. ive i bought my re edition 6-speed maybe a few months after i came out. and i cant think of one serious problem other than rear deck rattle that i fixed myself. i think you just picked a unlucky car.sorry

 

I really dont care if u hate nissan or not. My qeastion is WTF can I do?

 

call, write, email nissan. dealer is not nissan and by no means needs to go to bat for you. if need be lemon law. lemons happen, therefore we have such a law.

 

You might be S.O.L. The dealer will not do anything for you, I can guarantee it. They will say that when you had the speakers put in, the shop screwed up the seal in the door, and that's why the water got in, and rusted them. The shop will claim that Nissan sold you a car that leaked water. See what I mean ? you are screwed, I hate to tell you. Your shop that did the work, should've noticed the signs of rust already on the inner parts of your car.

 

Some of you guys got bad cars... If you go to any dealer you will see many of that brand's cars there... Go to a Honda dealer, you will see hondas with problems... same with every other car... Maybe your area was shipped a bad batch of cars... Maybe the mechanics at your dealer suck ***... who knows... I have owned a total of 3 Maximas and I still have two of them, there have been no problems and my 1993 Max was beat up on by the previous owner. Only problem on 2003 Max was the Bose HU which was fixed...

Mr.Sparkle - To answer your question, and for tips in the future: 1

1. I would install all of the stock stuff back in the car and if your car has really had all that dealer work on it, ask for another car or your money back... I don't know how bad a car has to be in order to get a new one... Contact Nissan directly... Check lemon laws... Leaking is unacceptible.

2. Next time you go install a stereo, if you already haven't done this, INSPECT the car prior, during and after the install... I know most shops don't like it when you go to the "back" but you have a right especially if you are spending 8G's on a stereo. I spent $450 on an amp and I monitored those people every now and then and I was pretty pleased with the outcome... The only complaint I had was some bent plastic that I got a discount for...

3. Don't blame your woes on Nissan in general over a few bad apples, these arent Ferraris (and even THEY produce lemons), The Maxima & others are mass produced cars and some just come out bad. As for warping rotors, MOST of that comes from slamming on your brakes at high speed and driving like a lunatic, my stock rotors are fine at 37k and my 1993's are fine at 145k miles. Leaky sunroof?, Bad Strut?, sounds more like cosmetic problems than actual mechanical ones... Although these are unacceptible, these are fixable if fixed right. Although the MAF directly affects the performance of the engine, I dont think it will damage it if it goes out. If you have repeatedly visited your dealer for the MAF I would QUESTION them even giving you a NEW one... Same goes for other parts that repeatedly fail. Rememeber there is still dishonesty in our world and your dealer of whatever brand car might be dishonest in the interest of saving money. They dont give a **** about you or your car... Which is another reason im trying to learn things on my own except for major work...

I hope this helps somewhat and I am sorry some people have had a bad experience with Nissan... They produce a fine automobile and I have been satisfied as a 3rd, 4th and 5th gen driver.

 

That is a bummer for the rain damage, but here's my thoughts for you:
1) jrod is right and makes good points
2) Sounds like a lot of it can be salvaged (i.e. your $8,000 isn't all wasted)
3) When you mod your car it's on your dime and unless you ask and pay for additional and specific insurance coverage, the insurance company usually won't pay you for anything more than factory stuff.

So you could file a claim, they may pay you to replace the stock components that still work in your system, and you use that money towards getting your car repaired and in the meantime make sure the damn leak is FIXED!

Good luck!

 

That sucks man...so far, mine runs good and no leaks....but writing to Nissan may help you out.

 

Go here:
http://autopedia.com/html/LemonLaw/CA_lemonlaw.html
Read over what your state lemon law is. If you qualify for the lemon law find a lemon law attorney online on google or something.

You need to make yourself an excel list of dates your car was in, how long it was in there, what dealership you visited, and what defects were "fixed." Once you have that done get all of your shop invoices and file them in order by date. If you can scan them in and create JPG files or better yet would be PDF files. You can download a free PDF writer www.cutepdf.com.

I don't know the extent of your repairs, but a lawyer will tell you that you have a case on way or another. Take all of the scanned information and put it on a website somewhere so that the lawyer can get quick access at it and you don't have to worry about faxing stuff and not being able to read it.

PM me and I will give you a link to what I have going on with Nissan.
Good Luck.

You have to realise something about this world...You could have a millionposts about how good the car is. But it only takes ONE negative comment to get rid of those million posts. You have to realize how many of these cars are made in a year. You also need to realize that the robots putting these cars together go down A LOT. I know first hand from the industry I work in just how shady some cars are put together.

Overall cars are put together these days 100 times better than 10 years ago. There will always be problems with cars. I know it sucks that we put down ~$30K for the car and it has problems. As my friends dad put it "It's just a car." I think we all demand perfection for our money, as we should. You have to live with the minor flaws.

If you are one of us who gets a car with several significant problems you have every right to be upset. The best way to deal with this is to stay as calm as possible and get a lawyer, fight your case out as best as you can, and live with the outcome. It sucks and it's frustrating, but do the best you can with what you have.

My 2 cents.

 

I agree with what MSOEMAX posted...milliions can be happy with the vehicle, but it takes one bad experience to ruin it all. I was the same way. After i purchased my Max i stumbled across this sight and read many good posts, then i came across the repetative issues that Maxima is plagued with and said to myself "what did i get into...?"

However, I have not had any problems with my Max and it has 23,000 miles on it. I am no car expert, but there are always vehicles with flaws that come off every production line, no matter what company.

Can you not return the vehicle if you have taken it back to repair the same problem three times...?

 

If it were only that easy...In most states it's very difficult to be able to get your car to become a lemon even when by law it's considered a lemon. Most car makers have paid a hefty sum to lobbyists to do the dirty work and create loop holes. It's very sad that someone like myself and other spend so much money on a car that is a lemon and we can't get a new car or a refund. It should be a simple matter, but it's not. The more money you spend on something the lower the chance is it will be easy to get your money back if the product is truely defective.

 

Well, I have a service record of defective stuff thats 16 pages long. Some of the stuff like the sunroof switch still has not been resolved. I have failed to mention that the car is 2k miles out of warranty. I do like the car but have NEVER had a new car with so many problems.

 

A 16 page rap sheet? Itemize everything and get a lawyer... From what you are saying this is a rather large lemon and you should be compensated by either a refund or a new car. Try to fight for a new car...

 

Kloofster, you ran the crap out of your car, had it dropped on 19s. You drag raced it, and yes that isn't good on trannies... Some of your issues are Nissan's fault but abuse has to be considered in this equation... Give me a break man...

 

oooppssss.... uh-oh...

 

I'm with you maxmale, I can't recall any major problems for me not to want to buy another maxima.
I bought my re 6spd a few months after it they came out and I would do it all over again.

 

Hey, Kloogy -

Throw that bullcrap away and answer me this:

How come I've got 25,000 miles on my '04 SE and I haven't had any trouble with transmissions or MAF sensors or crank sensors or rotors or wheel bearings or wind noise or any of that other stuff you listed?

If Nissans were the crap you say they are we'd all have had trouble with them. As cutlr7 points out, if you trash your car you can't expect things to not break. These are not race cars and you can't expect them to withstand NHRA conditions. The VQ is a fantastic engine and will stand up to a lot, but it's designed to give excellent service in "normal" usage conditions ... more than what most if us will ever dish out.

Even if you babied your Maxima, maybe you are just one unlucky dude. But to be as unlucky as you indicate is highly unlikely.

Mike

 

edit: trying to figure out how to post pics. sorry

 

Never buy a first year car.....!!!!!!
I make parts for nissan and i know what parts are installed in first year cars

 

yOU made the struts?

 

i know how you feel about having to get your ride fixed.. it is fustrating, especially since nissan does not give loaners...

so far i have had mine in three times for the struts, twice for the exhaust being angled... warped rotors...

ehh... it was a pain in the a$$ without a doubt.. but i love the car... so in the end i am happy..

 

I thought the ?? was how to get the aftermarket speakers replaced by Nissan because of their poor build quality...If that is the question, I would guess your out of luck. I just curbed my IS300 and chewed my new 18's. The car lost control as soon as the traction control freaked out. I called Lexus and they fixed all the damage, paid for the tow..ect. They would not, however touch my aftermarket rims. I said they took responsibility for everything else and that the rim was damaged because of their fault but it went nowhere.
Just thought I would share that with you. If Nissan handles it different then good luck.

 

If you think the Maxima was bad, wait till your 04 GT starts giving you fits. I assure you they'll be far more significant and annoying. BTW, weren't all you MAF failures caused by aftermarket intakes? And the tranny was replaced because you admitted to racing the car pretty hard? I'm not trying to say Nissan is the best or anything, but it's not horrible.

 

Pwnt

 

bbb.com FILE IT as a complaint see what Nissan does. I got $2000 from Nissan and as far as I can tell my car is fixed. (I had the shimmy). I had the option of taking the money and letting a Mastertech fly out and fix it, or to go to arbitration to argue for a repurchase/replacement

 

That's why I paid $200 extra for a 2003 and I have almost no problems.

 

Help me out here guys. I am trying to think of a car manufacturer thats never built a bad car. Anyone? Bueller?

Listening to some of these people is like listening to the two neighbors argue about their Ford and Chevy. Gimme a break.

Same people that complain about computer companies too. Funny part is when they call the good ones crap. If they worked in the industry they might have a clue as to what they are talking about.