I just started to reread about maximaboi's troubles, and know I don't know what would be best for me. I have a 1991 max, given to me from my aunt who bought it new. She was never notified of the recall, and since we're in Pa., there's a pretty decent sized hole in the wheel well. As bad as, and in some places worse than the pics in maximaboi's thread, so definetly a level 5 recall. The car has a lot of problems though. Three window regs need replaced, the clear coat on the trunk has peeled off, I think it has an exhaust leak (i just replaced the studs, thats why i got it for free), and it has a possible vaccum leak (the car struggles/hesitates up to about 3k rpm). The interior is in ok condition, but the bose has **** the bed, with only one speaker working. The hood has a few scratches on it near the front corner, and is just slightly bent. Inspection stickers are up, and now I'm not sure what would be best for me.
Options:
1. Keep the car, fix everything myself. I would probably sell it for $1-1.5k. (I want to get a stick)
2. Take it to a nissan dealer, have them (probably) buy it off of me. Don't know what would be a good price, i'd like 1k, but i only have about 3-400 into it so far.
3. Sell it as is/part it...

Any ideas?
thanks for any replies

 

I would try to get a 5-speed. Might as well get the car you are willing do the repairs on.

DEALER DO NOT BUY FROM YOU.
Don't bother part it out, get a good lil chunk for it, it's a HASSLE to part.

 

wrong therealgoon. dealer DID buy maximaboi's max off of him. they only did that because it was cheaper for them.

i suggest as would maximaboi, take it to the dealer, inform them of what you know and see if they will fix it, they are supposed to. if they wont call that guy on the long recall thread. he will help you. as for parting, everyone is parting a max, wouldnt get much.

 

have you gotten into contact with larry long? give him a call and he will be able to help you out. I cant beleve how many people there are that have owned the car from new and never were informed about this recall.

PLEASE give larry long a call 202-366-6281. I think I put his 800 number on my post about the recall if you dont have a cell phone or internet phone. even if you plan on parting it out just give him a call and take some pics to help us out with more cases of this happening.

BTW yes nissan did buy my old max from me. they also bought back some of the nissan quest vans. it was much cheaper for them to buy the car from me than to fix the car at the level of the recall that it was at.

DO NOT let the dealer tell you its to old, the recall has already been completed, you will have to pay for some of the repairs, its not that bad only a level 1, ext, ext...... and trust me they WILL try at leats one of these.

 

thanks for the replies. I'm probably going to take it to the dealership...hopefully they'll buy it. We'll see

 

Yeah I just got home and turns out nissan says there isnt any "open" recalls on this car. This will be interesting

 

do go with the mentality that you want them to buy it, go first to get it fixed. take the recall number with you and tell them you have larry long on speed dial to speed things up. good luck.

 

This is new to me... They buy the car From you? Bare with me I'm a little unclear.

 

if it is too expensive for nissan to complete the recall (compared to what the car is worth), they will most likely buy they car from me. Say the recall costs $3000, they will offer to buy the car since it is obviously not worth that much. They just look for the cheapest route possible

 

if you dont mind me asking maximaboi, how much did Nissan give you for your max??

 

yeah thats what they told me when I called to find out if the recall had been completed on my new maxima. they said that there was no open recall left. well then I said that I want the year month and dealer that the car was fixed at. they said that they would have to call me back. a week later I get a call telling me that they are sorry that my car does still have the rust recall out on it and that I should set up a time for the local nissan dealer to fix it.

even if the recall have already been completed on your car chances are if at the beginning it was a higher level recall they fixed it as if it were a lower level recall to save money and so that they could say that it was fixed. if this happened they still have to fix your car because they didnt complete the recall correctly.

 

I got $2,200 for it. it was an 89 max se auto with 216k on it. I told them that I wanted true market value for it or I would not let them buy it from me. the first offer they gave me was $900

 

what if you refuse to sell it to them, and the cost to repair is greater then the car is worth? will they still do the repair?

 

...I would just go find out ay?

 

as far as I know they would still have to fix it. its still a recall no matter what. they cant make you sell your car and they cant not fix the recall.

 

update
called local dealer last monday, they didn't have any info, said there was no "open" recall for that VIN. Told me to call nissan @ 1-800-647-7261 (also given on recall found here: http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/cars/pr...callsearch.cfm Use campaign number 95v244000

Talked to a lady, the computers were down, she would call back... nothing... Called multiple times during the week - only 30-45 min. wait on hold. Today basically started over, talked to a different person, he told us the recall only applies to certain VINs (which is total bull**** - the recall date was Dec. 15, 1995 - 4 years after my car was manufactured), but he said he would look into it and call back in about an hour. He did mention something about recompensation... possibly nissan has a set price for this recall. At first I just wanted to see if nissan would fix it, but they have been dodging me and now its obvious they are trying to ignore this problem. We'll see what happens later today.

 

then you tell them, what if i get into an accident and the peopel in my rear seats die from a "rust recall" that they didnt fix, then you can sue their asses b\c they did not fix. that would certainly get alot of attention, be like that other dude taht sued nissan.

 

next person you talk to on the phone, dont let them "call you back" i think its easy to say they wont. also ask the person on the phone to ask their manager if they know larry long. things might get sped up.

 

ahhh... gotta love those connections!

 

let me talk to them they will be sorry you ever even heard of any car called nissan after I get done with them. I made every person that I delt with HATE me (besides larry long and my laywer) because I would not back down. thats what you have to do.

 

another update
he called back and when we started quoting verbatim parts of the document i dl-ed from the nhtsa website, he gave me a fax number... but i cant get through. Tomorrow we'll try again and probably give Larry Long a call.

 

Some more bull from Nissan Customer Service - kept giving me a bad fax number. Called Larry Long - great help. Took some pics, sent him the information, he said he could look into it and typically would contact the dealer and arrange for them to inspect/repair/whatever the car. Much better then dealing with Nissan. If someone can host the pics, I'd be more than happy to share. (They're pretty nasty)
Things seem to be improving

 

ya, the dealer said, they cannot run the vin # because the car was too old, but they did come back with a "bulletin" whatever the f*ck that was. about 2 months ago i was there, no call yet, screw nissan their service sucks! i gave up with this, they just play games with me since i am 16 years old. i should make a big stick about it, but what will that get me??? i just got silicone and spread it across the hole in my car. should fix it....hopefully

 

interesting........

 

rust is like cancer if you dont get rid of all of it dont worry about trying to fix it because it will still rust away.

 

Use www.cardomain.com ...its free. Also u can stack all written info you now gather, in there. Would be a great help to have a www reference there.

The cardomain user interface sucks in the beginning, ask.

 

thanks wiking

here are some pics:
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/1146109

 

i know the rust will keep spreading, but i had a huge hole and do not have the money to fix it. i need exhaust first, inspection is in august..... i drive in july

 

just got a call from Larry Long - he forwarded the pictures and my information to a local dealer, they are supposed to contact me to arrange an inspection. Finally made some progress. If they don't contact me, then he said to give him a call. Guess now I just wait.

 

wow that it the worst by far that I have seen. that is a level 5 recall for sure. the seam that you use to see if rust is with 10mm of it is totally rusted away so yeah its a level 5.

 

Buy pitch and then get sheet metal from scrapyard. Its good if the metal is galvanized or at least well painted. Whack, scrape all rust off which can be taken. Here u should be only 20$ poorer... Next cut sheet metal pieces so they will block the holes. Take pitch pieces and spread around your art... Next take heater blower and start heating until the pitch boils and flows all directions: all water will be boiled out, seamless patch. Paint over with any... or better yet with high quality paint. Btw. Do this in well ventilated place.

= Rusting stopped, get more driving years, watertight now, u may escape being poorer than others and float to Cuba?

Edit: this is how...

 

This Larry Long fella, where is he? Does he charge for his services?

 

he works for the NHTSA. you're already paying him

 

finally an update. I am scheduled for an inspection next tuesday morning. Probably another week or so for Nissan to decide what to do. At least I finally made some progress, especially compared to when I first called Nissan.

 

been a while
Took the car to the local dealer, they took some pictures and sent them to someone at Nissan. Phone tag for a while, we finally talked to the guy at Nissan. Bunch of BS, finally we said, what are our options - he replied compensation and crush the car. Finally...but no. couple days later, he says it might be able to be fixed. I know it can't. Look at the pictures here It is obviously a level 5, which requires 30 or so hours in a body shop. The labor rate would have to be less than $65/hr for it to be worth it. ($2000\30hrs = $65\hr), and thats overestimating the cars value. An engineer from Nissan is coming out this Tuesday to look at the car (still at the dealer, uninspected since end of may). This has taken too damn long. All the do is keep giving me bull****. No rental car either. Today I'm going to call Larry again to try to end this. I figure pressure for a rental, mentioned a lawyer once, maybe push that, and should be able to get somewhere.

Edit: page 71 of the downloadable recall information from the nhtsa recall website lists: 3.1 hrs at the dealer, 26.5 hrs at body shop for a level 5 fix.

 

man ohhhhh man, id be pissed off. if they crush it find out if you can get compensated for not having the car for two months!

 

hi, guys ; can smbdy tell me how to get out that rear seat i saw a pic for it before but couldn't figure out if it has screws or do those square things pop-out, can anybdy help me. thanks

 

Pop up the front of the cushion (you may need a pry bar to do it)
and it comes right out

 

thanks thats all i needed to know.

 

Thanks for the heads-up on the rust recall. I've got an '89 SE; didn't know 3rd gens. still qualified. Is there a similar recall for the leather interiors? Mine's shredded and the leather's like hard plastic. I used to have a Merkur XR4Ti, and Mercury honored a complete leather interior replacement recall way past the 10-yr. mark, longest I've ever known.