chee-z-name

Took the Z in this morning to Antwerpen Nissan in Clarksville, MD to find and fix a rattle coming from the right side of the dashboard. Talked to Kevin, the Nissan service rep about the problem and told him that I wanted to accompany the mechanic while he tried to road test and localize the problem. Kevin said they actually prefer if the customer comes along--helps the mechainc do his job he said. So after waiting less then 10 mins Joe the mechanic comes out and we take the car out for a road test. I drove while Joe listened to the dash. Needless to say when I wanted to hear the rattle it was inaudible. Finally it developed over some uneven road surface and Joe made the presumptive diagnosis of some loose dash board panels vibrating against the cowel or the winshield. Now I really don't know if that was what was causing the problem but after Joe installed some foam/felt, the rattle did seem to have subsided.

Anyway I learned a couple of interesting things:
1. Both Joe and Kevin asked about how the transmission was doing (I'm at 10,500 mi) and I said so far so good. Joe said he had replaced a couple already and said that at his classes (I assume some sort of Nissan technical classes) he asked about what was up with the transmission and his instructor said he hadn't heard about any problems with the transmission to which Joe responded that he's already replaced a few of them.

2. He said that it seems like the informed customer is usually ahead of the mechaincs when it comes to TSBs. I showed him the grease on the windows and he apologized saying there was nothing that Nissan could do and I told him he was wrong, that there is a TSB out on this. He said that in the shop they have the June bulletin and he hadn't seen anything about it yet, but he didn't seem surprised at all that it was out and no one in the shop knew about it.

3. I showed him the numerous paint chips on the hood/front fender and he said it is a chronic problem that Nissan just hasn't learned how to address yet. He said clearly I wax my car and that's a good thing since he had just recently seen an XTerra with 30k miles that had the same paint chips with rust already developing in them.

4. Finally he said he saw some white spots on the underside of my dash and he said it looked like oxidation caused by the dash cleaner I was using. Again he had an anecdote about some lady that had slowly destroyed her dash that way, that had to now replace her dash, and had to do it entirely out of pocket. He said he uses a damp shammy on his Firebird and reccomended I do the same.

All in all, a good expereince. Joe didn't know it all but he was readily able to admit that and he was curious to learn more. He also hooked me up with a buddy of his at an Infiniti dealership who will do detailing work at a discount b/c of the reference. I'd reccomend them there. Sorry for the long-winded expose, but hopefully it will help someone out there and I thought it a welcome chance from all the horror stories I read about around here.

neo4mni

Hallelujah, yes good dealer service departments do exist.

Just like chee-z-name, I too walked away from a dealer satisfied (well, if they had given me a G35 rental, I would have been TOTALLY satisfied)

Dealer? - Performance Nissan, guess it helps that their parts manager is a forum guy.

NO! I do not work for them. I had been bringing my car to the dealer I purchased from, every time I would bring up the pulling to the right and my grease streaks, they would never fix it!!!

So I decided to test another service dept. (Jeff was great, so what could go wrong)

Javier (service adviser) totally sat down and made sure all my concerns w/ the car were taken cared of.

And they are, grease marks are gone, rear axle clicking is gone and parts have been ordered to straighten my car (especially while braking). Plus, a rental boot!