i am need of an oil change and was planning to bring it to serramonte nissan. anyone have any good or bad experience with serramonte's service dept.??? i brought my eclipse to the mitsu service they have there, and it seemed ok.... just wanna make sure that they'll take good care of my z. also, i've noticed a slight pull towards the right. think they'll do the alignment for me (for free)??

 

i go to that service dept cuz its 2 mins away from my house BTW, they're located across from Toy's R Us now. They're ok there. Pretty much basic dealership treatment. Also, if you bring up any TSB's... make sure you print it out and show them. Cuz they always say "well i've never heard of it." I've only had one bad experience with them... it was with the window grease and Bose amp TSB's... they wouldn't believe me.. even with the TSB in my hand!! Then when they believed me, they never ordered the parts. Had to call 3 times and 1 visit to make them order the freagin parts. Well, he was just a temp guy so i can't really say much. anyways, i'm straying off too much, yeah they'll be good with your Z.

Oh and also, request that they don't wash your car after service... they put swirl marks all over my car.

 

That is good advice that is applicable to virtually any dealer, especially pertaining to black paint jobs.

Thanks for the great reminder s9!

 

think they'll still do the alignment for free?? and will they make a big deal that i have aftermarket rims??

 

I know this is an old thread but just like to give you guys a description of my recent experience with Erwin at Serramonte Nissan.

I dropped off my car a month back to get a noise coming from the back checked out, I thought first is was a TSB for the wheel bearings. It took them 2 days to dignose that it wasn't the issue. Finally after a week of "working on it" they finally found out that it's the cross member in the back that's making the noise. They said that they would need another week to use their body shop to fix the weld to the cross member.

I didn't have the week so I picked up my car but noticed that there's about 40 miles tacked onto the odometer since I dropped it off.

I just dropped off the car for them to work on it since I'm out of the country for a week and won't need the car and brought this issue up with Erwin to which he responded that he has a G35 and Corvette both of which are better than my z and that he wouldn't care to drive my 350z. I replied that I have a Cayenne but that's not the point. In any case I'll be picking up my car next week...

What do you guys think is 40 miles to be expected for every service? And do you guys have such poor service with Nissan? I've dealt with mercedes and porsche service dealerships and they are all pretty good.

Thanks,

Dan

 

Tell you what, with his attitude saying that his "G35 and Corvette both of which are better than my z," I'd have definitely found another dealer to deal with... sounds like he just basically p|ssed all over your car, which is akin to an insult. My 2¢

And to answer your question, 40 miles is definitely excessive. They must've taken your car up and down 280 for 20 miles each way... kind of a lot of driving IMO. That is UNLESS they couldn't get a problem fixed correctly multiple times, and had to drive it each and every time to test the integrity of the cross member or something...

 

wow... sorry to hear about your experience w/ serramonte nissan.
i haven't been there in a very long time, but i will have to go soon for some tsbs.

i hope i will have better luck.

 

I used them this time out of convenience since they've already diagnosed the problem. But do find their attitude unacceptable.

Nissan should do a better job of quality control in their service staff; haven't received a survey from them and I'm not surprised that they're not ranked highly by JD Power.

I still haven't found a good service dealership in the Bay Area since San Rafael Nissan closed. I may just use Performance Nissan in Duarte when I drive back to S. Calif once a year during the holidays. If you guys find a good place here in the Bay Area with mod'd Z's please let me know!

Thanks for the input,

Dan

 

I go to Serramonte Nissan to get my oil changed. I haven't had any problems. Try to get Larry as opposed to Erwin as your service advisor. Erwin definitely has an additude problem. 40 miles is ridiculous...And his comment about his G and the corvette would probably be enough to rip his head off...Totally uncalled for.

They quoted me $129 for an alignment job. I went to ZCG instead.

 

I just brought my car to Serramonte for the 15K service. I specifically dealt with Erwin because someone had recommended him in a different thread and I am glad I did.

Erwin was very easy to deal with and seems to know is stuff. When I called to make the appointment, I asked him if they would be OK with using Mobil-1 synthetic oil, and he said no problem (and he uses it in his car). He then proceeded to recommend I get the oil at Costco so I wouldn't be charged their higher price.

When I got there, he pulled out a discount coupon for the 15K service without me even asking. I guess they mail them out, and I didn't have one. I also asked them to investigate the rear axel clicking sound. Erwin knew about the TSB and they confirmed the problem. Since they had to order the parts, they asked me if I would mind them keeping the car overnight so they could take it apart that day and save me time the next day. I agreed to it, and although a rental car is not covered for a TSB, he got his manager to cover mine which I thought was very cool.

The service includes new wiper blades. Since I had just changed mine, they left the new ones in my car. They also left the extra Mobil-1 quart in my trunk (I know they are supposed to since there were 6 quarts in the case, but still, it is nice to know they are honest). I specified that I did not want them washing the car, so they didn't.

I also made sure to note down the mileage on my car, and although I had asked them to diagnose several things that required them driving the car, they only put 7 miles on it which is totally reasonable. Finally, they agreed to letting me drive the car before paying them to confirm the clicking was gone. All dealers force you to pay before giving you your keys back.

Overall, great service.

 

An update on my experience. They've had my car now for about 2 weeks to diagnose this clicking noise. First they got my car mixed up and had to "rediagnose" the problem for a week. Finally they figured out that this is the same car they've been looking at, they sent it to the body shop to address the cross member in the B-pillar that was supposedly causing the problem. The body shop had a for a few days and after taking apart the body panels, they realized that the noise is not coming from there and suggested that the suspension is the issue. They now put the car back together and sent the car back Serramonte Nissan. They haven't done jack to the car since because they don't diagnose noise issues "when it's raining" (it was the past 2 days).

I'm not sure what kind of show they're running there but they're obviously a high volume service shop. I'm going to get the car from them on Monday and bring it to another place. I don't think it's acceptable to be treated this way. Even if my car is not a Corvette or whatever he drives.

 

BTW, I think they still charged you 29.99 on the "discounted" oil change despite using your own oil; which I think is a rip off...

 

even with using your own mobile 1 oil that is.

 

don't waste time discusing to service advise just ask for nissan 1800 number to him. i know things work after and dont forget get a rental car when under waranty.
I always recive arental from them that make them realy work.

 

i asked him earlier about a rental car he said they don't rent out cars for diagnosing noises only for mechanical things such as transmission etc. This Erwin guy must not like me. Anyway, probably won't matter to them that they lose one customer...

 

i was a little nervous about bringing my car in to serramonte, since i haven't been to the dealership for awhile. but i got some warranty work done last week. they had my car for one day. i brought it in the morning and picked it up that same night. erwin treated me very nicely, he knew the problem and fixed it right away. he even arranged for me to pick up my car late at night.... so overall i'm very happy with the service i got.

 

Shoot, if I'm gonna elect Serramonte for service, I'm going to name drop for better service... that okay Michelle?

 

waldoemerson, I feel for you as it does sound like you are getting a less than ideal dealership experience. It is good that you are sharing, since it only gives the rest of us more data to make our decisions on.

I did want to mention, however, that Erwin lowered my bill by $30 (so it came out to $229 instead of $259) since I had brought my own oil. I was expecting them not to, first because I typically don't trust dealerships, but also because he had my service done at a coupon price.

I think you are unfortunaltely in the case where your problem is not something routine to them. Most dealers become really terrible when they face a problem that is not a common one.

 

sure thing.... may not help too much tho.

 

I have come to the conclusion that the only thing the stealership means to me is warrenty issues. If I need service the Z goes directly to my friendly Z car service shop. As for oil changes I do it myself. Diagnostics, in my case anyway, it goes directly to Scott Performance. At least Ted's new load based dyno is being installed right now, but that's just what makes it fun.






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