Frustrated by Nissan
Posted by marshall Wed, 01 Oct 2003 18:00:00 GMT
My faith in the reliability of Nissans has been greatly shaken by our experiences with our Sentra. We bought this car new (2002 model) from West Hills Nissan in November 2001, and in the not-quite-2-years that we've owned it, it's given us constant problems. The windshield wiper switch failed about 10 months after we bought the car, leaving us without wipers in the middle of heavy rain. One month after that, the alternator failed, right in the middle of rush hour traffic. We've had to replace the belts twice this year, the driver's side window has been acting up, and the cheap map lights have never worked right. This is in all in addition to things like having to get the windshield and the passenger visor replaced because of cracks.
The latest problem to hit us is the "SERVICE ENGINE SOON" Light of Doom. It's come on a couple of times before, but eventually it went out before anyone could take a look at it. This time it's not going away. We brought the car in for service on Monday, and they told us that the car's computer needed to be reprogrammed. It's a $130 charge, and not covered under the car's warranty.
Now, when we bought the car, we purchased the Super-Duper Gold Preferred Plus Extreme Warranty. The Service Agreement for this plan (PDF) says that everything is covered except the items in Section 8, which describes things that normally wear down like brakes, bulbs, upholstery, and the hamster that generates the power for the audio system. Section 8 says nothing about the computer failing, nor do I think it should, as that doesn't seem like the sort of thing that should normally fail. Nissan, however, claims that it's not listed in their book of covered parts, so they refuse to fix it under warranty.
Now, to their credit, the folks at McMinn Nissan in Dormont -- where we've been taking the car lately, since it's on the way to work -- have done their best to be helpful, and they didn't charge us the full price for the computer reprogramming. Still, it vexes me that we had to pay for it at all. I am terribly vexed.
This sad tale doesn't end yet, though. This morning, on the way into work, the light came on again.
