I bought my 2003 G35 on 2/5. When I picked it up, it had the infamous jammed CD changer, so I informed my sales consultant at the dealership (Carmax Roseville/Sacramento in California) and set up an appointment to fix the unit under the warranty Carmax provides.

I brought the G35 in on 2/19 and got a Pontiac G6 loaner. They kept the G35 for the weekend and the following Monday 2/22, my service advisor told me it was unfixable and they had to order another unit from Clarion. Since the unit was removed from the car, the climate control was gone too, so the car was basically useless. They told me to keep driving the loaner until the arrival of the Clarion unit, which was scheduled to be delivered on 3/12. Uh, okay.

3/12 rolls around and I'm informed that they still haven't received the Clarion unit. They called Clarion and apparently the unit was sent to the wrong vendor. The vendor had to send it back to Clarion, (whom has yet to receive it) who will then overnight it to Carmax. Today is 3/23, and they still have not received the unit yet.

My service advisor has been calling me every day since 2/22 to keep me updated about the car. The Pontiac is a decent car to get around, but I miss my G35. Thus, I have two questions:

1) Is there any course of complaint action I can take? (i.e. BBB)
2) Does Clarion provide new units, refurbished units, or did Carmax send the current unit in to be refurbished? 5 weeks is an awful long time to ship a part from the East Coast to California.

Any input is greatly appreciated. From the threads I have searched and read, it seems that Clarion sends a different unit altogether to the Infiniti dealerships (idk if they're new or refurbished). I would have gone with DD, but since it was covered by warranty, I figured "What the hell, might as well keep it OEM and go aftermarket when it croaks again." Thanks.

 

if you're planning to keep it oem as i did, i recommend you get a usa spec ipod adapter installed and just use your ipod instead.. had my radio replaced 3 years ago and has never failed since... i figure the less you use the cd changer itself, the less probability it will go out on you.. who uses cd's in their cars nowadays anyway?.. ...

 

clarion head units? really?

 

I don't understand how not having a radio or A/C makes your car basically useless? I would just drive it around like that until the new headunit came in.

 

Hmmm... I had mine replaced 3 times.. and all the times, it took a day or so longer to arrive and install (depending if the original arrival day landed on a Friday or not). I complained the 2nd time about the CD player not working and they informed me that all the replacements are refurbs directly from Clarion and not through third party vendors. The only reason i havent went aftermarket is that it's been replaced for free under my warranty

 

That sucks but on the up side- your service advisor has been very punctual about calling you and keeping you in on the process... i'd drop by carmax and make sure the car is actually there though.

 

when you get the car back

take the stock head unit out and get something better

 

Wow, a month of rental fees on a G6 + $600 for a refurbished headunit.
It would have been cheaper for them to install a DD with a kickass headunit.

 

isnt the car out of warranty?

 

It's there. I checked twice. Believe me I've had the suspicions that one of their technicians took it on a joy ride and it was secretly in the bodyshop.

@Alan, the car is indeed out of warranty but Carmax provides their own 30-day bumper-to-bumper warranty.

 

Also I spoke to the service advisor again today when he called to update me about the car. Apparently they're waiting for a replacement part, not a refurbished unit.

 

Tell them to save the money and just give you an aftermarket DD unit.

 

I believe the non-bose head units are made by Clarion.

 

even the "bose" head units are made by someone else

speakers are made by clarion also

 

They are all made by clarion (Bose and non Bose)