I didn't have a very pleasant experience at SM Infiniti either. But this was with sales. I went in October '04 to place my order for my 6mt coupe. All went well and they took my deposit. Not once did I get a call from them regarding the status of my car. My car was estimated to arrive early January so I had to call them to follow up. Car hadn't arrived yet. Finally at the end of January, the car supposedly arrived but it was on hold. The sales people there dicked around with me saying they had the car and each time I asked them to show it to me, they gave me an excuse saying it was at their wearhouse. Finally they had to admit they didn't have the car but it'll be arriving the following week. I let this happen for a week and I was fed up. We hadn't even negotiated a price and I figured might as well get that done so when the car did finally arrive, I can just take it home. They didn't want to negotiate at the time and finally when my sales guy did want to remotely talk about price, he said he couldn't do a cent below MSRP. I brought up the whole Freshalloy VPP deal to see if they can at least cut me a break. They gave me a laughable $50 off. Why even bother? Finally they said they'd give me $500 for all my "troubles" in waiting but not after I had already asked for my deposit back. They played a few more games after that too saying my car had arrived and was being detailed, but by then I wasn't buying that. I asked for my money back and they said they would. But even that wasn't without it's troubles. I came in and they said their finance lady wasn't around. I came back the next day after work (the only real time I had) and they said they don't do refunds after 4. By this point, I was pretty angry. But a $1k deposit is a lot of money, so I took an earned day off and came in in the morning and finally got my money back.

Needless to say, I finally got my car. Not through them though. I went through Freshalloy and Grubbs. No hassel, no headache, and my sales guy kept me up to date every step of the way. Not only was he excited for me when the car came in, he followed up on numerous occasions afterwards to make sure everything was going well. Now that's how service SHOULD be. AND, icing on the cake, I got the car at their VPP pricing which was invoice + $500.

With this new story of SM Infinit's bad service dept, I don't think I'll take my car there even for oil changes. I'd rather spend the hour on a saturday and just do it myself. Too bad Grubbs isn't in California, I'd go to them without any hesitation.

 

Armani350GT your funny as hell too bro. you in Cali? Freakin guy dude, has the nerve to say nice haircut when he doesnt have any hair? funny stuff. But man i was pissed when i heard the service manager redlinging my car and tell me hes just trying to drive the car the same way he ASSUMES i drive the car. hmmm ASSUMES! anyway, i got even more upset when he just straight up lied and said he didnt hear the freakin grinding. musta been deaf. we should post this on other G35 forums too, so others can avoid this hassle too. Just looking out for fellow G owners, just an idea...

 

Here is the contact info I found on their website

Service Manager Ron Reed
Phone 310-394-1888
rReed@InfinitiOfSantaMonica.Com



Email them your thoughts on this issue if you wish...these people must really be low and unprofessional.

Also it is completely UNACCEPTABLE and ABSURD for them to assert that you can't put this car, or any other manual tranny car, into 5th from neutral. I can't believe they would say something so blatantly wrong. Additionally, I also can't believe that they claimed the rear axle clicking noises to be normal despite there being a very clear TSB on the matter. These people are crooks.

 

We should have a section just for users to briefly mention the dealers they've had problems with, and then provide a link to the past threads. This'll sort out the dealerships for our current and future members.

I'm sure some dealers roam these online forums (as in the case of Barry and Richmond Infiniti) to gage customer opinion.

 

All these posts about dealor service experiences and including my own makes me SIGH why Skyline is not a Lexus.. At least an Acura!!! I f**king hate Infiniti's jackass attitude... I did not pay 40k for that!!! Not to mention there are so many small problems with our car (rattling, clutch, windows, feathering, alignment, etc) and dealors just denied them most of the time...

However, a good suggestion for you.. never reveal the real you in front of people. In other words, under such circumstance, you may take more control over the situation if you can manage your emotion.

I think you should go in front of media and tell the world about Santa f**king Monica infiniti.... I feel really irritated when Dealorships are not aware that we ARE the customers. This way of treating customer needs to stop!!!! Right now I am already up for my oil change but .... it seems all the dealorships in so cali are bad and I just feel reluctant to go to any Infiniti dealorship for oil change (well, i NEED to go to infiniti becuz i also need them to do diagnostic on my car.. otherwise i would rather go nissan or even professional private own auto shop)

 

ive heard great things abuot thousand oaks infiniti, but its an hour drive from me....dnno if its worth it

 

Thanks for the heads up on Santa Monica Infiniti. My niece was talking to them. No more. The drive out to Thusand Oaks isn't bad once you get past about Topanga Blvd heading west. Between Hollywood and the west end of the valley the Ventura is a real pita to drive.

 

Dealer Feedback section. I also think this would be a great asset to the forums. Some of the comments are bound to be a bit 'angry' but over time the quallity dealers shouldn't be hard to pick out.

 

+1 ... i've also had some bad experiences with one dealership here in canada *cough* 401/dixie infiniti *cough*. i think the above idea is great.

 

Just want to say that you can have a bad experience with almost any dealership, regardless of make. I had a terrible experience with an Acura dealership in CA, and have had good luck with Infiniti.

Still, good luck with this - those guys were ***** to you. I hate hearing about crap like this.

 

+1 on the dealer experience section. It could also have the good experiences too.

I'm glad I kept my initial customer survey. I went back to my sales manager (whom sold me the car) and asked him for some assistance on getting the clutch problem looked at (Since he was a manager and I WAS looking into the FX45 for the lady). He took his time and ultimately said it was because I did my own oil change. Hilarious. Now I can give some good feedback to Infiniti and needless to say no FX.

 

im just shocked at how the service MANAGEr, who told me that hes driven VIpers, and Ram Airs, said you are not supposed to put the car in 5th gear from neutral. Only into 1st. wtf is that? lol. if the cars not moving, you can put it into any gear, its not something that can damage the car by just sliding it into gear and taking it back out. he heard the grinding the first time when i did that, said it was b/c your not supposed to put it into gear, THEN the 2nd time when we were on our way back from the test drive, but he refused to believe it. boy do i love this dealer haha

 

HAHAAA! I wonder how this jackass gets the car into reverse! I suppose he just puts it in neutral, gets out, and gives it the ole Heave HO(emphasis on ho)!

 

i second that, good to see they didn’t f#*k up your rims , I moved to Glendale infiniti for service and so far after 1 visit things seem to be ok

 

Tell him to call the police. Today the service consultant at Miller tried to get fresh with me since I booked an appointment with another consultant more than two weeks ago for tomorrow. Well, this guy cant find it and says why are you calling me, you should be talking to the guy you booked it with. I told him I called you because the system is linked, wtf does it matter...hes all like "howd u get my number?" I'm all like you left me a voicemail with it, and its on your card...

These guys are morons and I am short tempered. My relationship is gonna end worse with Infiniti than your did because one of these days I will be leaving...

...only in hand cuffs though.