How many miles were on your car when you drove it off the lot?

I would demand they fix it and if they say no, you need to ask for a warranty claim rep to come and inspect the vehicle in person. Ask to be there when the rep shows up to look at your car, and this might mean hanging at the dealership for a couple hours. I had to do it with a car I use to own cause they were trying to screw me over on a blown engine 4 weeks after I bought the car.

 

With my "repair", the mfr rep was going to be at the dealer in the morning or so the dealer believed. The guy showed up late in the day, drove the car once, told em what to try and left, never to drive the car again until BBB arbitration and he still said nothing unusual with the car even though the dealer work order dated the day before said the problem still existed.
Good luck to you.

 

Dude, he is saying they sent someone who's hands shake very bad from whatever his disability is to come and look at a warranty issue that dealt with the steering wheel shakeing. Do you get it now. How could you feel a shakeing steering wheel if your hands shake.

 

WHEW..THANK YOU ! TT_G35 you said it exactly. It was the content of the whole story, not abouty one man with shaky hands.

 

The funny thing is the first time he was suppose to come inspect it was in the afternoon and when I showed up they said he was already there and gone. They denied the warranty claim. I told them they I wanted to be present when they came to inspect and they new this and he came earlier than he was suppose to. I demanded they come back and inspect it while I was present and they did. I explain to the inspector how long I had the car in my possesion and exactly what happened when I was driveing. They ended up covering it under warranty. Edit: It cost them over $5,000

 

This post reminds me of the case studies I used to read in business school and have to analyze. You get little bits of info from one side of a story and little from the other and you have to render some sort of judgment about what happened or should have happened.

I find it impossible to render judgment on Infiniti Consumer Affairs, the dealer, or the owner based on this info.

That it has attracted the attention of those who feel bitter towards Infiniti seems very unfair to the brand. This started as a post that reflected one person's disappointment with their ownership experience. It now questions the entire Infiniti Consumer Affairs division and the arbitration process that seeks to protect consumers from manufacturer bullying.

Frankly, I don't think any of those that have presented their cases were wronged. None! Sorry, but I don't think that because your clutch wore out at 14k miles or your steering wheel shook that you've made a case that Infiniti did anything wrong. It's not that I don't believe you; you simply haven't made your case very well.

Those that state that the warranty reads that the owner's interests supercede the manufacturer’s interests simply aren't interpreting the warranty correctly. The warranty is quite clear on areas of coverage or non-coverage.

From the 2004 NEW VEHICLE LIMITED WARRANTY…
“MAINTENANCE SERVICE EXPENSE
This warranty does not cover normal maintenance services as specified in your Owner’s Manual such as wheel alignment, headlight aiming, replacement of filters, lubricants, coolant, worn clutch discs and brake pads.”

Infiniti is in the business of making a profit. They offer a very competitive warranty but they are not offering blanket coverage for their cars. That kind of exposure would be foolish. It certainly wouldn't reflect a company making intelligent decisions that reflect the intelligent individuals they hope to attract to the brand.

My post is in hope of bringing some balance to a thread that suggests that Nissan/Infiniti is somehow dishonest or unscrupulous. I see nothing here that suggests this conclusion.

 

I agree it sucks its only 14K miles, but he is probably **** out of luck on his clutch getting repaired. Look at this as a time to upgrade.

As far as the guy picking up his car the first day and there being an issue with the steering wheel shakeing, oooooooh hell no. You dont buy a brand new car WITH problems. It should be in perfect working condition and that means the tires being balanced/alignment correctly from the manufacturer.

 

Tonight, when I get home from work, I will post the work order from the dealer that states customer complains of steering wheel vibration/shake.
Then the dealer wrote, the problem that has been addressed in this vehicles history on numerous occassions still exists." All I am saying is that Consumer affairs would rather take the word of a non professional than take the word of their dealers sevice dept. Even if the BBB arbitrator vindicated them by saying the car has no defect, the dealer says it does. Part of the problem was the dealer did not want to admit a defect existed(he played the game and tried to make me think I was imagining things) and after adjusting the slider mechanism, it was somewhat better for a month or two. Then, it started to be more noticeable. They(the dealer) only admitted the car was defective about 1 week before the bbb arbitration and provided me with a copy of said service order dated the day prior to arbitration. If this situation had been with your car, believe me, you would feel wronged.
.

 

When you do not get satisfaction from anyone in the Infinti chain of consumer affairs, you absolutely, positively have got to go straight to Japan with it. The Japanese, especially the executives, take the quality of their products personally. I mean that literally. In Japanese culture, your self worth is defined by the performance of your work's output. This is very engrained into the culture. When a business gets into financial crisis in the US, the execs lay off staff and cut benefits to keep their bonuses, etc. On the other hand, Japanese execs take the pay cuts and even pull money out of their own pockets because they personally take the blame for the company's poor performance.
Here's an example...in the early 90s, a friend of mine was having issues with his Toyota. Dealer claimed that there was nothing wrong, consumer affairs calimed it wasn't Toyota's problem. What does he do? He calls Toyota's central offices in Japan and tells them about the car's problems and the run around he was getting. Next thing you know, heads are rolling back in the States and his car is fixed immediately. True story. You see, the American portion of Toyota was more concerned about saving money than his satisfaction. The staff in Japan was more concerned about the reputation of their product than the one billionth of a percent of their profit they lost by fixing his car.
A few years later, I did the same sort of thing. I bought a expensive Sony TV. One month out of warrany and the damn thing started to have problems. The local repair place refused to fix it under warranty. So I wrote a letter to Sony's headquarters in Japan telling them how I had bought many Sony products over the years and how disappointed I was when my TV started to have problems. Two weeks later, I got a call from someone at Sony saying that they were arranging for a company to come pick up the TV and repair it on their dime. Amazing! They really do care that people respect their quality and they value their reputation.
If anything goes wrong with my G and I'm getting the run around, guaranteed, I will contacting Nissan in Japan, bypassing all of their US underlings. I suggest you do so as well!

scoobybri

 

thats interesting. i just hope everyone reciprocates that honor and owns up to issues they may have caused on their own

 

Sorry, but unless there are broken springs or a shattered flywheel you gotta pay for the clutch. Its foolish to think that you can own a car and not pay for its normal wear and tear. Your damn lucky you guys get your brakes under warranty just because they squeak a little and leave dust. Even if you drive like a madman your only looking at wearing out the stock brake pads 2 times at most...maybe 3. But that is not the case with a clutch, its very possible to go through clutches every 5K miles. All the parts for a complete clutch job are $1200 (and flywheels must always be replaced, never machined per nissan) and you still have to add labor costs, to get the complete job for $1300 you better be thankfull.

To say that infiniti consumer affairs treated you like crap is wrong, they just stood their ground on the policies already in place. Wanna take infiniti to the BBB about not covering the clutch under warranty? Go for it...you wont win. Wanna take the to court? You wont win.

Just go aftermarket and never look back. The clutches that are used for the g35 and 350z are no different from the clutches used in the older 280z's. Cars with the 3.5L are much more powerful, heavier, and are driven harder than the older 280's...bottom line nissan should have picked a better part from the part bin when designing this car.

 

This is so right on target.....the only thing that's missing is the ability of people to take responsibility for their own actions. The "it couldn't have been my fault" attitude is only gonna stop when manufactures' realize that the customer's NOT always right and stop caving-in to the holding my breath/stomping my feet till' I have it my way mentallity. Sorry....tell it to the Judge Pinky. JBX

 

If the clutches in the G35 are no different than the ones in the old 280Z's wouldn't that suggest that 1) they may be inadequate for the G35 application or 2) they were more than adequate for the 280Z? If 1 is the answer I think that Infiniti should be responsible- at least morally if not legally.

 

If the clutches were inadequate then they would be failing left and right. The very vocal few that have failed gives people the impression that they are weak when thats really not the case. Same applies to the brakes. Not everyone is wearing them out prematurely. when My car went in for service at 19K There was plenty of pad left while others are long worn out before this point.

 

Having worked at two different OEM's (Ford and Mercedes) I can give you a little insight on how they test vehicles. Prototype cars are tested on a durability track and must hold up for at least 150,000 miles. Pre-production cars are often driven to 50K (very hard I might add) before the first car is ever delivered to the dealer showroom. Since everybody has a different driving style and some drivers are harder on the vehicle than others is the main reason why the OEMs only have a 36 or 50K milage warranty. If everyone drove the same, we would know exactly how to test cars and would then be able to offer 100,000 mile warranties.
Having also worked with many Tier I suppliers, there are times when a batch of parts are produced and shipped even though they do not meet the OEMs specifications. Which is exactly why we have warranties in the first place. The manufacturer could not possibly check each and every vehicle to the breaking point to determine which parts meet hte spec and which ones don't.
I fully believe that a clutch can wear out in14K miles and have absolutely nothing to do with the persons driving style. It happens and that's why there are warranties. So all you mechanics out there that say that "it is the drivers fault unless proven otherwise" should spend one day at a supplier that produces clutches and see how many of his own product he throws away in a day. then think about the chance that he misses one defective part and accidentally ships it to teh engine builder to be put in a customers vehicle.
"And that all I have to say about that"