I had a 45,000 mile service done by my local Nissan dealer in Atlanta (Roswell). It was much cheaper , plus close to my work and I figured nothing major was done in this service. So no point spending 450 a the Inifiniti dealer.
I had the 15,000 and a couple of oil changes done at this dealership with no problems.

THE PROBLEM:
Well 4 days later, in the morning, I noticed a little puddle of fluid flowing from the front to the side of my car. I drove it out a block and I heard some rattling and things moving. Immediately , i parked it in my driveway, called infiniti roadside service to tow it to my original dealer where I bought the car.

Dealer said that the Nissan dealer messed up securing the bolt or something. Oil splattered on the drive belt which the dealer mentioned as causing the sound due to some slippage. He did a complete diagnostic of the engine and he cleared it. Total bill would be $250 plus. I angrily called the Regal nissan dealership. The Nissan guy called the Infiniti guy and agreed to pay the bill for the oil change, and drive belts which was $250.

Then Nissan dealer guy called me and told me he may help out with a discount on some other repair. I said I would meet him with on Tuesday or later to discuss options since my whole day was ruined plus I gotta live with the uncertaintly of any minor damage to the engine. He realizes that I have been a great customer for their dealership as I have taken my old Maxima in the 90s to them, then I took my mom's Nissan Sentra(2002) to them for a lot of service items and taken my Infiniti to them for 15K and 45K services and a couple of oil changes(the remaining services have been done at the Infiniti dealer).

What is a reasonable approach to extra damages?
1) I want to ask them to sign a letter promising to repair my engine if anything happens to it , and Infiniti fails to honor any warranty, not just to 60K, but to 100K as that is where most Infiniti cars operate just fine without a problem.
2) If he signs that, then I may ask for discounted repairs on a couple of items for my Infiniti and Nissan Sentra(which I bought for my mom). Maybe 200- 300 dollars worth of discount. If he doesn't sign for 1) , then maybe I ask for more. I figure that is worth the cost of them not having to hire a lawyer. Some of the items on the list include - Replacing raidator hoses(Infiniti dealer refuses to honor it because they say the radiator hose damage was caused by rats chewing on them , not due to any material defect), power steering fluid, transmission fluid (I would expect more than of a discount percentage on the fluid items as they ahve more margin on those). Battery for my mom's Sentra. Maybe a massively discounted detail fo the cars.
Suggestions please. I want to be aggressive and protect my rights for my ruined memorial day weekend, but not totally unreasonable at the same time.

 

wow, just remember that we are all human and we all make mistakes, at least they were honest to admit theyr foult and did pay for the Infiniti repairs, if they had serviced you well in the past, then you be the judge...

 

The problem was I was paying 190 bucks as to what was primarily an oil change, air filter and cabin air filter change and a bunch of inspections. This was not one of those discounted 15 dollar oil changes. When I give a car to a DEALER intead of an independent mechanic, I expect more, especially when I gave them so much business in the past. And there were actually a couple of problems in the past where I gave them the benefit of doubt. The latest case was not an honest mistake, but pure negligence.

Anyway, I don't think asking them to warrant the engine is unreasonable. Of two cars are equivalent, would you take a car which had my problem once even if it had only 45000 miles on it or another car in identical shape with an extra 5-10K miles on it. And an extra 200 bucks in discounts is not killing the dealer if they come on two or three high margin repairs. They probably lose another 100 bucks at most.

 

I would add up my total cost for one day of work (missed), tow fee and any other exspense and get a credit. Have them document it etc..

 

Dealers do make mistakes...used to work at one and they are humans too. I don't think you will ever get them to give extra warranty on your motor. I can almost certainly say they wont do work on another car for free, just because they made a mistake on yours.

I will say that I would be PI$$ED if this happened to me. Use it as a lesson to never go back to that Nissan dealer and also use it to your advantage to make friends with your Infiniti Dealer. If something ever does go wrong, you want them on your side.

Gotta ask, if you saw the puddle like you said, why would you even start it and attempt to drive it? Pretty simple IMO to stick your finger in a puddle and discover it is motor oil...

 

I did a bad job in describing it, baksdak. I noticed the puddle, not when I started the engine, but as I was already driving out. It was on the passenger side. No oil warning signals came on. Keep in mind, I was operating on very little sleep as I have a parent in a hospital for surgery and I had to go somewhere in a hurry. I drove an extra block. I heard some slipping type noise. So I drove it back to the driveway and parked it. The infiniti dealer later told me that the slipping was probably just the drive belts. I might ask him to put additional documentation clearing the engine(which he did verbally) for warranty purposes. This way, in case Nissan won't warrant the engine(which by the feedback here, they probably won't), then I will at least have Infiniti coverage for the remaining 15K miles.

Here is the exact description on the Infiniti ticket:Engine Oil Pan plug hanging on by two threads. Engine Oil level - 4 quarts low. Underneath of vehicle saturated by oil leak. Engine drive belts extremely saturated with oil

 

SOLUTION- Change your on oil/ cabin filter, etc.

This is a perfect example of I do this and for peace of mind knowing that I did it, and it was done right. I beleive if you want something done right you have to do it yourself.

**I understand not everyone can do their own oil, filter(s) etc. for whatever reason BUT to his their own.

 

I agree and the reason I do as much DIY as possible.

I do not think any dealer will sign a legal document accepting all future engine liabilities. As long as you have the infiniti dealer documenting the error, you have enough to build a case if your engine ever becomes damaged. Doesn't sound like you drove far enough to cause a problem though. As for compensation, the cost of the service and infiniti fix should be paid for in my opinion. I would not hesitate to go back to the nissan dealer--as was mentioned anyone can make a mistake.

 

FOUR quarts low?!? I would definitely ask for some extended warranty. Worst they can do is say no.

 

Gotcha. I would try and get them to edit the ticket and put somewhere on there that it was _____ Nissan Dealer that made the mistake. Dont see why they wouldnt. This would eliminate any doubt about responsibility. If you have 15k left of Infiniti warranty, I wouldnt be worried. I would think if anything was messed up in this event, it would appear before then .

As others have said, this is also why I change my own oil. But unfortunately not everyone has the time and/or knowledge to do so.

 

OK so a tech goofed, if the engine was damaged it would be the Nissan dealer on the hook, not you. But what about quality control? Sounds like you settled it correctly, good luck.

 

OK, I pretty much settled the issue with them(Regal Nissan). I went to followup on it today. They said there was a 10% offer on the rear brakes(would end up being 170 plus, at that prince point, who cares if Infiniti warrants the resurfacing of the rear rotors, I will just get it done here). So I told them I would do the rear brakes/resurfacing with them provided they made sure it was infiniti G35 compliant and they used their best guy on the job(really, it's an honor system at this point). If I did that, they needed to give me a Transmission Fluid flush(S-Matic) for free. It's a 240 dollar value which is OK. I could have been more aggressive, but I figure I got free drive belts and trans fluid after everything was said and done. So that's OK. I could have gotten more but since they didn't waste any further time settling with me, I appreciated the lack of a run around and decided to take it. They instantly approved the billing last week for the payment to the Infiniti dealership directly. And today, it took no more than 5 min to get approval for the trans flush. That's gotta be worth something to me.

I also talked to Nalley Infiniti-Decatur(a different Nalley Infiniti dealer from the one who saw the vehicle after the oil debacle). He also reiterated that I shouldn't have to worry about the engine.

So I decided to close the issue out and move on.