New Car Story

[TheGreenPiston]

Well here goes, we bought a new Nissan Sentra SE-R 7 weeks ago, fun car. Went to the bank 2 Saturdays ago and shifted the car to Neutral to back out of the parking space (slight incline let it roll down hill) went for Drive but nothing! Shifter move real easy back and forth. Had it towed to dealer and they gave us a loner car for the weekend. Monday afternoon dealer called to say the shifter cable fell off the shifter, a clip that holds a pin to the shifter fell off and no more shifting. They said the parts were to be overnited and car fixed on Tues.
Next day, Tues. dealer calls and says parts are on back order, bring the loner in and we will get you a rental.
That was a week ago, today they updated us to say they are still waiting for the parts but do not know when they will be here. Oh well, at least we have a car that is on Nissan till the Sentra is fixed. Has anyone had this happen to them with a new car? I am not knocking the dealer, they have been very helpful and really want to get the car fixed for us. Fact is I would reccomend this dealer to anyone wanting a Nissan. Just thought someone would be interested.

 

[Mokanic]

Sounds like an unusual part failure that they have not seen before. Drive the rental till the wheels fall off. They seem to be trying to keep you happy. Make certain you get a receipt listing the part that failed and what they did to fix it. You may need that in the future.

 

[bretfraz]

Doesn't seem all that odd, esp with an all new car like the Sentra. There are going to be lots of parts on back order as the factory is using most (if not all) available parts for production. Doesn't leave too many for replacements.

Most parts mfr's have a "just in time" system where they only deliver parts to the factories as needed, there is no substantial parts inventory just sitting somewhere. Even if the mfr ordered enough to cover replacements and dealer inventory, sometimes a particular part is in short supply. Could be because production is higher than planned, or the parts supplier can only deliver what's needed for production. Could be other reasons, too, I'm just throwing out plausible ideas.

Same sort of thing happened to me when I bought a new Dodge Intrepid in late 1993. It was also an all new car and there were almost no maintenance parts in the aftermarket. I had to go to the dealer to get filters and such.

 

[Lonnie]

Can they take the part out of another car to get you going?

 

[bdcardinal]

its common with a new car. i work in the parts dept at a Lincoln, Mercury, Mazda dealer and we run into this a lot. a lot of parts will be very hard to get first model year. if theres a recall, they will tend to go on backorder quickly.

 

[TheGreenPiston]

Good point Lonnie, but I think that would mean they would have an SE-R on their lot that they would not be able to sell for who knows how long and those dealers like to move product. But it can't hurt to ask, so ask we shall!

 

[Cutehumor]

so this is the new nissan sentra redesigned? what you describe reeks as poor quality

 

[Johnny]

What Nissan dealer is it?

 

[obbop]

Count thine blessings.

If your experience was similar to mind in regards to warranty work you would have heard:

"Sorry, can't replicate the problem."

Heard that too much from severa Chevrolet dealers.

Oh, wait. Your problem was obvious requiring absolutely NO diagnosing at all. Well, those extremely simple problems that jump out and bite the parts replacer on the nose, well, THOSE defects the GMC/Chevy folks could find.

Good luck.

/this post meets Coot guidelines of informing folks of the way Chevy treated a customer and to meet a promise made to corporate GMC idiots of this intention. Your kilometerage may vary.

 

[CBDFrontier06]

I had a coilpack go bad on my Mazdaspeed 6, and they ordered a new one from their Canadian 'supplier' via overnight freight. 4 days later, they finally robbed a coilpack from a CX-7 and put it on my car. The coilpack showed up 4 days after that. I don't think it's an unreasonable request that they rob another car for the part you need...unless you're content driving the rental. Hey, less miles on your own car.

 

[Merkava_4]

Quote:

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Monday afternoon dealer called to say the shifter cable fell off the shifter, a clip that holds a pin to the shifter fell off and no more shifting.

---

So what happened to the clip that fell off? Did it just fall off onto the parking lot?

 

[TheGreenPiston]

Johnny, the dealer we bought the car from is Gordie Boucher Nissan in Milwaukee, nice people and got a good deal.
Merkava 4, the technician looked but did not find the clip. I got the impression that they really looked for that little thing the way they were dancing about when they told us they were not sure when the replacement parts were due in.
As I said the dealer has been very good about the whole thing so far, so we will wait and see what happens, for now.

 

[MrCritical]

The car is totally redesigned. Reviews so far are pretty good. If the dealer is large enough he may have some more SE-R's. The Spec V's are hard to come by so far.

I believe Nissan is trying hard to get the part to the dealer. That being said, if it's not there yet they should rob a part from another SE-R.

 

[c502cid]

It sucks when it happens to any new car no matter who makes it. The worst part of it is you still have to make those payments, they don't give you the month off. That is why I always request an equal car as a rental, I'm not riding in a Yaris when I bought a Camry!

 

[wavinwayne]

Does your car have the the same engine that Nissan had to stop selling for a while recently, due to some extreme cases of oil consumption?

 

[Audity]

I wouldn't take this as a negative sign about the car's quality at all - it's a minor mechanical issue, despite its effect on being able to drive the car. Stuff happens.

I'd conclude it's a quality dealer, though.

 

[MrCritical]

The engine has been updated since the oil consumption problem as well as having a healthy hp increase.

 

[GMGuy]

Can you snap a photo of this fancy clip when you get the car back? I'm curious to see whats so special about how it holds a cable on (It will probably turn out to be an entire cable assemnbly with some ---- integrated plastic snaps that broke clean off). Nothing like the old days of a cotter pin holding things together. =-)

Alex.

 

[mrsilv04]

A fellow that runs a rental car business here locally told me that he has more problems with vehicles in their first 3,000 miles, than he does between 3,001 and whatever miles they have on them when he removes them from the fleet (usually somewhere above 30,000 miles).

About 10 years ago, he sent me out in a brand spankin' new Dodge Grand Caravan with 100 miles on it. I was the first one to get to rent it. When I returned it a couple days later, it didn't have reverse. Reverse worked a couple of times, but after that, nothing would happen when I'd put it in "R".

I felt bad about taking his new van back to him broken, but it really didn't surprise him at all.

 

[TheGreenPiston]

wavinwayne yes the car has the 2.5 liter engine that was involved in that recall, but as MrCritical stated the problem was fixed, I hope! You can bet I will keep an eye on the oil level.
GMGuy, I'm not sure if I can get a picture of the clip mounted on the shifter, it would involve removing a good part of the lower dash panel, I saw this dismanteled when we went to get some things from the car. I will ask if they have another clip that I could look at and maybe snap a pix of that.
I will keep you all posted.