New Car Woes (venting pleasantly)

A Real Writer Blogs To "Release"

(culprit: car dealer woes)

Well, I am writing this because I don't want this to cause writer's block--so excuse if this is not the appropriate blog item for a writer's-type blog.

I am new here, so I couldn't be more grateful that someone might read this and leave me something to let me know that "this too shall pass."

I just bought a 2008 Nissan Xterra.  I had leather seats installed. They kept my car 5 days because of a mix-up with the leather seat kit needing to be ordered special for one of the front seats. Xterras come with 2 seats: 1 lays down flat for a lap-top desk, and the other is just a normal seat. I have the normal, plain seat. So that was frustrating not having the car for 5 days and being in a rental car that I was in fear of breaking down in--the rental had some engine problems.

My leather seats were installed. They looked nice and were comfy. However, my husband noticed that we had turned the car over to the dealer with only 50 miles on the odemeter. When the car was returned to us with the new leather seats, there was 152 miles on the odemeter--the leather installers were only 20 miles away (one way). They could not account for the extra miles on my car--apologized for it, yah dah, yah dah.

Days later, the Xterra develops a surging problem. A surging of power, though the first time it did not set a message code off on the dashboard.  The second time this happened, a message light: Check engine soon! was set off, so I took it in to the dealer today (just one day after the code was tripped).

To make a long story short, the service department said that the problem needed to repeat itself before they could determine how to fix it.  Their computer told them exactly what part was faulty, however they said it could not be fixed until the whole part went bad?  The control bank, they called it, which has two nodules (the control bank is divided into two parts) and until they knew which part on the control bank was bad, they were not going to replace it. My husband was with me. We went back to the showroom floor next door where we bought it.

By this time I was very perturbed that whoever had put the extra miles on the car had caused my Xterra to malfunction. When a car is in break-in, it is very crucial to vary the speed, with no excessive speeds whatsoever. I was very disturbed when further reading of the printout from the service department showed that my car had this malfunct along with metal fragments (debri) traveling through its crankshaft, so noted (one of the main parts of the engine).  The car, by this time, has only 454 miles on it.  Since I do not wish to undergo the horrors of the lemon law thing and be breaking down on the roadside, I asked the dealer rep to put me into another Xterra of the same type and color. He said he would swap me into another one.  That word SWAP, note it, please.

Swap, does not mean SWAP--like you and I swap recipes--not to a dealer. No, swap to this rep meant he would expect me to pay thousands of dollars in negative equity.  He was very loose with the term, even telling me to drive 2 or 3 other 2008 Xterras first, to be sure I pick the write "swapped" car, just to be sure that the next one doesn't have the same type of problem. I drove 2 vehicle (about 13 minutes each on the highway) to test them. I chose one (not the same color as the one I had purchased). They wanted me to choose from the ones on their lot, which I did. We go "to the table" in the salesperson's office, and my salesman (whom I like) had this hang dog, sad look upon his face. I thought I imagined it. And he told me that my car was now USED (454 miles total) and they would have to appraise it and that I was looking at a few thousand to get us into this "swap."

Sometimes a swap is not a swap. The day there wasted our time. I wish this dealer person had not used words so loosely. Swap means exchange, to me--and something else to a dealer. It got my husband all riled up. He is incredibly depressed to have been treated like this and is in bed now resting. It's daytime here. And we went home, for now, until another time that I have the courage to trust them to attempt a second "fix" to this problem. 

Sometimes new cars aren't worth the hassle or the high blood pressure or the worry. How I long for my days of getting the best for a cash price and just taking care of it as best I can. 

I think I'm nearly cured of getting new cars. This was a sour experience. I complained to Nissan, and they will be contacting me, but I know nothing will come of it. 

To top it off. Though we complained about the extra miles on the car, they skirt that issue, that anything bad happened to my car while in their possession. I feel such distress--you can't imagine just how bad my husband reacted to this, for I have understated it due to perhaps TMI (too much information).

Pray for this writer. That this thing doesn't cause a "block" of creativity for me.

I told my husband that I had asked God to fix my car--more especially since He is the one that created all the laws of physics and the maths that make it to run well.