One of our forum members getting screwed over by a dealership
 

One of our premium members, Isamu, Is currently getting getting screwed over by a dealership. He had a turbo Nismo 370z with 6,000 miles on it and under the dealership's posession, the car caught fire and the dealership isn't taking any responsibility. The kicker? car was parked at the service department and they drove it two miles knowing there was a fire hazard



What pisses me off even more is Isamu is military and it shows that the dealership doesn't care about our military members.

I'm posting this up to hopefully spread the word and to see if there's anyone knows anyone that can help him or get as much media attention as we can to get the dealership to respond. Seeing this happen to one of our own pisses me off to no end and I know this will piss off majority of the members here as well.

Here's a link to the dealerships facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/ryannissanminot/?pnref=story

Before anyone jumps on a why did he go to the stealer ship there were personal reasons why he chose to. It still doesn't justify what they did.

He needs to get a lawyer, end of story.

What is Isamu's real name? A few posts on their FB page, asking what's going on with his car, may get someone's attention. They may have a presence on other sites.

The last I heard from Isamu he is still having issues finding a lawyer. It's slim pickings in Minot, ND and none of the lawyers he has talked to are willing to assist him. Might have to do with the fact that all the major car dealers in Minot including the Nissan dealer in question are owned by the same family IIRC.

If anybody can help or knows some one that can help with the legal side of this, your assistance would be appreciated. :tiphat:

Living in Minot, ND you don't have a lot of options.

The car is on its way to a performance shop so it is out of the clutches of the dealer. It is now a legal game. From what Isamu has said about the staff there FB comments will most likely have no effect.

If he has full coverage insurance he can claim it and let the insurance company at least pick up some of the tab.

I think that's what's happening. The stealership needs to have their feet held to the fire over this, joyriding in a car with unsafe brakes is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Would they still have claimed 'no responsibility', if their 'techs' had wrecked the car and totaled it? Asshats...:shakes head:


Isamu might have to look outside of Minot for a lawyer, it sounds like the lawyers in Minot are in bed with the stealership....:gtfo2:

Doesn't mean I'm not tempted to post something. :stirthepot:

He needs to contact the BBB and file a claim, it doesn't matter if the dealership is a member of the BBB or not. He also needs to relay this information to his 1st Sgt so that this could get spread through the base populace, in essence Minot AFB would warn their airmen about the dealership essentially black listing them.

call the cops get the security footage

any ex gfs we should be aware of?

I'm not sure if he wants his full name released. So I'll just say his name is Tim S.

Wow what a terrible situation. I hope it all works out for the best.
I do find it hard to believe a dealership would intentional set fire to anyone's car "They set my car on fire". There's no upside for them. There are three types of cars I have seen catch fire on their own, old poorly maintained cars, Ferrari's, and highly modified cars. I think we do not enough info here to say what happened.

He's already working on that

He has a 2009 (I believe) 370 Nismo with ~6,000 miles on it. It is turbocharged but the service manager told him he was lucky it didn't catch on fire on the way there (so they knew there was a fire hazard) because of a brake fluid leak which is the reason he brought it there in the first place.

they drove it two miles and, if I recall correctly, It was a 0.1 mile drive from where he parked it to the service center.

All USA Nissan dealership's report directly to Nissan Corporate in the end

I would reach out and contact Nissan USA to make them aware of a terrible situation.

USA Nissan North America phone 615-725-1000


Hope that it works out for you :tup:

-Clifford :tiphat:

My mistake, I though they told him he was lucky after it caught fire on them. Yeah their fault for not cleaning up the engine bay covered with brake fluid.

Why doesn't this guy make a claim to his insurer under his comprehensive coverage?

He will never be able to prove liability by the dealer. Sorry, but once you add FI to your car, the dealer and manufacturers can wipe their hands clean of any responsibility.

Actually Nissan Corporate is aware of the fire and wanted to send out an inspection team to check for possible defective parts. I'm not sure if Nisan got a look at it before it left the dealer.

Edit: Nissan did inspect the car. It was only to cover their asses.

The last I heard his insurance company is involved and is going after the dealer. You are correct about them not being liable for damage due to after market parts but knowing about a brake fluid leak near a turbo manifold then driving it 2 miles is negligence. Regardless of how the leak was caused it should have never have been started after being dropped off.

If any one wants to jump in on the dealer's FB page a review has been posted.

Edit: Look for a review from a guy named Jeff.

Man this sucks to hear, I will be staying away from them from now. Why did it even get driven two miles if it was dropped off at the service center when they stated it was already hazardous to drive in its current state? Someone at the dealership need to explain that one.

:ohsnap1:

Fuckin dealershits :shakes head:

On the plus side, I know for a fact that Tim likes taking it up the butt ;)

We've been trying to figure that one out

FYI, reporting anything to the BBB does practically nothing, unless all you want is just some record (if they even decide to keep it). They are not a government entity, just a private company. In fact, people have tried to file complaints about BBB themselves for a useless service.

What it comes down to is this. Any complaints filed to BBB, just gets the targeted company a notification of the complaint. The target company has a chance to respond. After an exchange of info between the customer and business, the claim is closed with either "Satisfactory" or "Unsatisfactory". Their "BBB rating" might be affected at some point from too many complaints, but that's assuming anyone cares about that rating. There is no enforcement... it's really just an oldschool Yelp. In fact, I think Yelp may be more effective nowadays.

Companies who wish to be featured with BBB, pays an annual fee so they can use the BBB logo on their website and say they're accredited. This may be useful for small businesses that aren't really known yet, but big businesses that's already established themselves really don't worry much about that. A bad rating once in a while really doesn't do much... just like Yelp... all it does is give people some rating info to base a decision on.

There have also been occasions where the BBB will ignore some complaints if the targeted company threatens to cancel out of their BBB membership.

Having a small business, I've been approached by BBB and even tried their service for a year. I found it pretty pointless and canceled it. They continued to call and sell me on their services like bad telemarketers. I found more value from word of mouth, social media, and yelp ratings than BBB.

But by all means, file a BBB complaint if you wish. If they aren't already signed on with them, they won't give a damn. If they are signed on, they still probably won't give a damn, if their reported attitude is any indication.

You're better off making Yelp entry. Or better yet, expose them to a Local News service... if they aren't already in the same pockets as the dealership.

Nissan Corporate owns 50% of the service centre of each dealership. It's their way of controlling/recouping costs for warranty work. Or that's how it was explained to me just a few weeks ago anyways.

Regardless of fault, though it was clearly theirs, they have insurance to cover this stuff anyhow. Sure they might take a little premium hit but it's peanuts in the whole midst of things. Not like they guys insurance isn't going to go after them anyhow. It will cost them more in legal fees than giving the guy a brand new car for free.

Shortsighted. Corrupt. Self serving ********. Those are the kind of guys that give car dealers a bad name.

Wish him well.


Edit: and yeah BBB does do squat.

If I read this correctly, then my thought is,these guys took this car for a hot joy ride heated up the turbo which caused the brake fluid ( leak ) to ignite.
Explains the miles and fluid fire! The fluid doesn't spontaneously combust!
Make an insurance claim/ let them fight it out!

That's basically what happened. I've already contacted a CBS affiliate and yahoo news with the story on Isamu's behalf (I got his okay to)

One of you guys is a traitor. You know who you are and what you did. Please :gtfo2: of this forum.

It's easy to criticize with 20/20 hindsight, but a fire anywhere on a vehicle is something that dealership staff should have been pro-actively trained to deal with quickly, before it caused great damage. If the dealership has no written ST.O.P. for how to deal with vehicle fires and no written record of the individual staff members who had anything to do with the vehicle that day having been trained in the use of that procedure, the dealership is legally vulnerable.

A few obvious questions. If the vehicle was already on the lift when the fire started, why didn't they immediately extinguish the fire while the fire was still small? Did they attempt to extinguish the fire and, if yes, just exactly how was that unsuccessful attempt made?

Assuming the service people were in fact aware of this vehicle's fire hazard, they should have at the very least had a large CO2 fire extinguisher at the ready to quickly extinguish any fire and cool hot metal (without coating any part of the vehicle with dry chemical) whenever and wherever they drove the vehicle. This means that when they drove it those two miles, they should have had the extinguisher either secured in the passenger seat or on its floor space.

It would be interesting to walk into that dealership's service area today to see if there is a CO2 extinguisher at the ready.

:iagree: 100%, although the cops may very well tell you "it's a civil matter" and that they won't do it. What the victim needs is a court injunction to prevent the dealership from destroying any video they might have of the incident. He should go to the clerk of court or call a legal aid society and ask how it might be possible to get that injunction.

They put the fire out with a dry chemical fire extinguisher. It caught fire after they pulled it into the bay so there were extinguishers handy.

Update: An employee of the dealership was harassing Tim over Face Book Menseger. Said some rather mean things. What was said and who said it will not be mentioned but I felt it should be known the caliber of professionalize Tim/Isamu has had to deal with.

Wow.

IKR! :shakes head:

If I pulled something like that I would get fired.

Oh and BTW a link to this thread sent to the employee in question sparked the harassment.

Take screens, send to insurance, save for legal purposes, publicize when necessary. Can't let them get away with this crap

I'm confused. From reading this thread it appears car came into the dealership with brake fluid leaking in the engine area. Some tech took it on a joyride and the car caught fire?

Do I have it right?

If he hasn't already done so, as was mentioned earlier, get his First Sergeant and the rest of his Chain of Command involved. Additionally, if an employee there was harassing him via FB, he has evidence to take to the base Legal Office and have them get involved as well.

People drive ****! It always happens! Names left out my car was at a place for the second time in its life and should have been in the shop the whole time!! A friend saw it sitting by the road 4 days after drop off and after pick up 3 weeks later for non engine, non brake, non anything moving!! The car got 28 miles put on it! People are Fing scumb bags.

PS, they even emailed me 2 weeks in asking what gas I used. I told them the car had half a tank, you shouldn't be asking this (I knew they drove it from the pic). Their reply was "we only moved it a few times around the shop, no ones been driving it"

I hope they're forced to pay it all.