New z damaged from dealer help!
 

If any one has any suggestions I would appreciate the help.

So my story starts with my interest for a new 2010 z. I went to a few different dealers in the upstate new york area looking for a black z. One of the dealers had the cherry black one which I was not a fan of. So the other dealer said they could get me a black one. I gave them the deposit and they went and got me the car. The car came in it was a black basic model. We did the deal and I drove the car off the lot. As soon as I turn on the high way my wife notice's a noise coming from the back of the car. It sounded like an off balance rotational noise and I can pinpoint it at 60 mph. Also the car pulls to the right and the steering wheel is not straight. So I call the dealer up and bring the car back the very next day. They don't have a good explanation of why the car is doing this but they said they will take a look. So I leave the car for them to look at. They call me up and said they did an alignment and replaced the right rear tire because there was a little bit of rubber missing from the inner part of the tire. So I went back to the dealer and picked the car up.

Now I live in upstate new york and don't plan on driving the car in the winter.

So I took the car home and parked it in the drive way where it will sit till the spring. This was two weeks ago.

So this past weekend (New Year weekend) It was warm (50*) so I went out and started looking at the car just inspecting it and grasping what I will be driving in the spring. I was looking a the front bumper and checking out the front fangs when I noticed the smaller radiator on the right side of the car was smashed up and the fins were smashed to the left. I then started looking harder at the car and the under body. I looked under the front right part of the car underneath where the smashed up radiator is and I noticed the plastic is cracked in three different places and the little plastic flap in front of the tire is scraped to hell and so is the left side flap.

Now with all this damage I am seeing it looks like this car hit a massive pot hole or got in some sort of front end collision. And the way the plastic is cracked underneath there is no way somebody could have done that with out damaging the front bumper so I 99% sure the front bumper has been either replaced of repainted.

I called the dealer back up and the all the sales manger did was refer me to his service manger like it wasn't his problem and there wasn't anything he could do about it. I tried to get a hold of the service manger today but all I got was his voice mail and I have not received a call back.

I am planning on bringing the car in and asking to put it on the lift so we (Sales manger, technician, and sales guy) can look at the car together and see if there isn't more damage and how we are going to handle this.

I am looking for advise on the best way to handle this situation. Granted this was bought as a brand new car so one would think they are getting a brand new car without previous damage. At this point I don't want this car for fear of problems arriving later possibly after warranty since I don't plan on driving this car a lot only for pleasure.

I am also thinking about contacting a lawyer to find out what my rights are.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Salesmen love taking Z's out for unauthorized spins. You can be certain a dealership knows exactly the stats and condition of all the cars on their lot. Their casual manner and lack of attention to you speaks volumes.
Yah man, a lawyers' recommendations is a good first step.

Two questions:

- After the "repairs", did the car drive OK? I'd guess yes, since you drove it home.

- You're 99% sure? Is there any signs of body work? You may want to take pics of it.

A coworker many moons ago got a 'Vette from a dealer with hidden damage and body work. He took them to court. The settlement was a Z06. :D

How many miles was on the car when you picked it up for the first time? Like Ztoon said, they love taking the car out for rides or even test drives. Hell when i went for a test drive the salesmen had to drive the car off the lot due to me being 23 at the time. He tried to show me what the car can do, he ended up burning the clutch to hell. He asked me if i wanted the car. I said "yes, but not this one"...that one ended up being sold a few weeks after i bought mine.

You needed to have found this at the dealership before taking delivery of the car. If they are nice they might fix or pay partial but this one is unfortunately on you. :(

I have a few email address that can help yo out if the dealer is not wiliing to help you out. Plus FB has a page for Nissan North America with a Discusion Board hidden on the tabs all the way to the left if they have not gone to the new format.

There is BBB too!

PM me if need it!

The car had 500 miles on it when I took delivery since they drove it from a different dealer.

Kenchan,

This shouldn't be on me what if you bought item of clothing from a store and bring it home to find out there is a hole in the pockect. If you are like me then I would return it for a different item. It shouldn't be any different for a car.


If the dealer dosen't take care of this then they will be hearing from my lawyer.

Drive it to a trusted mechanic and get it up on a lift...

You probably got a demonstrator...

Might want to warm up that lawyer...

The lawyer can advise you of your consumer rights in NY. Understand the dealer knows their own and has been through this before. Need to document everything from the damage you found the maintence you've had and every conversation you have with this dealer. Stop talking to the sales guy and service manager they can't do anything you. You need to be talking to the general manager.

If the lawyer needs to get involved beyond simple discussions with you then don't talk to the dealer at all and let your lawyer be your rep.

uhh...this is not k-mart clothing, it is a car. :icon17: talk to your dealer and see wat they say; they might be nice and make an exception for you. but understand that they are not really liable, especially if you knew there was 500miles on the car you're the ultimate responsible party to check for any damage BEFORE delivery.

dont expect even a new car (with less than 5miles) to not have blemishes. there are many cases where things get damaged at the port during transit, often at the dealership, etc. i spend a good 30min inspecting brand new cars for blemishes inside and out... even so i can miss somethings at times. :mad: that's my fault, i just suck it up and fix it.

you can pull the lawyer trick but again that just pisses off the dealer and ruins customer service mentality for others. people make car buying too big of a deal while being careless or expecting dealers to go out of their way when we know who made the mistake. dealers dont make much money selling cars, they make money from service.

GL though! :tup:

Talk to the manager and demand they fix the damage. You would be hard pressed to get a new car unless there is sagnificant damage that cannot be fixed.

Hard lesson to learn, but go over any prospective car purchase with a comb next time. You have too. But small stuff like the scrapped front flaps and lip are expected if the car has been driven (especially 500 miles) so don't expect that to get fixed. But anything from a collision needs to be fixed.

My car had 300 miles on it and I had some scrapped lips and flaps. I was not happy about it but decided the car can not be perfect since it was apparently driven several times.

These are all good reply's.

I did speak with my lawyer early today and he advisd me of the nys lemon law rights which are pretty informative. I don't have the link but go to nys attorny general website and search lemon law consumer rights.

It says the dealer should fix any thing that is damaged on a new car free of charge. It also states that if the car is in the shop more then 3 times for the same problem then the car is consider a lemon and either a full refund or a comparble car should be isued.

This will be the 2nd time and the car has already been in the shop for 2 weeks.

I am not trying to screw anybody over or get something for nothing. I am trying to protect myself and my purchase.

The car still has the rotational off balance noise at 60 mph.


I am taking the car to the dealer today and we are going to look at it on the lift and see what to do about resolving this.

good luck man it will be worth it in the end the car is so much fun

Does anybody else notice a repetative humming noise coming from the back end while driving between 60-65 mph? If I speed up it goes away and if I slow down it goes away.

If the car hit a curb or pothole hard enough what else could be damaged?

wheel bearings can get damaged from big enough pot holes or curb impact, wheel weights could be knocked off too. bent suspension arms, etc.

no humming noise from the back on my car....is that the exhaust (drone) you are hearing?

Describe what the exhaust drone sounds like?

Is it louder at certain rpm's?

test drive another 370Z to see if it sounds the same. Have dealer drive with you.

Well I also noticed the car sits lower on the front right side.

:wtf2:

sits lower you say... sounds like there a lot of damage. talk to a lawyer, talk to the dealership, start documenting everything photos, phone recordings everything. sounds like ur in for a world of problems. anyways good luck hope u get everything sorted out, we love our cars for a reason.

I just got back from the dealer/service center.

This is what they came up with:

They are going to replace all the damaged plastic pieces, They are going to replace the transmission cooler which he thinks it is an oil cooler :eek

Hopefully he orders me an oil cooler and installs it by mistake.

He measured the ride height on both sides and said they were equal (I must have been on a sideways hill when I looked at it)

He said there was no noticeable noise when driving the car and told me that this is a sports car and it is going to make noise.

I asked him if I could drive the other z and he was not to fond of that idea. I will ask again when I go back to get these parts installed

I also attached a copy of my alignment it shows a before and after. The front right toe was way out of spec.

this just shows that somebody hit something hard and now I have to live with it.

Also to I asked him how this could happen and he said he doesn't want to speculate. I replied this happens from the car sitting on the lot and not moving.

i would have them grive you a new car not that one because what they did was not legal. All the repairs they are going to have to do to you car will instantly drop the resale value. Just repainting the bumper will reduce resale.

I looked at my alignment sheet a little harder and looked at the specs in the fsm

It says the front camber should not be greater than .55* from side to side mine is .6*. Is this fixable? Is this bad?

Also my front right caster is 4.4* the fsm says a min of 4.42*.

I am upset because I have had horriable alignment problems with other cars and I am not about to deal with it again.

It looks like you have a Lemon....

Did you ask the lawyer about fraud? If the dealer attempted to repair damage and then sell the car as new without disclosure that looks like fraud to me.

Can you post some pics so we can verify? This sounds very curious.

Also, it's pretty important you post which dealer this was.

Wait a min. They offered to repair the damages? From their point of view how do they know you didn't do it after you left the dealership. Seems like they knew and hoped you wouldn't notice. Besides they should have done a PDI before they gave it to you. I was set on buying a Z at one dealership, test drove it and it made this weird disengaging noise every time I hit the clutch. Like it wasn't letting go all the way. The sales guy said it was normal. I called BS. They didn't have any other MT Z's that I could compare it with. So I went to a different town and they luckily had what I was looking for and on a whim I test drove it and it was completely different. Bought my Z from them instead. Sales guys will say anything to sell a car. Test drive another one and see if it's the same as what yours is doing.

the before alignment looks pretty bad. the after alignment isnt great either especially if its on a stock car they should at least be able to get the toe angles even on both sides and thrust angle 0.00 degrees.

the camber on the front is kinda out of wack. id get adjustable arms later on to fix.
the rear looks pretty normal.

when your car was hibernating, maybe someone in your household drove it without telling you?

And if it was the dealers fault, i suggest you to goto a nearby Big 5 and pick up a remingtion 870 with 00 buck shot

wouldn't even get that far with this. go for a new car. this is ridiculous what they're doing to you.

i was just commenting on the numbers. go back to your comics/anime you otaku. :icon17:

:rofl2:

really, this is a very strange situation. the dealership is trying to get everything fixed under the table, so to speak. kinda scary.

No one drove it at my house since there is only my wife and I and she can't drive manual (well maybe but there would be burnout marks in the drive way and all down the street since she has to drop the clutch at 4000 rpm to not stall)

They are not doing it under the table. I am making sure I have all the documents of what they have done to the vehicle.

I also am in contact with a Nissan regional manager which I am currently waiting to hear back from her. She is getting me the actual enginer specs for the alignment. I called the service guy back and stated my frustrations with the alignment being out of specs and he said that nissan changes and updates the factory specs from time to time if nissan decides after production there are better specs for drivablity and tire ware.

I am calling his bluff because if you notice on the bottom of my attached alignment sheet it says rev 01/09. I am going off of the 2009 factory service manual specs since I can't find the 2010 one.

I am also in contact with a bigger dealer in my area that deals with more z's and gt-r's. He said that if this happened at his dealer ship they wouldn't replace the car for an issue like this but they would replace suspension componets until they got it into factory specs. Which I would be fine with.

But the biggest problem is the service shop that I am dealing with doesn't think the specs need to be dead on or with in factory specs. He also told me when I got the alignment sheet that the reason why the numbers were so off was because when they do there alignments they set the cars up so if the tire blows up the car doesn't shoot off the road and the driver can control the car still. This guy has no idea what he is talking about.

I am also worried about them changing out the transmisson cooler because I don't think they are qualified to do so. I would much rather straighten the fins out my self if I have to keep this car. Plus He thought it was an oil cooler.

I hope the regional manager will let me take it to another dealer to have the work done.

What a nightmare

I aprreciate all your comments.

Does any body make adjustable camber kits for the front? I looked at that but I could only find kits for the rear. The other alternative would be a 2000.00 coilover kit with adjustable camber.

Let me know

yes there are several manufacturers that make adjustable a-arms. check the suspension forum. :)

Attached is the specs I am going from in the factory service manual in case all want to compare.