After 5 years of Owning a 370Z, I'm Swearing Off Nissan

[Scribe]

This probably won't be a popular post, but I thought I'd share my experiences with owning a 370Z from the the day it went on sale and the reason I will never buy another Nissan product again. I hope that most have had a better experience and continue to have good experiences with your Z. Despite all my issues, the dealership employees were all very helpful, and I've actually only ever been happy with the dealerships themselves. It's Nissan USA that has let me down repeatedly.

Since purchasing the car Jan 8, 2009 I've had nearly nothing but bad experiences with owning a Z and more importantly dealing with Nissan USA. I realize I own an early production car, and expect that there may be some issues. I hoped that the nearly two years of the G37 being out would have helped work out the problems. I'm actually OK with taking my car in for recalls, because that is how it should be when a manufacturer finds a flaw or issue post production. However, when something goes wrong and Nissan doesn't do right by their customers, I have a big issue.

Once I bought my car, it was only a few months before the Texas heat and traffic would put my car in limp mode. Nissan milked some of us early Z owners for more money, but when Nissan declined to help with the cost, I went aftermarket and got a GTM cooler. It's a great product and I highly recommend GTM for their good products and great service. (EDIT: Some people have brought to my attention that in the five years since, GTM hasn't held up to the level I experienced way back. That is unfortunate and I maintain that, to my point, service and standing behind your product matters, whether you are Nissan, GTM, GM, BMW or LG).

At ~12,000 miles my transmission went (bad syncros). I had it replaced under warranty. Not much Nissan could do to get out of this one, luckily. This one would come back to haunt me, though.

Over the next few years, I didn't have many problems. I did have the power door lock servo fail as soon as I wasn't under warranty, and I've always had the issue where the hatch won't pop properly, but these were minor compared to the next two issues.

A few years ago, my car wouldn't start. Turns out it was the steering wheel lock issue. Nissan hadn't issued a recall at this point. This cost me over $1,200 to get towed, get fixed, and get a rental. I did have it fixed at a Nissan dealership, so they have record of this.

Recently, my transmission went because the CSC failed. This is a common problem with these cars. When I mentioned to the service person helping me that I had so many issues with the car, I mentioned the steering wheel lock. He immediately told me about the recall. Once again, the dearlership employees have always been awesome. Nissan however, had record of this and never contacted me about the recall. I have since contacted them and they are going to reimburse me because it was done under recall and they can't get out of it (though they would if they could, I'm sure).

I went back through my records, and I can't find evidence that the CSC was replaced when the transmission was replaced, as the factory service manual says they are not to be reused. Nissan won't entertain covering even part of the cost of my current repair, which is ~$1500 because my car isn't under warranty. To me, it's no different than if they installed the flywheel backwards at 59,999 miles and then declined to cover the failure at 60,001 miles. They fixed it wrong and won't cover it. I find it even more frustrating that I have almost exactly 60,000 miles since the repair as well.

Here was an opportunity for Nissan to do right by me, and once again they failed. The consumer affairs people handling the case were very unhelpful, as always. Nissan truely does not understand the concept of brand ambassadors. I have helped many people purchase dozens of cars in the past, and am the go to person for people buying cars in my family, friend and work circles. In the past week I've steered my mother away from Infiniti, and my wife, who is buying a car when we get back from vaction will not be looking at a Nissan product either.

Worse than that, or perhaps thankfully, I have done very well for myself and was just starting to look at trading into a GT-R when this latest ordeal happened. That will most definitely not be happening now.

Sorry if that came across as a rant, but if you've read this far along, you probably are either sympathetic or at least curious and forewarned. This is probably my last thread. I've not been real active, but I've enjoyed my time with the community.

Thanks,

Justin