I have a Nissan Rogue AWD with 1000 miles on it. I was briefly stuck in sand on the beach and got pulled out. The car said “AWD error”
I take it to the local dealer (100 miles from where I live) and he says “beach driving not covered by warranty” so I ask him to show me where in the warranty it says that. I checked the warranty and there was no mention of beach or off road driving. After 10 minutes he admitted the warranty has nothing on beach/off road. This dealer is 5 miles from the beach so he should know this.
I think he was trying to scam me into paying for this. And possibly he was going to take my money and also bill Nissan. BTW the fix only took about an hour , it was just resetting some software and codes. Either it was an attempted scam or the guy does not know what the warranty covers, which I doubt. Any opinions?
It’s also possible his plan was to charge me more than Nissan would pay him. For example maybe Nissan would pay $100 for this issue and he would charge me $200.
It’s possible there’s a known issue with that model, and that Nissan is discouraging warranty work to avoid a record that could lead to a recall.
We had a problem with a Ford Escape that tended to jerk forwards when coming to a stop, and were told it was “normal hybrid operation”. It turned out to be a documented defect, and a relatively simple repair under warranty fixed the issue.
dealers are reticent to perform “questionable” warranty work, because if the part they send back to the manufacturer is tested and judged “no trouble found” the dealer can be charged back for the repair cost.
So he was lying but the reason for his lie is not certain. I think he was surprised I did not fall for his BS. I did not buy the car from that dealer since I was there on vacation.
As long as that was a Nissan dealer, it matters not where you bought the Rogue, and since presumably you bought it new, it was also from a Nissan dealer. Even if you didn’t and it was just a ridiculously low mileage used vehicle (which does happen), the manufacturer warranties transfer to you for the difference in time/mileage, whichever comes first (for most Americans it’s usually miles).
That guy was a complete jackwagon and you should call Nissan about the service department there. They have no business denying a warranty claim, especially during the “bumper to bumper” part of it. The only time I’ve seen fights put up is when there’s an argument as to whether or not something is a powertrain item during that (longer) warranty period but after basic warranty is up.
Looks like the Nissan warranty is typical industry standard 3yrs/36k miles basic, 5yrs/60k powertrain. Your issue would have been covered in either case.
FFS, the wrenches get paid for warranty work. Yes, the manufacturer sets the timetable and pay structure for all their jobs, so maybe the fix was ascribed an especially short time period to repair (which also does happen…service techs used to make a better living than they do now under these structures as manufacturers often do not realize the true amount of work and time it takes to properly fix something and arbitrarily assign a time amount that may force the technician to rush the job, because they do NOT get paid beyond this. If Nissan says it takes an hour and it takes you two, well, fuck you, you got paid for one hour).
I think the service write up guys generally hate warranty work because there’s very little opportunity to upsell services that they get paid extra on, like transmission flushes, etc. Even so, be a fucking professional or get out of that line of work. I would most definitely report that. Who knows how many times this guy has pulled this shit on old people, etc that unwittingly believe everything these guys tell them. They get enough low CSI (customer service index) or whatever ratings from enough people, they get fired, and deservedly so.
Unfortunately, I think that type of thing is more common than uncommon these days. Hyundai tried to cheat me on a tire warranty by saying it wasn’t their tire. In reality, it wasn’t THEIR tire because they were out of that model, but they did get it from another Hyundai dealer. I retrieved the receipt from my glove compartment, and that shut them up.
This. He was either completely full of shit or incompetent, and in either case you should report this to Nissan corporate (NISSAN CONSUMER AFFAIRS (800) NISSAN-1 (or 800-647-7261)), as well as the FTC, as many times and as far up the ladder as you can.
Dealers try to get out of warranty work as much as they can because it pays less per hour than customer work. I once had a dealer try and deny me warranty work because I had installed a few aftermarket suspension parts for better handling so the dealer claimed this made it a “race car”.