Nissan Servicing: Nissan certified service worth it?

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Nissan Servicing: Nissan certified service worth it?

1 | 2

Batman

Mad Scientist
29761 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2026095 31-May-2018 09:48

Juicytree:

I have owned several Nissans over the years and presently own a 2007 Murano which I purchased new. Recently our local Nissan Franchise holder changed hands. I took my Murano in for its annual service and made a comment around the fact that they should have access to all my vehicle's service records and would be able to assess anything that is due for replacement etc. Their response was that they have no records of my vehicle - I protested and said surely they could source my vehicle's records from Nissan. I was assured that Nissan and its franchises do not keep any ongoing vehicle records!!

I am incensed and now wonder why I've ever bothered to be loyal to the dealer franchises and Nissan in general.

I would now advise Nissan owners to simply use the most trusted vehicle servicing agent they wish because Nissan doesn't particularly care about your servicing loyalty.

Heck you can't even walk into a GP and say "you should have my records I always see a Board Registered GP".

Or go to a random DHB hospital and say "you should have my records I always see a government funded hospital".

That's why I keep all my receipts.

Mind you, it's called privacy laws. You can't even get records of your 12 year old daughter who attends family planning clinics you know ...

jpoc

1043 posts

Uber Geek

#2026097 31-May-2018 10:00

The only benefit of a service by an official dealer is the dealer's stamp in the service history. That might be important for warranty with a new vehicle. It is a lot less likely to matter for an older used import. It might also have an impact on the resale value of the vehicle but that would only be a couple of hundred bucks at the most.

The important thing will be to ask yourself who would actually be doing the work on the car.

If you went to the place that I use on the shore, that would be the owner or his son. They are great people, I consider them to be mates, they have years and years of experience and work to the highest standards that I have experienced.

If you go to an official dealer, with an old car that was not an NZ model, you will get the trainee.

What sort of a difference does that make? Years ago, I was taking my Ford Escort Mexico to ABP Motorsport in England for a service. The owner (Mr ABP) was chatting to me and he showed me another Escort that they had in for service. It was a newer vehicle and had just run out of warranty and the owner had taken it in to ABP for its first ever service outside of the Ford dealer network. It was up on the ramp. "Look at the front brake disk on the right hand side. Now look at the front brake drum on the left hand side!" Yes, the car had come from the factory with mismatched brakes on the front of the car and the service mechanics at the Ford dealership that looked after the car for its first couple of years had either not understood that there was anything wrong with this or they just could not be bothered to do anything.

Give me competent independent mechanics any day.

Batman

Mad Scientist
29761 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2026099 31-May-2018 10:02

Correct. But how do you know if an independent mechanic (or any mechanic!) is competent?

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek

#2026114 31-May-2018 10:36

There seems to be a trend for franchises to include a fixed service price over the warranty period for new vehicles. I bought a 2016 vehicle a few months ago, NZ new and still under warranty, I recently took it in for the 30,000km service. Cost was about $200 which for a diesel I thought was very fair anyway, but they included some surprising items including re-packing the front hubs with grease (this was actually a standard item at 30,000km), they adjusted the handbrake free play, refilled the washer bottles, gave the vehicle a clean incl putting tyre black on the tyres. It was like picking up a brand new vehicle. Got a courtesy call the next day asking if I was happy with the service - bravo - perfect.

I'd forgotten to put the handbook in the glovebox which I realised when I dropped it off - no problems at all, they found the service records in a few seconds from the reg number, I took it in to get it stamped when I picked it up - asked them if that was needed and they stated no - they have access to all the service records anyway (probably useful for the customer to have this in case of future dispute over servicing though).

tdgeek

29746 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2026117 31-May-2018 10:43

Fred99:

There seems to be a trend for franchises to include a fixed service price over the warranty period for new vehicles. I bought a 2016 vehicle a few months ago, NZ new and still under warranty, I recently took it in for the 30,000km service. Cost was about $200 which for a diesel I thought was very fair anyway, but they included some surprising items including re-packing the front hubs with grease (this was actually a standard item at 30,000km), they adjusted the handbrake free play, refilled the washer bottles, gave the vehicle a clean incl putting tyre black on the tyres. It was like picking up a brand new vehicle. Got a courtesy call the next day asking if I was happy with the service - bravo - perfect.

I'd forgotten to put the handbook in the glovebox which I realised when I dropped it off - no problems at all, they found the service records in a few seconds from the reg number, I took it in to get it stamped when I picked it up - asked them if that was needed and they stated no - they have access to all the service records anyway (probably useful for the customer to have this in case of future dispute over servicing though).

We find Honda Cars like that. What I like is they work on these same models all day, so they know them very well, plus any tips or tricks that the general mechanic may not be aware of.

MullyAKL

11 posts

Geek

#2026122 31-May-2018 10:52

My company car goes to the dealer - it always comes back clean and they do top up fluids and stuff that a "normal" mechanic wouldn't do.

We've built up a relationship with a mechanic near my work, who we trust with our other cars. I'd take anything else to them, they recommend when stuff should be done and they charge a fair price (and keep any replaced bits to show me).

Batman

Mad Scientist
29761 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2026125 31-May-2018 10:57

I have also come across independent mechanics who do less and charge more than the dealer!

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

plod

272 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2026143 31-May-2018 11:39

I take my 10 year Corolla for every second serve to Toyota, local mechanic for other one. Toyota dealers seem to stay the same. Toyota seem to hold pretty good records for cars, not sure if that’s because mine was an ex signature or what.

I also figured if anyone was going to find something wrong to get more work it would be the dealership. I have been lucky so far, no one has tried to pull a fast one on me.

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek

#2026153 31-May-2018 11:59

The worst examples of bad service I've come across a few years ago was from a Nissan franchise. A friend of mine had a D40 Navara - just out of warranty - it failed a WOF at a testing station due to free play in the steering rack bushes. The Nissan agent put it on the hoist, confirmed that it was an issue, and reported that the only fix was an entire new rack at $3500 plus labour &GST. I was with him when they presented this bad news and they did a hard sell, offering a discount on the labour and trying to get him to book it in to have the work done, offering a loan vehicle while they did the work.
At my suggestion we left, drove about 2km to a power steering specialist. He'd never worked on that particular rack, but assured us that he'd be able to remove, disassemble and replace the bushes, if the Nissan bushes weren't available, he'd make the bushes himself in his workshop. Cost indication was about $500.

Next step was a mechanic who'd done work on these vehicles. Nope to both he said - the bushes are adjustable using a service tool which he didn't have - but he needed one. I think it was basically just like an allen key with a torx style head or similar, shaped to get in to a tight space. He made the service tool, charged $50 for the 1/2 hour of his time to do this, did the adjustment for free as I guess that was part of testing the tool. Perfect. IMO that Nissan's agent didn't know this is inexcusable.

My brother in law also owned an early model D40 Navara he bought new, had serviced at his local franchise agent, the timing chain snapped when it was only just out of official warranty totalling the engine with a $15k repair bill. He had to bring in lawyers and fight hard to get Nissan to honour their CGA obligations - they were at the time making defective engines, this was not an isolated example.

I owned a Safari for about 20 years that I serviced myself. Typical example I experienced was needing replacement panhard rod bushes. I dropped in to order or pick up these up or get them ordered from the local agent, next minute I've got the parts counter guy and some service manager - who was wearing a jacket and tie - insisting that the bushes are not available, never have been, they aren't replaceable even if you could get the bushes, I must replace the entire panhard rod at IIRC about $600. I knew this was BS - but there's no point arguing when you're being treated as if you're an idiot. I had the part numbers from the FSM I had at home, phoned back the same service centre with those part numbers, this time no problem, they had them in stock, IIRC price for both was $27, I picked them up the next day. Had to look the idiot at the parts counter in the eye and keep my trap shut.

Just my personal experience, there are probably similar from other brands/franchises. Perhaps that's just this particular franchise and others are fine - I don't know. The effect though is that I will never buy another Nissan. There are a few other brands of cars I'll never own again as well, based on equally awful service which may not be the rule - but leaves an extremely bad taste in your mouth.

Batman

Mad Scientist
29761 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2026155 31-May-2018 12:07

Not sure if you can entirely blame Nissan on that but it does give Nissan a bad look.

Aredwood

3885 posts

Uber Geek

#2027230 1-Jun-2018 21:08

lxsw20:
Coolant is most modern stuff is good for 100k, but it shouldn't be too hard to find a service manual online for a Fuga, or something with the same engine.

The Nissan gearboxes that like to die you're probably thinking of are CVT. A gearbox "service" at dealerships will be no more than an oil flush and filter change.

There are no service items you've listed that a trusted garage could not do. The only one I can think of would be a firmware update and I know for a fact they didn't do my Mazda at the dealership until I asked, and being this is an import, i doubt they would have the firmware available anyway.

Almost all service items have a time based interval as well as a distance interval. Coolant is definitely an example of such. Grandma who only drives her car for around 5,000K per year would take 20 years to run up 100,000K. Coolant definitely won't last for 20 years. Surprisingly often you will reach the time intervals before the distance intervals. Even the vans at my old work all had to be serviced based on time instead of distance.

Also where in my post did I say that you should only go to the dealer for servicing? I was only saying that you need to do a lot more than just change the engine oil and filter.

As for a gearbox service, oil and filter is all that is needed. Sometimes it is recommended that you don't flush out auto gearboxes. And instead only drain and refill oil pan + replace filter.

1 | 2