Poor experience with local Infiniti service dept in STL MO. Read my review and make your own judgement or prepare yourself better than I did prior to bringing in my auto if you are going to have a dealer replace the airbag per the national recall. Take plenty of before hand pics and video that clearly shows dash condition and ensure you have them on hand in case the repair results in collateral damage. Better yet, have the service dept manager do an inspection with you on current condition prior to handing over keys and document this. The dash beforehand was in great shape, minor defect near cluster but no top damage visible as post airbag replacement, always covered with dash mat to protect it and prevent sun fading, cracks etc. I was instructed during vehicle check in that they typically have to replace the dash during this work since so invasive and this alleviated my concerns with driving out of there later with a marred dash. They had my M45 for 10 business days to do this job. Their quote "20 year master technician was rough on it and collapsed parts of the dash foam backing and vinyl topcoat around the center bezel during removal or installation. Upon inspection it is obviously from parts removal and installation versus "wear and tear" as these dashes are prone to cracking on stressed edges but you can clearly see missing and crushed foam support where tools/hands were involved. They threw my dash mat back on prior to pickup, said nothing to me and hoped I would not notice. Upon my first attempt to pick up, I inspected the work, I pointed out my concern, they kept the vehicle for another 2 days. They then stated they would not fix it & accused me of using a dash mat on there to cover prior damage and had pictures to prove it was like that when they got it, however these pictures are most likely taken when they had my vehicle for the day following my complaint so they could fight it in case I went to corporate Infiniti Consumer Affairs level. They did offer to fix it if I was willing to pay for a new dash! The service manager was rude, accused me of attempting to get a free dash (which if I had a damaged dash to begin with I would have long ago had it professionally repaired or did it myself). I have owned over 30+ autos and with that comes a long history of experience both good and bad from service depts, but this experience was right up there with one of the worst that I self imposed due to reacting to the recall notice. I had two options, live with a great condition interior & a potentially dangerous airbag or flawed post dealer worked dash with a replacement airbag inside of it. Now I wonder if they really replaced anything airbag wise or did work correctly after their lack of integrity and behavior with me. Infiniti USA Consumer Affairs was a waste of time, they sound concerned upfront, but sided quickly with dealer and would rather not hear about the lack of customer service at one of their franchises. I never once asked for a new dash, as mine was fine, only expected they follow the established work standard they stated upfront and if it needed it due to the fragile nature of these dashes, then do the right thing and replace it or at the least, have a dash restoration shop come in and touch up their work rather than hand the keys to me with the dash looking like the pics below.

Holy crap! That doesn't look very encouraging. It might indeed have something to do with the general tendency of this dashboard to crack, but that to me looks like piss poor prying attempt, especially in those locations.

Go ahead and ask them to show or better yet send you the pictures. They'll be timestamped. But before that, ask for the time-in/time-out for the service(which might be on the receipts already). I don't know how easy it is to manipulate the receipt work order times.

If I may ask, which one is it, Bommarito or Plaza? I've had better attention from the service dept of one of them, but I really don't go often.

*Also, I thought noone had the new components required in the states yet, pretty cool if they've started receiving them.

Yep, as Ed said, get the pictures...the EXIF data on the image (right click, properties) should have the 'date taken' time. I doubt those garage losers know how to alter that. That'll tell you when the image was taken.

Personally, I'd likely lawyer up especially now that I have this thing at work where I pay $10/mo and have access to legal representation for anything I may need (real estate, medical, traffic court, etc.). The lawyer should be able to get those images with a simple request and then you can from there.

It was Bommarito. I got the notice parts were available end of Dec so made the appt for service with them on 3 Jan. I have attempted to get pics from them, would not show them to me when I was there and now they will not reply. I have discussed it more with Infiniti USA & they are going to "try" to get service dept to provide the pics to me. Figure next see what my local military legal office can do then push onto other legal assistance. Honestly it looks like work was started by tech with intention to replace dash so no attempt to protect it, but then manager stepped in and told them to shortcut the work or speed things up and get the car out by reinstalling original dash. He heavily weighed on the fact that I had a dash mat as reason to say dash was previously worn. I have started a BBB case too.

Let us know how you make out...legal action is the right action here.

Yeah, seems like the best way to move forward at this point. I hope it goes well.
I don't know how much they pay their lawyers, but how expensive could it be for them to eat the cost of fixing something like that? I figure that hehe Bommarito Auto group isn't really hurting for money, but hey I might never understand until I own my own chain of dealerships.

This is another reason why I won't bother with airbag recall...
Sorry that you had this happen to your M and good luck moving forward.

I can NOT believe they tried to remove that piece by prying it the way they did. Seems they tried to remove that piece FIRST and it should be the LAST piece they remove!
When I re-covered my dash, I had to remove all the parts (vents, speedo,A pillars, defrost vents and sensors, center radio cover, NAV finisher, etc) and there is absolutely NO NEED to pry that cover in those locations. The proper way is to remove the NAV screen surround, then simply LIFT up on the bose cover and it comes right out with NO force.
Clear evidence that their technician had NO CLUE what he / she was doing!

For over 40 years I have dealt with campaigns & recalls in my career.
As a dealership tech, they are dreaded due to the monotony and
low labor rate (time/hours) re-reimbursements.

Very rarely do A techs get burdened with them, they would be broke at the end of the week with few exceptions!
In my early years as a B tech, I performed hundreds of these things. Later on as a public transportation maintenance
supervisor, I would have to instruct mechanics on the procedures of performing campaigns.

My life experience take-away is this:
Never, never ever be first in line when a new campaign / recall comes out.
It is best to wait for the techs performing these procedures to get up to speed.

Had mine in for the airbag recall last week. The repair took 2 days and my dash looks like it wasn't even touched... good as new.

Glad I lucked out. Sorry you are having issues with yours.

small claims court

Just an FYI:

m35-dash-recall-t613439.html

@Autocorp.

Check you dealer for a recent recall of dash, same damage was done to my dash and was replaced brand new (1 day ago) based on a new recall by infinityUSA.

My problem has finally been resolved. After diligent work with the BBB using their Veterans channel, Infiniti Corp and the service dept's new manager I was able to have the dash replaced at no cost and they admitted their mistake. Prior service manager that was causing me problems no longer works there, and from what we were told, our issue with him was one of the final ones that put him on notice. We received a 1000 apologies and I am willing to go back to there service dept on future visits if needed. The dash was replaced in one day and they installed a GPS update I had purchased for free.

Wow congrats. Good on them to step up and fix the issues internally and externally also

Glad that got sorted out AutoCorp. However, it sucks how much hand-wringing it takes for the right thing to be done sometimes.

According to the recall, the dealer is supposed to replace the dash during the airbag fix. They get paid for it and are supposed to replace bothe the TAKATA unit and dash. I got a new dash with during my recall. My Service manager and service rep both told me the same at different times. In fact, my rep asked me what color my dash was when she called to schedule the recall. The delay in the repairs for our cars is due to dash availability, not airbag units.

JoshTex wrote:According to the recall, the dealer is supposed to replace the dash during the airbag fix. They get paid for it and are supposed to replace bothe the TAKATA unit and dash. I got a new dash with during my recall. My Service manager and service rep both told me the same at different times. In fact, my rep asked me what color my dash was when she called to schedule the recall. The delay in the repairs for our cars is due to dash availability, not airbag units.

Do you have this in writing anywhere or just talking to your service dept?

WillV wrote:

Do you have this in writing anywhere or just talking to your service dept?[/quote]

Let me check my paperwork. The lady I spoke with at Infiniti USA told me the dash replacement was part of the recall, as well. Regardless, the dealership damaged your dash while it was in their possession and they should repair what they damaged.

Duuude, that actually looks terrible! I do no even understand how it happened, but I hope you have fixed it, and you are also ok now!

Rockbri wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 04, 2021 9:40 am

Duuude, that actually looks terrible! I do no even understand how it happened, but I hope you have fixed it, and you are also ok now! I have also had a car with a damaged dash, however it was not even close to what I have seen in here. Mine was in a perfect state if I have to compare it to yours :DDD. It was actually an Old Car that I bought for drifting, it was an old bmw 328i, and it was amazing actually. The only problem it had was the damaged dash, and the terrible back seats, which I did not use, not at all.

I just remembered that there was also an issue with the intake

I took mine to the dealer and said the dash is already cracking so when it cracks further when you do this recall repair how will you handle it? They said no problem we will just put in a new dash and they did.

L5211 wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 07, 2021 1:03 pm

I took mine to the dealer and said the dash is already cracking so when it cracks further when you do this recall repair how will you handle it? They said no problem we will just put in a new dash and they did.

Yah, I kind of don't get what happened to the OP. Nissan knows that old plastic breaks, and when damage can't be avoided during a recall repair, they usually authorize replacement without many questions. I can only guess the Service Manager at that dealership was clueless.