Huge electrical problem.

[prelude3174]

Hey everyone, let me first off say that I love my Altima Coupe from the way it drives to the assortment of options. It’s silver and premium package without nav. I took it off the lot June 25th from Kendrick Nissan in Lafayette, IN.

I guess I could blame myself for taking possession of the car with these problems but hey hindsight is 20-20 and dang it I wanted it ASAP.

Anyways, here’s the deal. As I was going through everything with the sales guy, I noticed that the sun visor lights did not work. Upon further checking, we found that the dome, bottom of the doors, and the trunk light did not work either. He assured me that it was probably just a fuse and to come back tomorrow and they will get it fixed right up. Came back the next day…they couldn’t figure out what the deal was so I set up an appointment for them to have it all day. They checked it out came back saying that there was a “controller” that was bad and they would have to order it. This part turned out to be on back order and took about a month to get it. Finally, my “controller” came in and I took my Coupe to the shop to get it replaced. This was July 26th.

I call them at the end of the day on the 26th and they were like “Well, it wasn’t the controller, it’s much bigger, all of your wiring on the top of your car is fried”. So, needless to say, I was pretty ticked off. I went in there and they had the inside of my car TORN TO PIECES! The mechanic showed me exactly what had happened. When the car was being put together, whomever screwed in the sun visors had screwed through two of the wires shorting out almost all of the electrical wiring in the headliner. He showed me the wiring and it was all melted, I was surprised it hadn’t started a fire!

They assured me that it would get fixed ASAP (whatever that means) and they would put me in a rental car in the meantime. The rental company came and picked me up and took me to their shop. I went through the paperwork, walked outside expecting to see something comparable if not better than my Coupe but what do I get directed towards??? A base model Ford Focus!!! I was pissed! Needing to be somewhere and it being the weekend, I decided to suck it up for a couple of days and drive the POS. Come Monday, I visited the office and told them about the rental car situation and they said they would fix it. I finally got a 07 Altima 4cyl 4 door a week later. They said they were out of good cars because of the Brickyard 400 and the recall of the Altimas for the air filter recall, total BS.

So, here I am today…been without my car for 30% of the time I have been paying for it. They said they had to order a whole new headliner and everything, who knows how long that will take. Right now, I’m almost at the point that I want to wait it out and let the Indiana Lemon Law apply after 30 days and allow me to get a whole new car. Speaking of that, who knows if that short didn’t cause problems that will pop up years down the road, Nissan should just give me a new car now anyways!

[rfx45]

If it's possible to get a new car through the lemon law, I would go for it. I would hate to own a car that's been disassembled and put back together. After you get the repaired car back, I wouldn't be surprised if your all rattles and noise. Good luck on your situation and try to get yourself a new one if possible.

[mikemart]

Sorry to read about your experience. I hope you exercise any and all rights under lemon laws, etc. To pay that much for a brand new car, only to have it torn apart and put back together by dealer mechanics (no offense, but they usually don't give a flying F*ck about the cars they work on)???

My only concern is that you took possession of the car knowing about the "pre-existing" faults.

Consult a lawyer. Talk to your dealer. Threaten to write the BBB. Good Luck.