From: mitchy@media.mit.edu (Mitch Henrion)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers,rec.auto,rec.autos,mit.bboard
Subject: the meaningless warranty --> NISSAN
Date: 30 Sep 92 03:00:08 GMT
Organization: MIT Media Laboratory

I just got a letter from someone who wanted to know if I ever got any
retribution after my brand-new, top-of-the-line Nissan blew up on the
highway.  So many people gave me helpful and supportive replies that
I decided to post how things have come out.

The supportive comments and ideas from people on the net helped me
realize that I wasn't alone in thinking that Nissan's behavior was far
less than ideal.  I got a good taste for what my many options were,
and there were some good ones.  After having a lawyer write multiple
letters to Nissan, they finally made a $3000 offer (after two or three
intermediate offers which we refused to accept).  I finally decided to
take the $3000 and avoid further hassle.  The lawyer took $1000 of
that, so in the end my total loss was about $5000.  Still pretty
crummy, but I decided that it would be really tough to get more than
that.  In fact, I figured that it would be so time consuming to get
more than that, that it really wouldn't be worth it.

In some ways it's a sad result, but knowing that there was *some*
recourse made the difference for me.  Through some of the responses
that I received I also got a better understanding of the big corporate
mentality.  I still don't think it's right, but I also don't have the
time or energy to seek revenge.  I guess my small bit of revenge was
posting about the situation so that potential Nissan customers would
know what to expect should something similar happen to them.  This was
not a dealer specific incident.  After the car spontaneously
combusted, I was dealing directly with Nissan America.

For anyone that didn't see the original posting and would like to know
more about what happened, I've included a copy of the original below:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
I have a pretty serious gripe about Nissan, and I'm wondering if other
people have had similar problems with them.  Two summers ago I bought
a brand new, top-of-the-line, loaded Pathfinder.  I followed all the
rules on proper break-in for the truck/car and had all its required
maintenance checkups done slightly early.  About one week after the
car's big 15,000 mile checkup (which I had done at 11,000 miles), the
car caught on fire on the highway--*while I was driving it*--within
minutes the car was engulfed in 10 foot high flames.  The vehicle was
totalled and it had only been 9 months since I bought it.

Even though an investigation showed that the fire was started by a
fuel line leak (read MANUFACTURER'S DEFECT), nothing was covered under
the expensive "gold" warranty I which I had bought for extra
protection.  My insurance company gave me about 5/6 of the value of
the car and that was that.  As if that weren't bad enough, many of my
possessions burned (the vehicle was full of my belongings when it
caught fire--I was in the process of moving).  I also lost a great
deal of time at work, had been stranded in the middle of the night
on a fairly desolate piece of highway, and had no car after the two
weeks of partially funded car rental ran out.

I asked Nissan to make up the difference between what my insurance
company gave me and what the vehicle was worth, and to reimburse me
for the loss of my belongings (which totalled about $7000).  I thought
that that was the least they could do, but they said, "No way."  They
never even apologized--which is really the *minimum* decency you would
expect.  Is anyone else astonished that they wouldn't even consider
paying out $7000, which surely is nothing to them, to try to keep
decent customer relations with me?  It's not like I asked them for
"pain-and-suffering" payment, and there *was* plenty of pain and
suffering involved.

If I wanted (want) to sue, there are plenty of pain-and-suffering
things that I could unfortunately toss in.  I was afraid for my life
(a minor one right?)  Add on top of that that my brother died in a car
fire, and add on top of that that I didn't feel too great as a woman
alone on an empty stretch of highway in the middle of the night.  I
bought a new car *specifically* so I wouldn't have to worry about
getting stranded!!  I mentioned all this in my original letter and
they still effectively said, "Take a hike."

I'm posting this to warn other people about this completely
unpublicized (to my knowledge) side of Nissan.  I'd also like to hear
if anything like this has ever happened to anyone else.  I really
don't have *time* to sue--but I sure feel ripped off and treated like
dirt--any suggestions on what to do?

Mitch (Michele)
Newsgroups: misc.consumers