Why Is Nissan Doing This To Me! :(

[Ethan R34]

Hey Everyone, im new to SAU But i have had my car for just over a year now so i thought it was time to join!

I have always loved skylines since i can remember, just everything about them i love. they are just my vision of the pefect car.

in mid 2010 i bought my first car a R34 N/A (Regardless of the power output or any other disputes people may have its what iv always wanted and nothing could change my mind) i bought it 2 months before i got my Learners License and loved every bit about it. im currently on my red P's, soon to be greens. an i have not had my car since September 2011

I was driving home from work on a saturday, I just shown a property in the hawkesbury area where i work (Im in Real-estate) and i must admit i chopped it a little through the roads out near the turf farms. and i came around a right turn bend wasnt breaking the speed limit or anything and a dog ran out of some guys property in front of my car and first reaction was to swerve.. biggest mistake! i jumped on the breaks as i swerved the car kept sliding all the way off the road into a little grass ditch. the front on the car mounted the inbankment and was stuck.

Anyway long story short the dogs owner helped my get the car back on the road still started and drove fine. but when i saw the damage i knew it wasnt an easy fix. i got the car towed back to my house where i later went over the car to see the damage.

Front bumper was stressed and cracked and pretty well stuffed, all rims were fine, and the raidiator had a hole right through it from where the A/c cooling fan penetrated through. but the worse part was my Right hand Door sill, it was bent up into a V shape lucky the door and everything was undamaged but i knew the Side panel was not gonna buff out aha.

The car was later taken to Dural Prestige Smash Repairs after i droped a new performace radiator and cooling fan in, it got quoted up and i had a good chat with the owner. very nice guy and very helpful. he said it was totaly repairable it would need a new front bar (which i already ordered off ebay, it a GTR style front bar) and the bottom door sill cut out and a new one fitted and sprayed. the next day he got the quote from nissan and told me the costs. because out mate refered me to him he done his best to reduce costs. i was quoted all up for the new off side, side panel. sprayed and fitted as well as the front bar i bought sprayed and fitted $2000. but the part had to be ordered from japan direct.. this is when it all went wrong.

The part was ordered the next day and said it can take 6-8 weeks from order, i was pretty devo but i guess i just had to wait. i called roughly 10 weeks later and asked if the part had arrived yet, frank from the smash repairs told me it hasnt arrived yet mate but he will keep in contact of any news. so i waited and waited, i got a call back from the smash repairs and he told my he spoke to nissan and they said it got held up and should arrive few days after christmas. so yet i kept my hopes up and waited some more. it never arrived. i decided to take it into my own hands and ring nissan first had with the shipping number and find out where the hell it is. and they told me it is still in transit and should be hear with in a week. so same old story of playing the waiting game.

A week later i still have not heard a thing! at this point im on the edge so i ring nissan again. this time i spoke to a manager about this situation, and he said he will look further into and find out a presise date of arrival and get back to me the next day. 9:30 the next morning i get a call from nissan the manager i had spoken with. he told me it got held up longer then they thought and is on its way now and will arrive wednesday the next week and take about 9 days to clear customs and to arrive at hornsby nissan where it was ordered. it sounded promising.

i waited again and rang the folowing thursday to double check that the part had arrived in Aus. The manager started getting firm with me saying the car wasnt imported through nissan so its not thier promblem and you will just have to wait. I then rang the smash repairs and told frank what nissan had told me. he was furious and decided to ring nissan himself, He told me regardless if the car was imported through them or not its still a NISSAN and they surply the parts!. he later rang another guy from nissan and told him the story and asked for him to help him. so he said he will ring frank back with any news. nissan rang him back and told him it is 100% arriving Monday 16th or Tues 17th Jan. so i prayed and hoped for the part to have arrived, i rang nissan on the tuesday to ask if the ship arrived...

I nearly lost my shit altogether when i was told the folowing.. "The part was only shipped out on the 5th of Decmber and will take another 6-8 weeks and to stop calling, they would call me when it arrives." No joke at this point it all felt hopeless and nearly made me wanna punch someone, The Part was ordered in october 2011 for christ sake! they blantly lied and lied to me! Nissan were no help what so ever! Why do imports have to be so difficult!? I miss driving my car so much and its killing me to be driving a holden astra -_-

Im left with no other option then to put in a good condition second hand side panel, i managed to source from a place called "Sydney Auto Dismantlers" it will be marked out by the smash repairers and cut out professionally by the dismantlers and i just pray to god that it looks half decent once welded in and reprayed to match my car, im really uncurtain about the final job of this will be and i heard there will be rust issues in couple years to come is this true and what are all your thoughts on my situation?. Nissan still want to charge me for a part they so called "Ordered" for me, should this be disputed or not guys?

[r31slpr]

If the sill is in good condition and the panel beater does his job properly, you'll have no problem with rust, fitment, strength etc. As for your dispute with nissan, i have no idea. Good luck

[turboedsloth]

If you had to oreder the part from japan you are stuck with it as they don't return so you can't really dispute it. Sounds like you've just dealt with an asshole dealership as i don't have these problems with mine

[Hadouken]

Ombutsmen maybe?

[starwarz]

I understand the frustration, ordering from Nissan Rockdale they F you over a couple times with the waiting. 'The manager started getting firm with me saying the car wasnt imported through nissan so its not thier promblem and you will just have to wait'. i would have snapped at him hard, being a good guy with these wankers gets you know where soon as you raise your voice and show them your not a push over they will start talking the truth. Similar story with my manager at work, i was up for a raise and for a few weeks he kept on telling me he sent in my application to the head office (Boss) finally after a couple weeks of him giving me the same one liner i snapped at him a little, walked up to the bosses office with him trying to stop me. Turns out the Boss didn't get my application and the manager looked looked shocked that i did what i did, i ended up getting what i wanted.

Edited January 23, 2012 by starwarz

[jimmyr31]

badluck mate contact a relevent ombudsman or get ya mum to write an angry letter.

[GTR-N1]

Lincorp - Parramatta Nissan looks after SAU guys and their imports better than most.

They follow up on orders.

They even give SAU Members discount.

The woman at Rockdale Nissan Spare Parts (a company mentioned above) is the only person I would deal with over there.

I don't think an ombudsman can do much in this predicament. Slow.

A solicitor that can shake the cage? Maybe.

BTW, welcome to SAU Ethan!

[Berk]

Write to head office, make clear of dates etc. Ask for an explanation, it might cause them to light a rocket up someone's ass and get the part expedited. If you keep your complaints/dealings within the particular Nissan store they won't care, you have already dealt with the manager, it's time to go over his head. You should suggest that Nissan could pay for another part to be air mailed to you.

Edited January 23, 2012 by maxima

[Ethan R34]

Thanks guys i really appreciate all the support im sure some of you guys have had to wait patiently for a part or mod, it just gets to the point where you wanna give up and sell the bloody thing but i just cant bring myself to doing it. cuz at the end of the day im a skyline enthusiast and thats why i on this forum.

Thanks for making me welcome man!

[StevenCJR31]

had trouble with a long wait for parts to arrive at a certain nissan dealership on the northside of perth, when it did arrive it was the incorrect part and they refused to do anything about it . . now the only people i use for genuine parts is DVG in bassendean- good service and good prices even for imports (as long as you bring in the chassis number when ordering)

[central coast person]

Thanks guys i really appreciate all the support im sure some of you guys have had to wait patiently for a part or mod, it just gets to the point where you wanna give up and sell the bloody thing but i just cant bring myself to doing it. cuz at the end of the day im a skyline enthusiast and thats why i on this forum.

Thanks for making me welcome man!

I work for a nissan dealer and all i can say is you have no idea how hard it is to work with inline with nissan australia and japan. Thats pretty fast october to jan for that sort of part as its a panel they wont just make one of those panels they will pump out 5-10 and even wait for more back orders to come through before the panels are cut. They always do this. Also the date will say 17-1-2012 and its only gets updated every tuesday and it will just keep getting delaid more and more. Sometimes we have to wait 3 months for parts that are common and the cars are acctually sold in australia. If you were contacting a dealer they did a lot to help you as the dealer info are only ETA's and all emails and phone calls reguarding back ordered will be mostly ignored.

You may aswell get a second hand one and it will rust depending on where it is cut. If its cut where the original one is installed with seam welder it will be fine but if its choped and fitted inbetween the stock seam welds chances are yes the panel beater wont go to all that work to stop the rust and just chop the old one out and fit a piece of it in and weld them together, all welds rust if not treated.

P.S. i buy a lot for my R33 and i had to wait months and months for a washer bottle =\

[R34 -_-]

I would have driven into the dog tbh, plow into and stop vs driving into a ditch... leaving the road is the worst thing to do. a, because you could end up crossing the other side of the road into another car or b, strike a much bigger object such as a tree,power poll or in your case, a bank.

I've heard of other stories regarding parts/services, seems the best thing to do is go over the muppets (managers) head and threaten legal action if they are being dodgy.

[mad082]

i have to agree with central coast person on this one. i've been working in retail for over 10 years now and we constantly get told that stuff will be available at a certain time, but it rarely is. i pre-ordered something through my business for the missus. was supposed to be landing in the country in mid august. it was late november before it finally got here. i kept getting updated ETA dates from the supplier but they just came and went. i knew it wasn't their fault because the info they were getting was telling them that it was on it's way, but the shipment would arrive and the stock wasn't there. and this wasn't just something they were getting purely for me. this was new season stock, so there was a container full of them coming.

on the subject of your car though, is there no way that the panel can be repaired? if it is the sill that is damaged, is there no way for the panel shop to pull the panel straight? i slid of the side of a dirt road in my falcon and dented the lower door sill. the panel beaters i showed (and the one who fixed it) simple welded something onto the sill, attached a slide hammer and pulled the dent out. then they just smoothed it off and painted it.

[StevenCJR31]

i have to agree with central coast person on this one. i've been working in retail for over 10 years now and we constantly get told that stuff will be available at a certain time, but it rarely is. i pre-ordered something through my business for the missus. was supposed to be landing in the country in mid august. it was late november before it finally got here. i kept getting updated ETA dates from the supplier but they just came and went. i knew it wasn't their fault because the info they were getting was telling them that it was on it's way, but the shipment would arrive and the stock wasn't there. and this wasn't just something they were getting purely for me. this was new season stock, so there was a container full of them coming.

on the subject of your car though, is there no way that the panel can be repaired? if it is the sill that is damaged, is there no way for the panel shop to pull the panel straight? i slid of the side of a dirt road in my falcon and dented the lower door sill. the panel beaters i showed (and the one who fixed it) simple welded something onto the sill, attached a slide hammer and pulled the dent out. then they just smoothed it off and painted it.

Seen a repair done like this on MONSTER GARAGE, nice dent in a panel that the panel beater couldnt get access to from behind so he tack welded 6 or so (what looked like rivets) metal spikes and clamped onto them with a slide hammer and pulled out the dent, he then cut off the rivets with an angle grinder and only needed to apply a thin SKIM of body filler to get the panel looking straight again, for an enduring repair i would suggest spraying fish oil on the inside of any panel repaired in this way (or a cut n shut)

[mad082]

yeah from what i understand it's an extremely common way to pull dents out that can't be accessed from the inside of the panel.

[olloSKYLINEollo]

yeah from what i understand it's an extremely common way to pull dents out that can't be accessed from the inside of the panel.

Correct. Very effective method of repair when there is no access. I have seen some tradies who actually cut and drill the damaged section off then repair it and once all in the right shape weld the section back on. I have never seen the point in doing it that way when welding a plate on and using a slide hammer works just as well and is quicker. Another good way is using a pin puller, it's just and electrode that welds to the panel and you use a lever to pull the dent out. Sometimes you need to weld the plate on first then use a pin puller to finish pulling the dent out. Then a light skim of vanishing cream and all is good. Will also add whenever I weld a plate on or use the pin puller I always/try to squirt rust proofing into the area where I had been working on

[Miguelone]

I've seen paintless dent removal guys also use a similar method except they use a UV setting glue and a puller to pull the panel back into shape.

[Ethan R34]

Bump!

Thanks for all the advice and tips guys, they panel was really messed up it had creases and crinkles all over i honestly didnt see any chance of it getting back to normal aha.

And i understand that with dealerships and retail things get held up and can take time to arrive especially for something so big and from such a great distance but i just didnt understand why i was getting stuffed around

so much? it just felt like they couldnt give a crap about my needs and they were just letting things slide.

NOW I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY!!

Last week i recieved a phone call that the part arrived at the smash repairs!! You could only imaging how happy i am to know for sure im getting my car fixed and back on the road!

I spoke with the Smash repairs today and they said the new door sill has been fitted and reprayed and is looking absolutly mint! all that needs to be done now is the gtr bar fitted properly and then once everything

is lined up it will be painted and im expecting it back on WEDNESDAY 1st FEB!

Ill be posting up some pictures of the finished job when the car is back for you guys to give me your honest opinion! And once again guys thanks for everything i cant wait to be back on the road driving my pride and joy and please keep me posted of the next SAU meet or cruise in sydney because ill deffs be there!!!

[MBS206]

So?

[kosmo90]

Yeah, cmon wheres the pics?

Hope it all went well