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After reading Nosrac's posting I now realize I am not the only person in Ottawa who is not satisfied with his / her Xtrail. I bought a 2005 SE with 39,000 KMS on it in March 2006 from Walkley Nissan. I drive quite a bit so the current mileage as of today is 100,299. I have the extended warranty so the average individual would think, OK it's a Nissan and he has the extended warranty so he's all set. Shouldn't have a single problem and if he does he's covered. Well I have to tell you, that is not the case.
In the two years I have had this vehicle I have had a series of problem which have either been resolved or continue to be “undetectable” to the service staff of both Tony Graham (TG)and Walkley Nissan (WN).
The resolved one’s;
1. The tires that came with the car were substandard and left me driving a crazy carpet in the first snow storm the week I bought the car. It took 3 hours of arguing with the manager of WN to finally have them change the tires to new all seasons. When I was picking the car up from the service centre the mechanic indicated my new tires would pass safety now…meaning what? “well sir, you wouldn’t have been able to safety the vehicle with the tires that were on it, they had less than 35% tread left on them”…..Now that’s interesting…
2. Engine light began coming on intermittently and after three trips to TG they could not figure out why. The standard answer (which comes up in almost all of my visits is) “we can’t identify or replicate the problem.” This is not black magic…just because the cars on board computer does not register a problem does not mean it doers not exist. Only after the light came on and stayed on were they able to “identify” the problem. The engines O2 sensors were acting up and one had to be replaced.
3. Cruise Control stopped working, this was due to a sensor issue near the brake pedal, it was malfunctioning so a safety feature kicked in and disabled the Cruise Control. Sensor was replaced
4. Car wouldn’t start on intermittent occasions. The engine would make a grinding noise much like the sound you get if you turn the ignition key on a car that has the engine running. It did this on three separate occasions and ach time the dealer could not identify or replicate the problem. There didn’t seem to be a pattern as to why this was happening. However if I moved the gear shift into drive then back to park a couple of times the car would start. On the forth visit I was told that the infamous Nissan Tech Line (NTL) gave them a hint that it might be the gear shift cable. Apparently they can stretch and result in the transmission still appearing to be engaged even though the gear shift is in park. So the car thinks you have it in reverse and won’t start. They replaced the cable but I still need to make sure I push the gear shift as far forward as it can go when putting the car in park or it still won’t start.
5. Complete brake overhaul last month quoted at $1600 by WN. Apparently as Nosrac was also informed they are not made as durably as older cars and they are cheaper to service this way…I don’t ever remember paying that much for brakes on all my other cars combined.
The Unresolved ones;
Go grab a coffee, this will be interesting….
1. A loud metallic “whine” emanates from under the car just forward of the passenger feet. This only seems to happen when not near a Nissan dealership. I have been in 5 times with this issue and nobody can figure it out. I personally believe it is a heat shield or exhaust plate that is vibrating against the exhaust pipe when the engine is running and car is in drive but sitting still, such as at a red light. Putting the car in Neutral tends to eliminate or lessen the noise. It has become a game to me to guess when it will happen. It is also loud enough that the drivers near me always look to see what sounds like a turbine engine with bad bearings. (Strike 1)
2. This one is for Nosrac…ROOF RATTLE! It is temperature related, the warmer the weather, the worse it gets. I have been able to figure out what the problem is, after 4 unsuccessful visits to TG, but not until the initial 60,000 KM coverage had expired, apparently the extended warranty is relatively limited in its coverage…I’m pretty sure that if the engine falls out onto the road and I cannot be identified as having contributed to it, they’ll gladly put it back in for a deductible. Anyway, the rattle comes from the passenger side of the sunroof. The rail that the sunroof moves back and forth on seems to make contact with another (as yet) unidentified piece of metal. It will stop two ways, the first is once the temperature drops below -5 Celsius, it appears the metal contracts enough that it no longer makes contact. Or, if I have the opportunity to pull over I can get into the passenger seat, grab the bottom lip of the sun roof and pull down 3 or 4 times using my body weight as a fulcrum. I guess I’m actually pulling the metal part of the roof down and away from the other part of metal that is making contact. This of course has the mechanics stumped to the point it has been suggested that it should be the body shop that looks at it. Still not fixed (Strike 2)
3. Engine idles rough; the colder it gets the rougher the car idles. WN reset the “idle sensor” and the rough idle has decreased but now the engine stalls when starting it in weather above -5 Celcius.
4. Idling temperature of the engine is very low and not sufficient to produce enough heat to adequately melt ice or snow on the windows. The car really does not heat up until your begin driving it.
5. Rear passenger wheel rattles like it is loose, suspension and drive train have been checked and everything is AOK! Ummmm, no it’s not.
6. The radio no longer works, I lost am and fm reception 5 days ago and I suspect the antenna has come unplugged from the radio but I’m not prepared to dismantle the dash just yet. But I guess I still have the CD player as long as it’s not below 0 Celcius, if the radio is cold the CD player skips and does not stop until after the car has spent the day in underground parking.
7. The vents in the dash rattle, no matter what I do I cannot get them to stop, matter of fact the whole car rattles. Plastic is everywhere and even though Nissan had the foresight to put small material pads in obvious plastic on plastic contact points to reduce rattling, it is clear they missed a few.
8. The head rests in the front seat are not very secure. If I am sitting and put my head back with normal weight I can feel the two posts pushing against my back. I don’t want to see how that works if I am hit from behind.
9. Car freezes over easily, with the Canadian weather such that it is, if we get rain and then a flash freeze overnight forget getting into the Car. The door handles are flimsy and can be pulled out of their seating with out too much trouble so there really isn’t any way to muscle your way in. Just hope you have a car starter to warm the car up inside…OH YEAH! That doesn’t work either as I pointed out earlier the car doesn’t heat up enough to do that….
I want to emphasize the amount of my time these issues have taken up. Waiting for the car, dropping it off and picking it up to be told I need to bring it back again for a part that hasn’t arrived yet, hours upon hours that I could probably string together to total approximately 3 weeks of downtime.
I think I have made my point about the car itself but I also want to speak to Nosrac’s comments about service standards. I know my vehicle and I know when something is wrong. If it wasn’t happening before and all of a sudden there is a change then how can anyone come back and say “that’s normal” or “it’s functioning as designed” or any of the other excuses I have heard to deflect from what has become a standard today. A new generation of mechanics now exist who only understand a computer signal and a “service code” that pops up from the little box in the engine that is supposed to be the “brain” of the car. I have seen cars with half the plugs pulled out still not registering any “codes” so to the mechanic there is nothing wrong. Meanwhile the engine is shuddering misfiring and then stalling. Thank god for modern technology.
I wonder why Nissan dropped it in Canada after only a couple of years? Could it be that they already knew what we are just finally catching on to? The Nissan Xtrail is not a product that instils confidence in its drivers and apparently Nissan feels the same way. Try this if you’re bored. Take a drive around the back of any Nissan Dealer you know and count the number of Xtrails in the staff parking areas. Not many that I’ve seen…
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