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First of all, IanH, I will get back to you about those alignment numbers.
Secondly, Molten_ser_v:
It’s too bad that you spent so many years around the dealerships, because you missed out on becoming a real mechanic.
It seems that you are suggesting that I should blame the symptom instead of the source. If the wheels are aligned correctly, the tires will wear evenly, front and rear, except for the normally expected shoulder wear on the steering tires. Finding that the front tires (which normally wear out much faster than the rear tires on front wheel drive vehicles) have twice as much tread than the rear, and evenly worn, indicates that something is drastically wrong. A tire that is not tracking correctly will not only wear out the tire prematurely, it also adversely affects gas mileage. Also, stating that this problem has been around for twenty years doesn’t mean that all cars with the solid rear axle will have problems; just the ones with improperly manufactured axles. And if you would come into any reputable tire dealer with tires worn like these, they would politely send you back to the car dealer for repairs.
Understand, please, that my beef is not that the car I purchased isn’t perfect; having repairs done on a new car is what the warranty is all about. The real problem was the dialogue between me and the service manager on the very first visit:
ME: I have an unusual tire wear problem on the rear of my car.
SM: Did you rotate the tires?
ME: No, I didn’t.
SM: Then that’s the problem.
I got almost the exact same reply from a different Nissan dealer, then he handed me the alignment check printout and added, “however, your rear axle is definitely out of alignment”. (The big brass ones he must have to say that with a straight face.) I further was stonewalled by the district service manager and Nissan Customer Assurance (HA!). If not for the intervention of the BBB, the matter was over.
As to giving the dealer service departments a ‘bad rap’, it is obvious from this experience that the ‘rap’ or ‘rep’ the dealers have is of their own doing. If someone with no mechanical experience had asked about this problem, they would have left the dealer feeling ashamed that they had ‘neglected’ their car; with two new tires that cost them double the going rate; and a misaligned car.
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