Enough is enough – I am seriously disapointed with X-Trail or Nissan in general.
This is going to be a long rant and if you want a summary, cliff notes is at the bottom.
A little bit about me and my car. I purchased this brand new X-Trail SE 4WD last year June from Tony Graham Nissan. In the pass year and 2 months, there were a few flaws with the car which I could bear with (I am sure all cars, even new, are bounded to have a few problems here and there) but until today, I am absolutely disappointed with the car, especially how Nissan handles the situation.
So far, issues with X-Trail are summarized as follow:
1) Every time I started the car, there is some strange rattle noise from the engine. This happened since the first day I picked up the car (it is obvious when compare to the demo side by side). I mentioned to service one week after purchase, they could not find anything wrong with it. They mentioned they will follow up on it with Nissan Tech Line (whatever that is). No respond as of to-date (I even wrote in the customer survey regarding this, with no help)
2) Deformed centre console, it came as deformed and the plastic piece underneath the hand brake would not fit properly, took 2 months for parts to come in and replaced.
3) Rattle noise from the roof when driving on the highway, on the 24K inspection, I brought this issue up and they lubed the roof seal to correct creaking. No help, still make the very same noise as of to date.
4) Brake pad pre-maturely wore out. On the 24K inspection, they recommended this brake service (for extra $75), according to the service technician, it is common on these cars that the brake pads would have a tendency to stick to the rotor, hence shorten the life of the brake pads. I questioned why this is a common issue as I never had to service my brake at 24K on my last 2 cars. He said, word for word, “yeah, it was due to the design of the brake and cars nowadays is not as durable as the old one (WDF?), Toyota (I guess he probably works at Tony Graham Lexus Toyota too) does that too!” I was shock with his “Toyota does it so yeah, so suck it up” kind of attitude. So I end up did not agree to the brake services. (I guess that explains why I don’t have this experience with my last 2 cars too cause they were both Acura)
Today’s issue
It is a beautiful Friday here in Ottawa and it was my day off today, so, I booked and paid a tee off time this afternoon. As I had everything ready to go, I jumped into the car and turn the key. The X-Trail made an awful noise in attempt, but failed to the start the engine. Weird, but no panic, try again. SAME thing, it sounded like a 10 years old car which can not start because of whatever reason. It just happens that my neighbor walked my car, and mentioned to me that as it was trying to start the engine, there was a cloud of dark smoke came out from the exhaust. Sure enough, after 15 minutes of failing to start to car, I gave up, cancelled the tee off (with no refund). I walked back out, gave it one last trail before I call someone to tow it. Surely, with a great deal of difficulty, it started. It struggle at 200-300 rpms for about 5 seconds and it finally fired up. OK, rpm went straight to 2000 rpms and idle there. Without a second thought, I drove right to Tony Graham Nissan where I purchased the vehicle. (Since now I have 4 hours of spare time!)
So I was at the service department, explained to the person what exactly happened. He said they would have to take the car in for an inspection and try to find out what is wrong with it (mind you, I just finished my 24K inspection not long ago). Ok, so I ask how long is it going to take? He responded as: “I could not tell you, we have a long list of cars needed to be worked on, it is better to leave the car here for the day and I *might* be able to fit you in today, if not tomorrow, but tomorrow we are booked solid.” So I asked is there any courtesy car that I could use for the day. “No, we don’t have that, but you can always go rent a car across the street, we provide great rental rate” So, this is what I concluded at that point:
1) My car failed to start for unknown reason.
2) They might be able to schedule me for inspection for today, might be tomorrow
3) I have to leave the car for a day, or 2 (if no time available today)
4) I was offer to sit there and wait for it to be finished inspection
5) I am stuck with no car unless I pay to rent if I leave
Well, I was obviously disappointed. I decide to stay there to wait (in hope that they will look at the issue quicker). After 1 ½ hours (what a way to spend for a day off), they were done. The conclusion is, they can not find ANYTHING wrong with it. I would be glad if they did find something wrong and fix it. But nope, nothing. So the technician mentioned he will forward this issue to Nissan Tech Line (AGAIN?! Is Nissan Tech Line their new hide-out? So if NTL doesn’t response, the dealer would be off the hook?) and handed my key back.
To summarize, I take good care of my vehicles that I have owned, I follow regular maintenance schedule, and I do not abuse the car. And nope, it was not the battery because I didn’t turn off the lights or did not close the door properly that cause the car failing to start.
Ok, so now, I am here. Stuck with the car, HOPING that there won’t be anything wrong with it. What really disappointed me the most is, Nissan failed to prove a vehicle with a peace of mind for its owner. I am glad that today is nice summer day, what if it is the winter time and we are up in Mont Tremblant on our ski trip? What if it is my wife out shopping alone with the car at night? What if it happens when we are down in Toronto on business?
Thanks Nissan, this is the first Nissan we have and it will be the last one.
Cliff notes: X-Trail failed to start for unknown reason, dealer inspected with nothing wrong with the car. I am here ranting.
P.S. Anyone know any channel that I can report this to Nissan?
Last edited by Nosrac : Aug 26th, 2005 at 07:57 PM.
"P.S. Anyone know any channel that I can report this to Nissan?"
they do have a 1-800 number (unfortunately I don't have it right at hand) where you can raise the issue. I had occasion to use it once on my previous Nissan product and found them quite helpful. They listened, clarified and promised to "investigate" the matter - - which they did and we arrived at a satisfactory conclusion.
Why not give it a try - nothing to loose.
Good luck with it = Roger
__________________ 2006 Platinum Bonavista # 0001 May you always have love to share, health to spare and friends who care. .
I had the black smoke problem 3 times in the first year of ownership of our 02 Altima 2.5s. 417 Nissan is my dealer - they checked the vehicle thoroughly and found fouling in the spark plugs - They linked this to a faulty start something-or-other, and replaced the suspect part under warranty. Working well since. The further explanation that I got was that the fuel infection system can sometimes get fouled under various conditions - they didn't seem to think it was a big deal at all, and were very good at sorting the problem out.
I would highly recommend 417 Nissan, I went there once for service and was very impressed. I would also like to comment on some of your problems, 1) from my experience(former parts manager of Toyota, Honda, Ford) you will always wait for trim parts and especially when a vehicle is very new to a country. 2) I hate to tell you this but I never drove a vehicle with a sunroof that did not make some kind of noise, especially when it's popped up, these things have a lot of parts to them and the X-Trail's being so huge is also heavy. 3)The stalling is the one I really sympathize with you, that's a bummer. Service people are human, I'm not implying anything here but one's approach is important. We have seen a few posters getting new fuel pump relays maybe yours is the same as it appears it was starving for fuel. I sent you a private message.
Last edited by XTrail1 : Aug 27th, 2005 at 04:54 AM.
I'm sorry that your having a rough time with your X-Trail. We have two Nissan's... a 2002 Sentra SE-R Spec-V and a 2005 X-Trail LE. The Sentra has been rock solid since the day i bought it and the X-Trail is only 6 months old with 12000kms and not a squeek, rattle anywhere. I haven't dealt with Tony Graham for sales but they have serviced my Sentra a few times and have been excellent to deal with, more-so than 417 Nissan's servive department. I have a good relationship with the sales staff at 417, but their service department blows. I hope you get the issues resolved but it's very concerning that they can't find anything wrong when obviously there is an issue.
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…
My reasons for leaving GM and their lousy dealerships and vehicles. I went to Nissan. I also have been to one other "Large" Nissan Dealership in the West Island and I would never go back.
I have not had any of the problems that you are having at all. The Tires I agree and that is why Valboo, my boss and I changed them from day one and in fact I still have my Original Summer (GoodYear Assurance) and Winter (GoodYear UltraGrip Ice) on my x-trail... in fact the Winters have been outstanding this year!!!
Service at my dealership has been ***** (Five Stars) they also have an X-Trail that they still use to bring customers to their location when they drop off their cars for service. A dealership can make or break a customer satisfaction.... mine is a true exception...
Change your dealership...you do not have to use the one that you purchased from. My Boss had leased his 05 X-Trail and when the lease was up, traded it for a Rogue...he regrets it. I will not sell mine as it just keeps working.
I bring it in for servicing, change the oil .. synthetic Mobil 1 every 5000k.. etc.. not one issue.
If a dealership does not invest in their employees and training you will get screwed.... I can tell you that at mine, the car mechanics I know all of them.. and the service departments staff have been there for over 10 years!!! that tells you a lot about this dealership and the owner and why they are the best in Montreal.
Stephen
Last edited by ValBoo : Jan 14th, 2008 at 06:52 PM.
I would be sick if I experienced all those problems, especially since this is my first new car. Even my last 20 yr. old car didn't cause me much trouble. I guess there are still lemons around.
I have had my X just over 2 years, and although my mileage is only in the 20's, I have had NO problems. Except the creak in the dash which I will get looked at this winter (it only makes the noise when very cold outside). I did opt for the brake service after reading here about those issues.
I know looks aren't everything but my car still makes me smile every time I look at or drive it!!
Even over here in Oz, the dealer you choose makes all the difference between getting little things sorted out quickly and being fobbed off at the slightest question.
Find out how many of the service guys do 4wd themselves. Chances are if they are into this type of stuff then they might take a little more interest in your car.
__________________
Kev
2003 Titanium Ti-L Xtrail Series 1
Hi-Tech Ceramic coated extractors with 2.25" SS exhaust with twin outlets + Hi-flow Catco Cat Convertor + K&N Filter
Hi...
This is Aziz from Saudi Arabia...
I have a 2002 2.5 Nissan X-Trail. I had no real problem during the first five years, and if I had it was under warranty anyway. The dealers here are good and didn't have any problems with them. As soon as I passed my 80km it started it's series of horrible problems. The first was the exhaust manifold. It was leaking air and it needed to be changed. I went to get the part, the dealer said that it will cost $1280. That was too much. I went to near by Bahrain and asked for the same part and they gave me a totally different price. They said it will be $427!!! Less than 50%, but it will be imported from Japan in 21 days...no problem.
My second problem was heat and it was a minor issue. It was solved by changing the cap of the radiator. But what came next was the big story. While I was testing the car with the mechanic the engine started shocking violently and it shock all the car with it. This was caused by my carelessness of the exhaust manifold's problem. The engine's head needed to be machined.
My last problem, hopefully, was just yesterday. I was going to work which is 120km away from my home. In the middle of the road there is a little town. After I passed it by 20km and at 140km/hr the car just stalled. I tried to start it up but no use. It starts for 3 seconds and drops dead again. Ironically, every time I push the accelerator the engine stops immediately. Despite my calls for the road patrol to come and tow my car and waiting for them for more than 90 minutes in the middle of the desert, a kind man stopped for me and drove me to nearby gas station where we found a tow truck and it took me to that little town. It was an electrical problem so I took it to a mechanic who kept me there for a day without doing anything to the car. Today morning I called him he said you can drive the car, it works, but I didn't fix it. It needed a spare part that wasn't available there. I drove it back home and I went to my usual mechanic and he confirmed what was said. The problem is with the air regulator. I went to the dealer to buy it for $160 but he said it won't be available till Saturday.
This is my story with my X-Trail.
