How satisfied are you with the quality of your new Nissan or Saturn?

What did you think about the quality of your new Nissan Versa, Altima, Altima Coupe, Altima Hybrid, Xterra, Frontier, Maxima, or Pathfinder or Saturn Ion, Vue or Vue Hybrid the first three months after you ... via The Tennessean

[07XterraGuy]

Love my OffRoad

[an unhappy customer]

6/23/2007

Hi All,

I’d like to share with you the bad experience I‘ve had with my 1 and ½ year old Saturn 2006 ION 2. I’m actually in the process of filing for the lemon law and return the vehicle to Saturn. I’m sure you’ve all heard or read about what Saturn calls “lean idle misfire”. They claim this is intestinal on their part to save gas while the vehicle is idling. I personally do not like the rough idling associated with this.

I’ve taken my car five times already to try to fix a problem that goes beyond the rough idle. My car actually wants to chock and die. Which has already happened. Every time I’m in my car, I feel an uneasy feeling that at any moment the car is going to stall and leave me stranded wherever I happen to be. They have not been able to fix this problem. And this is the reason for me filing for the lemon law. I’ve already submitted the initial paperwork and await their response.

To add insult to injury, the A/C went out on me about three weeks ago. I took the car to Saturn, being that it’s still under warranty. They called me at work to inform me that the problem with the A/C is not covered by the warranty and that the job to fix it would run me $700.00. They claim that the condenser was impacted by a rock or something else and that for this reason it’s not covered by my warranty. I went during my lunch break to pick up the car and inspect the damage. They had to us the tip of a screwdriver to point out a small pinhole on the condenser. I was not convinced that it was impacted by something hard or large enough to damage the condenser and produce a small hole on it. I could not see evidence like a crushed area that would indicate that something collided with it. Even so, my main argument with Saturn is the fact that, even though they knew that a condenser is such a delicate part, they did not provide a covering to protect it. In my case, there is no evidence that the projectile came in through the front, so they claim it came from underneath, which proves my point. All cars I’ve owned in the past have had some kind of protective panel underneath to protect from this type of incident. Even my wives’ Hyundai Accent has such a protective panel. I explained to Saturn that this incident was not due to negligence on my part as in me not changing the oil in the car causing engine damage. This was totally out of my control and could have been prevented if they had provided this panel. I feel it was due to poor engineering on Saturn’s part. They insist in not fixing it. They’ve lost me as a customer. I’ve owned six Toyotas and have been pleased with their reliability. In good faith I wanted to give a US built car a chance, but they really shot that down. I wish I would have listened to my wife and bought a Toyota instead.

Two last things I’d like to share with you. One is to take it upon yourselves to come up with a way to cover the bottom of your car to protect the condenser and avoid it being damaged. A damaged condenser is expensive to repair ( hoping that the A/C has not been damaged more extensively ), and it’s no fun to drive around in the heat. I live in Florida, so you can imagine. And two, I would contact Saturn to complain about this. Maybe if enough of us complain, they will put out a recall and install the panel they should have installed from the very beginning.

One last thing, in case you’re not aware of this, the impact resistant sides that Saturn was good for, is a thing of the past. 2006 was the last year Saturn manufactured the ding resistant panels. This was the main
reason I purchased a Saturn. Now for sure I have not reason to buy another Saturn.

Thanks

[07XterraGuy]

My 2007 Xterra OffRoad is great. It is Super Black and has a 6 speed manual transmission. It has every option except the XM/Sirius.The front windows are tinted to match the other windows. I also got the Cargo Organizer , Cargo Cover, the Carpeted Floor Mats and the Carpeted Cargo Mat. I have nearly 800 miles on it and my gas mileage is between 15 and 17 mpg.Soon I will take it off road and I also plan on buying a trailor.

[defibvt]

I absolutely hate my Xterra. The drivetrain is a piece of shit. I offroad and beware of trying to do that if you dont want to grenade your diffs and t-case.

[WilMac]

defibvt wrote:

I absolutely hate my Xterra. The drivetrain is a piece of shit. I offroad and beware of trying to do that if you dont want to grenade your diffs and t-case.

Dumbass.
Who buys a new truck to offroad?
Build it. You really bought a new car to offroad, and thought it could take the abuse? Really? Seriously?
Dummy.

[Wildbear79]

I absolutely hate my Xterra. The drivetrain is a piece of shit. I offroad and beware of trying to do that if you dont want to grenade your diffs and t-case.
Dude, either you got a lemon, or you don't know what you are doing, i go 4-wheeling in my Xterra all the time, it is stock, except for the tires, 31x 10 50 A/T . they are great, i do a lot of hill climbing with it, and I have been doing it for 2 years... to top it all off its a 2000 model with 90k, its a reliable sport utility--Heck I have even had the hood pushing water b4 when i was crossing a river... yet every morning when its time to go to work it cranks as soon as u turn the key....You Can't beat that! I Love Nissan!

[Trex]

My 2006 Saturn ion Base 27000 miles, is a piece of shit , had to replace all the steering linkage components, 2 motor mounts , now the engine oil is getting consumed , and i see engine oil/tranny fluid leaking from underneath the car , they had to replace numerous emissions related parts on the gas tank , egr valve and all the associated tubes and connectores. This is a nightmare waiting to happpen

[Not a dummy]

Wildbear79 wrote:

I absolutely hate my Xterra. The drivetrain is a piece of shit. I offroad and beware of trying to do that if you dont want to grenade your diffs and t-case.
Dude, either you got a lemon, or you don't know what you are doing, i go 4-wheeling in my Xterra all the time, it is stock, except for the tires, 31x 10 50 A/T . they are great, i do a lot of hill climbing with it, and I have been doing it for 2 years... to top it all off its a 2000 model with 90k, its a reliable sport utility--Heck I have even had the hood pushing water b4 when i was crossing a river... yet every morning when its time to go to work it cranks as soon as u turn the key....You Can't beat that! I Love Nissan!

I bought it to offroad like I did my 2000 Xterra. The drive train is weak. Go to xterraownersclub.com and look at all the diffs that have grenaded, front and rear. Nissan put in a nice hefty motor but did not upgrade the drivetrain. Mine drivetrain went to shit while following a 2001 Xterra on a 3.0 trail. I have been offroad for 7 years and this the first 4x4 that I have had the T-case, front and rear diffs go out on one obstacle.

[Not a dummy]

WilMac wrote:

<quoted text>
Dumbass.
Who buys a new truck to offroad?
Build it. You really bought a new car to offroad, and thought it could take the abuse? Really? Seriously?
Dummy.

Yes, I did. My 2000 Xterra could take it. I thought Nissan would have continued with the same quality of drivetrain. Obviously they didn't!

[Another dummy_hope not]

I have just bought my 2007 Xterra and been happy with it so far. A little more than 3k on it and have taken it light off roading just early this week. One thing we tend to forget is when we are talking about off road vehicle is we buy a stock one and expect them to work just like what we see on advertisements or posts on the internet. Guess what, the reality is they are not completely design to be a hard core off road vehicles. They are design so that you can go for ocassional off roading (Prolly light to medium trails none of those really tough once)and also comfortably drive them on our day to day travels. If you want a real off road truck. Go buy an old one and get it modified that way you can be sure it will work like you expected.