#Nissan? Never Again! Part II

[Noddycar]

Just had a very similar experience with my 2 year old, Qashqai which has only 10,000 miles on the clock and still within the 3 year warranty period. Two weeks after a major service and health check where no issue with the clutch was highlighted, I was driving to the airport, the clutch went. There followed almost 3 weeks of the dealership and Nissan UK Customer Service saying each was waiting for the other and both saying they couldn't tell me whether the repair would be covered by the warranty unless I committed to pay c£200 for them to 'run the diagnostics' to find out whether it was my fault or a manufacturer's fault. Finally they did the investigations which indicated it was not a manufacturer's fault so the repair would cost me c£1500. I've been driving for 35+ years, all sorts of cars - Fords, Toyota, Vauxhall, Peugeot, BMW, Lexus. This is my first Nissan. Most cars I've had for a lot longer and driven much further than the Qashqai and I've not had to replace the clutch in any of them. Really perplexed as to why this would happen now. Suppose it's a learning experience - I've learned 1) not to expect a warranty to cover repairs on a new car, 2) getting a car serviced by the dealership is not the best use of my money 3) not to expect quick assistance from Nissan Assist (I waited 1.5 hours for onward transport by taxi to the airport when the wait should have been15/20 minutes max), 4) Nissan UK don't have a complaints procedure only a Customer Services Department so there is no route to complain about their poor service or to escalate any complaint and 5) I've learned not to buy a Nissan car again.

[mccarthm]

Sorry to hear that. It’s the arrogance of a company that tries to tell experienced drivers “it’s the way it’s been driven” that leaves me still angry after several months.

[C.A.R.]

Hmmm, this is casting a shadow of doubt over a Qashqai for our next family car! We currently have a 2009 Note which has been incredibly reliable.

Is there a Renault model which shares the Qashqai chassis / driveline? I wonder why you don't hear so much about those?

Perhaps is still quite a rare issue - as stated it's one of the best-selling family cars out there so the more there are in circulation the more issues will get reported...

[mccarthm]

For me it wasn’t just the issue itself but my treatment at the hands of Nissan afterwards

[RedWhiteMonkey]

C.A.R. said:

Is there a Renault model which shares the Qashqai chassis / driveline? I wonder why you don't hear so much about those?

...

Renault Kadjar

[timmymagic73]

C.A.R. said:

Hmmm, this is casting a shadow of doubt over a Qashqai for our next family car! We currently have a 2009 Note which has been incredibly reliable.

Is there a Renault model which shares the Qashqai chassis / driveline? I wonder why you don't hear so much about those?

Perhaps is still quite a rare issue - as stated it's one of the best-selling family cars out there so the more there are in circulation the more issues will get reported...

Yes, Renault Kadjar is the same platform.

I wouldn’t bother, we bought a QQ and quite frankly it’s terrible to drive and feels really cheap. Touch wood it’s been reliable so far other than a load of rattles, but I’m on edge the whole time that something is going to break. We’ve already had a few wobbles with warning lights staying on for one journey and never re-appearing again. Fingers crossed nothing critical goes wrong as it’s only done 9000 miles and is 18 months old. We’ve got the 1.6T petrol Tekna.

I can only assume that it’s the best-selling family car as voted for by people who took advantage of cheap lease deals, or who haven’t ever driven anything better for comparison.

I’m disappointed with myself for not hiring one first for an extended test drive. Driving a dealer’s car around the block wasn’t enough to make an informed decision.

Can’t wait to get rid of it. Unfortunately financial suicide to trade it in until we’ve had it at least a year, but I guess that gives us time to save up for something else...

[Sheepshanks]

mccarthm said:

For me it wasn’t just the issue itself but my treatment at the hands of Nissan afterwards

Someone asked earlier in the thread but it wasn't answered - do these cars have electric handbrakes which auto-release as you pull away?

[Chris Jay]

mccarthm said:

For me it wasn’t just the issue itself but my treatment at the hands of Nissan afterwards

Don't go anywhere near Vauxhall then, they are just the same.

[Sheepshanks]

timmymagic73 said:

I wouldn’t bother, we bought a QQ and quite frankly it’s terrible to drive and feels really cheap.

We compared QQ to Tiguan and I was amazed (bearing in mind how well it sells) just how 'crappy' the QQ seemed - it just felt cheap and nasty.


Over the last few months I've had a similar kind of issue on my daughter's car - something wearing out before I expected it - with Honda, which needed new rear pads & discs at 20K miles. Thankfully not the same scale of cost as a clutch, but got absolutely nowhere with the dealer or Honda UK.

Like the OP, it's their attitude which is more annoying than anything else. I expected better of Honda.

[RedWhiteMonkey]

I have a Qashqai. As much as it saddens me to say it is effectively white goods, although mine is actually black. It fulfils a role as a family car but I have no illusions that it is an exciting car. I certainly won’t try to defend its honour, if people don’t like it then they don’t like it. However I don’t think the quality is that bad, the quality of just about every modern car is ten times better than cars from only ten years or so ago.

What I really wanted was the Skoda Karoq (previously had a Yeti that was really versatile), but timescales for changing and deals didn’t work for that. We also looked at the Tiguan but whilst it is in the same size class as the Qashqai they are significantly more expensive if you want to get anywhere near the same level of equipment. The Tiguan does look like a lovely car though.

[Sheepshanks]

RedWhiteMonkey said:

We also looked at the Tiguan but whilst it is in the same size class as the Qashqai they are significantly more expensive if you want to get anywhere near the same level of equipment. The Tiguan does look like a lovely car though.

To be fair, our Tiguan is one of the last of the mk1's, so they bumped up the spec and it was heavily discounted - good spec Qashqai was ball-park similar pricing. I think you can get similar discounts on the mk2 now, but as you indicated, availability is very uncertain at the moment.

[RedWhiteMonkey]

Sheepshanks said:

To be fair, our Tiguan is one of the last of the mk1's, so they bumped up the spec and it was heavily discounted - good spec Qashqai was ball-park similar pricing. I think you can get similar discounts on the mk2 now, but as you indicated, availability is very uncertain at the moment.

I’m based in Germany, it is possible that the latest version of the Tiguan came out earlier here. That’s the one we were looking at. Lovely car but we could only get pretty much a base spec model here for the same price as the one off top level Qashqai. Situation is probably different back in the UK. I’ll admit that part of me bought the Qashqai because I’m originally from Sunderland.

[JM]

mccarthm said:

Sorry to hear that. It’s the arrogance of a company that tries to tell experienced drivers “it’s the way it’s been driven” that leaves me still angry after several months.

So, was there any further outcome to your case?

Did you ever take photos of the worn/damaged clutch?

[timmymagic73]

We were looking at a new Tiguan to begin with, but unfortunately VW screwed up production of the 150 1.4 petrol engine so they became impossible to get hold of in any sensible timeframe. In fact I believe they stopped taking orders for them.

I couldn't bring myself to buy the latest revision QQ at the same price, so we ended up buying a nearly-new ex-employee lease car under the cared4 scheme.

I fully appreciate that it's white goods (ours is black too) motoring, but it still feels cheap. I can't wait to get rid of it. Just hope we don't encounter any issues that involve a dealer dispute before then.

Sorry, slight thread drift.

[mccarthm]

JM said:

So, was there any further outcome to your case?

Did you ever take photos of the worn/damaged clutch?

I did take photos and took it as far as I could but financial risk of legal action was too great...which I guess the manufacturers are well aware of.

[SidewaysSi]

C.A.R. said:

Hmmm, this is casting a shadow of doubt over a Qashqai for our next family car! We currently have a 2009 Note which has been incredibly reliable.

Is there a Renault model which shares the Qashqai chassis / driveline? I wonder why you don't hear so much about those?

Perhaps is still quite a rare issue - as stated it's one of the best-selling family cars out there so the more there are in circulation the more issues will get reported...

Just picked up a 2009 Note and I think it is a cracking car for its role in life.

[Shiv_P]

timmymagic73 said:

We were looking at a new Tiguan to begin with, but unfortunately VW screwed up production of the 150 1.4 petrol engine so they became impossible to get hold of in any sensible timeframe. In fact I believe they stopped taking orders for them.

I couldn't bring myself to buy the latest revision QQ at the same price, so we ended up buying a nearly-new ex-employee lease car under the cared4 scheme.

I fully appreciate that it's white goods (ours is black too) motoring, but it still feels cheap. I can't wait to get rid of it. Just hope we don't encounter any issues that involve a dealer dispute before then.

Sorry, slight thread drift.

My mum ordered her 1.4TSi DSG just before the orders were halted on 30 June last year. Arrived in September so we were extremely lucky. In fact iirc the dealer said at the time it was the only 1.4 DSG tiguan in the country!

[Salamura]

How can they even determine whether the clutch went because of "user error" or due to manufacturing fault? I'm an engineer, and I can't see how there would be a reliable way of determining this. It's complete bks, and a scam. Shame on the Nissan dealer network.

Out of interest, what part of the clutch failed? Is it the slave cylinder (i.e. brake warning light on dash, clutch down to the floor, no gear change possible)? If it is, I can't see how this can be caused by the driver.

[mccarthm]

That’s exactly what happened but I was advised by an independent mechanic that the onus was on me to prove it wasn’t driver error. He said that was an uphill task to say the least and manufacturers know it.

[Ilovejapcrap]

Sheepshanks said:

mccarthm said:

The one point Nissan did concede in their latest email, contrary to what their customer complaints department and the Nissan mechanic had previously insisted, was this: “When we say “wear and tear” we are not always referring to the way in which a vehicle is driven, there are lots of external factors that can cause a clutch to fail not just the driving style.”

I wonder what those "lots of external factors" are? I guess the type of use, ie lots of towing, would make a difference - but I can't think what else.

wheel spins for the kids.