By
Lee Boyce
A 70-year-old Nissan Micra
owner may be as far removed from the stereotypical boy racer as can be
imagined, but that didn't stop the car giant refusing to fix a drivers'
faulty car under warranty - and blaming his driving for the £4,500 bill.
After
undergoing a heart bypass, the last thing Karen Glass’s dad needed was
unnecessary stress regarding his humble Nissan Micra – but
unfortunately, that’s what he got.
He
bought an 09 plate Micra just over 12 months ago for £6,130 and had
driven less than 3,000 miles in it when an engine fault developed. He
and his daughter figured that the repair cost, with the car still under
warranty, would be met by the manufacturer - but Nissan refused to play
ball.
Micra madness: My dad is a safe driver - why is Nissan not covering his repair bill under warranty?
The damage was quoted as £4,500 to
repair by the Nissan dealership in Stoke-in-Trent that Mr Howe – Karen’s
dad - had bought the motor from.
However, Mr Howe, 70, was horrified when Nissan refused to pay up under the warranty, saying he had caused the damage himself.
The
problem was caused, it claimed, by Mr Howe revving the engine and
dropping the car from fifth gear to second gear regularly. Nissan's head
office had come to this conclusion by looking at a photograph of the
engine.
This was despite the
dealership telling Nissan this wasn’t what had caused the problem and
that Mr Howe was not to blame. But despite this, Nissan were adamant
that Mr Howe had to pay to fix the engine.
To
top it all off, Mr Howe is an experienced driver and has had Nissan
cars all his driving life. He has never even taken the Micra onto a dual
carriageway.
His
daughter, Karen, who brought the situation to This is Money’s attention,
said: ‘I think Nissan are being unreasonable in expecting my dad to
fork out this kind of money - he is 70 years old and has had a heart
bypass, and the issue is really taking its toll on him.’
This is Money was happy to take on Mr Howe's case, especially as we are concerned this may be happening to more Nissan drivers.
The
way Nissan claimed Mr Howe had been dropping the car from fifth to
second gear and revving the engine, you’d get the impression he is a boy
racer with a cheap motor he doesn’t give two hoots about.
Nissan woes: It diagnosed the engine damage after seeing a photograph
But in reality, he is in his
seventies, has recently had serious heart surgery and uses his car
occasionally to pop to the local shops.
That
profile hardly fits the bill of someone that revs the engine
impatiently at traffic lights and drops gears without thought.
Whats
more, this Nissan issue echoes that in an article Money Mail consumer
champion Tony Hazell investigated back in February 2012.
In
that instance, Nissan said the clutch of a Micra that had burned out
after just 1,290 miles was caused by bad driving and it refused to
repair the motor under warranty [read full story].
After Tony spoke to Nissan head office, it backtracked and decided that it would fix the car under warranty after all.
After This is Money stepped in, Nissan properly investigated and guess what? The car WAS faulty
And
it appears Nissan is up to its old tricks. Once again it refused to pay
for repairs for a Micra under warranty, with the work set to cost the
poor owner an eye-watering £4,500.
This
is despite Mr Howe driving less than 3,000 miles in the car and buying
the 2009 plate vehicle for £6,130 just one year ago - it would be harsh
for him to have to pay such a high repair cost for such little motoring.
And when Nissan properly investigated this after This is Money stepped in - it turned out not to be his fault at all.
After
we contacted the car company, technical engineers inspected Mr Howe's
car and found that the damage to the engine was caused by incorrect
assembly of one the valves.
What’s
really baffling about this situation is the fact the garage, which is a
Nissan dealership, had even originally told Nissan head office that the
problem had not been caused by Mr Howe's driving. Despite this, Nissan
requested a photograph of the engine.
From
this picture rather than the garage's inspection, head office decided
that it was his fault. It seems like a very quick conclusion for such an
expensive repair bill. Numerous calls to Nissan were a frustrating
experience for both Karen and her dad.
Nissan should have sent an engineer to investigate in the first place
When
This is Money stepped in and asked Nissan to investigate, in fairness
to the manufacturer it did get the ball rolling fairly quickly and
agreed to get an engineer to the dealership as soon as possible to look
at the engine.
But it should have done this in the first place instead of causing unnecessary strain.
A
spokesman for Nissan, said: ‘Following our conversation last week, we
asked one of our technical engineers to inspect Mr Howe's car which was
done at the dealership in Stoke.
'After inspecting the car, he has found that the damage to the engine was caused by incorrect assembly of one the valves.
‘We
would like to offer our sincere apologies to Mr Howe and of course
repair his car under warranty. We would also like to offer him a free
service for his Micra.
‘This
type of mis-assembly is very unusual and we would have expected that
the fault would have become apparent earlier in the life of the car.
‘We acknowledge however that this decision should have been made sooner to prevent any distress to the customer.
‘As
part of our ongoing improvement actions we have recently completed a
round of technical training for Contact Centre Staff and share the
findings of field engineers’ visits to increase knowledge and improve
future decision making.’
Nissan's behaviour is not good enough
Lee Boyce: Worrying that Nissan only investigated issue once This is Money became involved
This is Money's motoring correspondent Lee Boyce says:
So the damage to the car was Nissan’s fault – one of the valves was
incorrectly assembled. For this reason it is covering the repair costs.
But what’s worrying about this is the fact that Nissan only stepped in after This is Money got involved.
Would it have done so without our intervention?
This
would have left Mr Howe with a hefty bill for damage to his car which
was clearly not his fault. Not ideal for someone who has just undergone
heart surgery. It also makes me wonder if there are more Nissan owners
in a similar situation?
How can a major manufacturer come to such an important conclusion from just a photograph of the engine - it's not acceptable.
This
problem with the Micra comes after Warranty Direct research two weeks
ago found that a Nissan motor makes the top ten most reliable family
cars – the Qashqai [read full story].
So
some Nissan cars can be very reliable - but it has a long way to go to
improve its customer service and how it handles investigations about
faulty Nissan models.
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