Beware of Nissan

<p>Dear public, please beware of buying a Nissan vehicle due to my own experience which I now share.</p> <p>I purchase a Nissan Livina x-gear in August 2011 and had no mechanical or other issues until May 2017 when the car just wouldn't start.</p> <p>The red light with the symbol of a vehicle with a key therein was flashing every 20 seconds or so.</p> <p>After searching the internet, I found that this particular light indicated that the vehicles immobiliser has become active and typically would need to take the keys to a dealer to be recoded.</p> <p>I also found some other advice on the internet that indicated using various startup sequences/procedures which did not work.</p> <p>When I contacted Nissan in JHB about this issue they told me that I have to take my vehicle in to the nearest Nissan dealer to have it seen too.</p> <p>Since my vehicle is no longer under warranty this would be at my own expense which I estimate to be between R500 - R1000 (could be more), then I further have to pay R710 just for the issue to be diagnosed (ie just for Nissan to tell you what the problem is will cost over R700 and will still have to pay the actual fixing amount that they will still present).</p> <p>This is what I was told by the local Nissan dealer in Port Elizabeth in Northend. When I inquired what the actual cost would be to typically get this type of thing resolved the employee (Heinrich) told me that they cannot say up front without inspecting the vehicle first which would ultimately cost me to tow it down + R710 to get it diagnosed.</p> <p>The Nissan employee (Heinrich) first started telling me a bunch of fictitious reasons as to why this issue could have occurred to which I had to inform him that I am a computer programmer/scientist so do not find any of the above reason mentioned plausible at all (basically put if any were valid then we'd have a lot more issues occurring due to bad computer engineering).</p> <p>The Nissan employee (Heinrich) then told me that he cannot tell me what the estimate or maximum is for such issues as this will be the first time their dealership will be confronted with such an issue (but could earlier tell me colorful tales of why it might happen - clearly there is an agenda over here and it needs to be addressed)</p> <p>I then responded by telling him that I have found many examples of this on the internet, so it clearly isn't such a nonexistent issue as his experience is alluring to and instructed him to have a look on the internet himself and them get a better idea so that he can provide me with more descent options.</p> <p>He took down my number and told me that his manager will contact me which hasn't happened yet.</p> <p>Here is what I feel is happening point blank! Nissan's immobilizer systems is either so **** (which make Nissan ****) or is subjected to foul play.</p> <p>The foul play I'm speaking of here is that their immobilizer systems can be activated from remote signal and has nothing to do with anything that you the client has done.</p> <p>When this happens, they (the dealer) pretends that they need to inspect the vehicle which cost you the client money to get the vehicle their via a towing service which I suspect is also connected in some way to the Nissan employees that do this with the clients vehicles.</p> <p>Nissan then cannot tell you what this problem could cost to fix so after you've committed to get your vehicle to them at R1700 (towing + diagnosis fee) they could tell you that it will cost you R5000 or even R20000 to fix your vehicle.</p> <p>At that point you will either commit to pay the amount they want or tow your broken vehicle back home and be R2500 poorer. Seems like Nissans means to compete with the prices of other vehicle manufacturers is to reduce their price when you buy but later catch you with such schemes.</p> <p>I could agree that this probably has happened with other makes of vehicles before, but I have no such experience neither any of the people I know and the internet seems to indicate this to be a typical issue with Nissans. I only wish I knew this before I bought one.</p> <p>People should also beware that these immobilizer systems tie into the vehicles control system so the Nissan personal could even make you the client have an accident if they so wished it by simply signaling your control system to deactivate things like the hydraulics to your brakes or power steering system...</p> <p>My last interaction was with Nissan customer care with a person named Monica who told me that since my vehicle is out of warranty that I will have to tow it down at my own cost to a dealer to have the issue investigated and they will thereafter be able to tell if it’s something I have to pay for or not.</p> <p>Problem is still me having to pay to get the vehicle towed down there and then still might find the Nissan dealer adding some cost that I am going to be responsible to pay and this all for something that I had absolutely no control over.</p> <p>As I mentioned above, either these immobilizer systems of Nissan is **** which ultimately makes Nissan **** or their is fowl play surrounding this supposed immobilizer issue where the deem that you the client will have no choice but to pay them what they want.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p>