Nissan DOES NOT keep their promises, sells poor quality vehicles

My Nissan Magnite is only 2 years old, but I noticed some bubbling paint and rust on the rear end of the roof. I had a service booked with Nissan Tokai already at this point, so decided I would bring it to their attention when I dropped the car off.

They agreed to have the rust inspected by a panel beater and submit a warranty claim to Nissan South Africa. The claim was denied, with the reason of the rust being too far advanced and that they (Nissan SA) should have notified sooner.

I find this entirely unacceptable for a number of reasons:

1. The rust is on the roof of the vehicle, not in an easy to spot location. I didn't notice the rust until this point so there is no negligence on my behalf, just bad luck at not being a taller person who happens to have a vantage point to see the roof of my car on a regular basis.

2. My car has been serviced as per the maintenance schedule at Nissan Tokai 3 times in the last 2 years, but has been at Nissan at least 5 times due to other technical issues. Your own mechanics didn't notice this rust as part of your rust inspection during the services. If trained mechanics didn't notice it, how can you expect that I would have?

And if they should have noticed it, what does this say about the thoroughness of your workmanship.

3. The rust location is not in a location on the vehicle where the paint would have been damaged, chipped by a stone etc. so there is no good reason for the rust process to start. To me, this points to a manufacturing defect, or simply poor build quality of this vehicle.

4. The vehicle is 2 years old. There is even rust on fittings inside the vehicle. This level of rusting on a vehicle of this age is simply not acceptable and I believe should most definitely be dealt with under a warranty claim.

All in all, I am very dissatisfied with the after sales support provided here by Nissan SA who should in my opinion come to the party and assist to deal with a combination of poor/defective build quality and sub-standard levels of due diligence by their workshop during servicing.