Is my Altima a LEMON?!!

In general terms, a lemon law, if it applies in your locale, means that a single an specific problem has been "repaired on three separate occasions and yet still exists. Since you have multiple problems, and none of them quite meet the specifics of a lemon law, then I think your car is not a lemon in that sense.

It can happen, however, that you get one of the small percentage of vehicles off of any assembly line that is just not as well made as it should be. Solution? Trade it in.

Bobby

for some reason, the typical dealership trickery is at work. You went to the dealer to have the light bulb changed, why? If you can't do it yourself, that's fine, the bulbs for these cars are buried and several things have to be removed to get to it.

3 bulbs is a lot, but look at the size of them, they are H1's, if only 1 side, you should have had them check for excessive voltage on that side. the unit itself does nothing but house the sockets.

dealerships make money and charge a lot to get this, they are also on commission. just becasue you bring your car to a dealer for work, DOES NOT mean they know what they're doing either. There is usually 1-2 people who know what's going on, but they will never be assigned your car for little things. When you bring the car in, you talk to the service advisor, this person is simply: A SALESMAN. they know nothing but buzz words, and know how to make themselves knowledgable. they get their info from the techs, and tell the techs what they can and can not fix. a tech might want to do more diagnostic for something, but if it costs a lot of time, and YOU are not paying for it, the answer would probably be no. Just remember who you're dealing with.

If you goto an independant repair shop, you usually deal with the tech themselves, and they know they would be held accountable by you because you have spoken to them. any noise you hear will be relayed directly to the tech vs. thru the salesperson/middleman. the price won't be as high, and the quality of work almost always is the same if not better.

I have found just the opposite. The dealer is usually truthful (yeah, the service advisors sell to some extent) but the independent places generally don't have a clue on what they are doing and tend to overcharge.

The truth is, the good, the bad, and the ugly could be at the dealer or the independent.

Our 2002 Altima died yesterday. We bought it in December of 2001 and for $23 000. I Think it was a rip off. This is not the first time it wouldn't start!!!!!!