First, love the maxima, great car. Second, Nissan Australia, has a way to go on customer credibility.
I recently bought a 2001 Maxima with 130km (80,000m) on it, at auction, for about half the dealer price. Ex-lease vehicle with full service history. Good value.
So far the vehicle has had three problems:
- Annoying. The sunroof has a mind of its own and will open by itself on rare occasions. It will either angle up or slide back to the first or second stops. This has happened 4 times in 5 months when driving both on the highway and on round town trips. Has anyone experienced this? Any solutions, apart from removing fuses (this is an option as I am note overly worried about using the sunroof)?
- Aggravating. The auxiliary cooling fan motor (the one on the right side controlled by the AC) developed a vibration which turned out to be a shaft bearing. This required a replacement motor (definately wasn't the plastic fan). The only problem here was the price - $au375 ($us275). Managed to get the dealer down to $au325 (on the suggestion of Nissan Head Office who wouldn't budge). The wreckers wanted $au275 (they obviously checked with Nissan before quoting). Bought the OE. Fairly expensive for a relatively small part. Problem solved.
- Ready to write a nasty letter to Mr Nissan (anyone have the address). The left front shock has developed a leak. Nissan have quoted $au1175 ($us860) the pair plus fitting/aligning. At this stage I cannot source the equivalent shocks (eg sensor track) from an after market supplier. The best they can do is for models prior to 2000. Thinking of trying the import route from the US. Anyone in Australia tried this? or sourced parts locally? If I go the US import route, can anyone advise a reputable dealer to work with? This is viable as import duty does not apply on items valued at less than $au1000 (due to the FTA). Even with exchange rates and postage the price should be well under local dealer price. As examples, I found shocks at Dealtime.com and replacementshocks.com (price indicated $au325 $us250 in Australia for a pair).
Any thoughts on the above would be much appreciated.
TIA
Wayne.