New NISMO owner & disappointed in Nissan overall UPDATED
 

EDIT
Update - Nissan NA corrected my problem with a new NISMO body kit and allowed me to pick another dealer to complete the repair. I found someone who took the bull by the horns and went to great lengths to make the situation right. I have a bad taste regarding the original dealer, but that is life.

A long read, but interesting to any NISMO owner.

Preface
This 2011 370Z NISMO is my first Nissan. My parents had a 1987 Nissan Sentra that ran until the wheels fell off. I purchased the 370 for a variety of reasons such as curb appeal, HP, and the Nissan reputation as a whole.

However, I am extremely disappointed in the car and Nissan. After owning the car for less than 3 weeks and 800 miles, the paint on the rear passenger side bumper started rolling up and peeling off. I called the dealer and emailed pictures. After several days, the service manager said Nissan had agreed to "take care of it."

During that timeframe, the paint on the front bumper and driver side skirt started rolling up and peeling off too. So when I show up at the dealer, the service manager tried to say it was dirt. After peeling off the paint with my finger nail, he did agree that more parts were defective. Essentially it appears as though the entire NISMO kit paint is defective. The service manager told me I had to call Nissan CS and log a case. So I call Nissan and 3 days later they call back and say "we will take care of it but we have to get the Corporate Office to approve it." It has been 72 hours and I still have not heard what they are doing to take care of it.

So today, I stop by a Nissan body shop that was near my work and this is what a paint technician said when he saw the car. "They did not put the flex agent in the paint." Upon closer inspection he said the parts did not appear to have even been primered. He said this was a common problem on the NISMO editions. He said the NISMOS's ship over with unpainted kits. He did not elaborate on who, how, when, and where the parts are painted but he said the body kit parts do not come from the factory painted.

That does not make sense to me, but can anyone confirm or deny that? I know if you buy the kit it comes unpainted but does the actual NISMO edition have to be painted somewhere stateside?

This whole mess is extremely irritating. Instead of enjoying a new car, I have one with paint peeling off in several areas and I do not even have my permanent tags on it yet.

The pictures only show the rear bumper but you get the idea. What would you do in my sh*tuation?

http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/..._3634Small.jpg

http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/..._3635Small.jpg

http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/..._3636Small.jpg

Have you personally contacted CA about this?

The plastic parts are painted on a separate line at different times (and quite likely a different place) to the rest of the sheet metal. I don't think they primer the plastic but instead use additives to help make the paint bond to the plastic (lack of primer is part of the reasons the colors don't match great). Pretty sure all the panels are on the car before it leaves Japan, local assembly is very minor (floor mats, kick plates etc). It does look like there was a bad paint run on the plastics, quite likely that it affected multiple cars.

You'll be better than new if you get the plastics repainted, they will actually match!

It sucks it happens but the key is how Nissan handles it. I know that mistakes happen. On my Volvo with 6,000 miles, they did the free maintenance. The tech wasn't paying attention and opened the hood with a tool in his hand leaving a indention in my paint and didn't realize it. It took me 2 days while drying my car off to notice it.

The dealership never tried to accuse me of the damage and fixed it like new. Did it cost me time yes but I make mistakes also. It is how they are handled no different than warranty work.

Nissan should repaint the parts and give you a demo 370Z or something nice to drive while they are doing it. On the bright side it was caught early and not after the warranty is over.....

da Mayor
Yes, I opened a case as requested by the dealership Service Manager. The agent called me and said she had to get the repair approved through the Nissan Corporate Office. I am still waiting on Nissan to make a decision.

ChrisSlicks
I had not thought about the paint matching better. I like that aspect.

sboden
I would agree on how Nissan responds but so far everyone involved has passed the ball. The salesperson passed to the Service Manager, who passed to Nissan Customer Service, who passed to the Nissan Corporate Office. I guess I do not have the patience for the delays on a new car that has an obvious defective paint process on the plastic parts.

Thanks for the replies.

this is shitty dude justice will be served hope everything works out for you

The same thing happened to my rear bumper cover. I took it to the dealership and they fixed it with no questions asked.

With no perm plates on it yet, they ought to give you a new one. Hell you gotta be killing Nissan sales for anybody looking at that car. They should want it off the street as soon as possible. Ya got nothing to lose, tell them you want another new one or you are gonna post it to every lemon web site on the net.

ridgerunner obviously you don't understand how lemon laws work. Anyways i don't see the issue here, as far as how Nissan is handling it. Yes, it shouldn't have happened in the first place but they are doing everything to rectify the issue at hand.

now this is a long shot here fellas..... buuuut do you think becasue of the disaster in Japan right now they may be shipping the panels here to get painted. maybe the area or place they paint at was messed up or off line. they said they were focusing on the lower priced cars anyways. just a thought.

Just my guess, but they probably get painted at the port of entry. The body kit might be too low for tie downs on the ship, so they add the kit once it arrives.

I only say this because I worked at the port of entry in Jacksonville while in college occassionally and the processor painted all of the front air dams for the incoming 6 series BMWs at the port and installed them, and things like radios and other accessories in the port facility.

My recent experience with Nissan Consumer Affairs on my wife's Murano (dealer jerking her around a little on a faulty tire sensor) was that they are effective and aggressive. On that minor issue, CA really put the spurs to the dealer.

Had a similar experience with them 33 years ago - problems on my new 280Z with injectors fouling (lead). They ultimately made the dealer replace the whole system with one they pulled from a vehicle on the floor then kept calling me for months to make sure it was working well (in those problematic early days of their brand-new implementation of fuel injection, they recommended frequent use of GM Top Engine Cleaner). Ultimately, using unleaded gasoline as it became more available solved that problem.

take it to a dealer get them to repaint it.

I had my bumpers and side skirts repainted under warranty due to the colors not matching well.

This is a good chance to get the front painted well with multiple coats of paint and clear... so it wont chip as easily as OEM does!!! Hope it all works out for you.

The body kits on the Nismo are fitted in Japan - painted. Autech is the firm that does the retrofitting to produce the NISMO Z.