Hovering
 

Hi Everyone,

After picking up my Z 11 days ago, yours truly is shopping for a service dept. Have heaps of apprehension after reading some service dept. horror stories. My car was bought in a non-traditional manner. No plans to take it up the rear in the service dept., either. My money takes priority over their BS policies.

1) For those of you that use a Nissan dealer's service dept., have you declined to hand over your keys to them, and opted to move her, start her, as needed, etc.? (made other arrangements).

2) Do you have any methods to visually monitor the technicians working on your Z? (Not necessarily standing next to them & the car in the bay, I'm sure they'd whine & cry themselves to sleep...)

3) How do you prevent the idiots from joyriding and redlining (test driving) your ride after service?

This stereotypical service dept. our-way-or-the-highway just won't cut it. It's my bloody money, etc. Just need to find a reasonable middle ground between doing the work myself, and surrendering my new baby to the lowest nut on the rung for an $80-odd oil change. And am ready to neuter any idiot who thinks they can test drive her or (or just be an expletive bag) after same.

Where's the soapbox emoticon?

Have a trusted mechanic locally, and would prefer Nissan for this. Original selling dealer is too far away to use.

Appreciate your feedback!

:argue:

Cobb and other ECU products have a valet mode that will hold your RPMs and such. Of course Nissan may frown on this.

I have a tendency to do the walk-around inspection with the tech so I know what's up with the car beforehand. I've only had my car worked on once and it was less than 2 hours total including the hand wash. Not an expert on this.

^^What vipor said about the COBB unit being in valet mode to limit RPM's. I do not know what nissan would think of that either. My suggestion being, if you can somehow find a way to work up a relationship with a certain tech at a dealer and have him be the only one who works on the car you may find that the care taken of your car will be personal to that tech since you have now built a relationship, otherwise I would try doing most of the work myself.

how about you download the service manual and do the work yourself? it's easy for the first 30K miles or so especially... just usual checkups and oil changes. if you need to do your brake fluid and pads (and dont know how), have a friend help you. there's no rocket science to just maintain a car while new. i do all the work on mine.

Went to an Audi dealer this weekend to look at the A5 and Q5 for the GF. The dealer recommended the ARP tune for the 2.0T and said many owners have it and come in all the time for work. He said if there was a motor or ECU problem they'd be inclined to blame the tune, but it wasn't an automatic voiding of the warranty or anything. It'd be nice to know a Nissan dealer like that.

DAMMIT! :mad:






I thought by the title of this thread that you had discovered a new feature for the 2010 model. :(

:rofl2::roflpuke2::bowrofl::icon18:

I've had paint chips repaired, but it was a 3rd party where the dealer ate the cost of the repair (it was the next day, I picked up the cat at night)...

The people that did the paint repair drove the piss out of it. A whole 1/8th tank :(

I raised hell with the dealer since they were the go-between. They said something to the shop, so when I took it back in for them to do a better job buffing and getting the holograms out, they didn't drive it as much.

That still ticks me off...

they shouldn't drive it at all for body work?

Then how do you expect them to check that the bubblegum adhesive would hold the parts on under vigorous driving conditions? huh?

No I think you have to fork up the extra $$$ for a Rolls to get that feature

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs31/f/20...nyPCarlyon.png

No true hovering enthusiast wants a bloated pig like a Rolls as a hovercar! The 0 to 2 ft hover will take forever in that atrocity! :mad: You probably prefer the automatic hover mode over the manual hover mode as well, poser. :rolleyes:

verbose mode
 

Limiting the RPM's would be fantastic. The ability for the Cobb device to monitor attributes like RPM & Speed is AWESOME. Is there a likelihood the service personnel would disconnect the Cobb device during the service period?

370zdub - working up a relationship with a service technician--that's a great idea. A few months from now, the situation could be much more reliable. It'd be a struggle for me in the beginning to trust any unknowns...

I'm considering a GPS/GSM gadget, for location, speed & unexpected travel, but that's reactive. Would prefer to keep the key fob altogether.

Man, I would love to change the oil myself. And have downloaded the service manual, (and props to the guy(s) that took the time to download, collect & share same). Just as you described, oil is doable, and there's a buddy to help me with the brakes. Is saving your receipts for materials sufficient support to maintain warranty, as others have indicated?

My current residence makes self-service unlikely, might have to impose on a friend. Which brings up something I've wondered about for ages--where can we go to rent garage space (either with ramps, or maybe a lift, etc.). A kind of do-it-yourselfer's motel 6?

Thinking of ways to hurt them...slowly

Lug & Pharmacist, you guys are my new heroes. :icon17:

What's worse is the body shop is only 1 mile from the dealership.

Someone took it the long way around....feckun ajckasess

that is usually the case. some dealers are arseholes to begin with so not sure if all will be as accepting as others.

Limiting the RPM's would be fantastic. The ability for the Cobb device to monitor attributes like RPM & Speed is AWESOME. Is there a likelihood the service personnel would disconnect the Cobb device during the service period?

Once the cobb is downloaded they wouldn't be able to turn it off as they would need the actual cobb tuner (which would be at your house) to do so. Go to cobbtuning.com to read about how it works

I'm considering a GPS/GSM gadget, for location, speed & unexpected travel, but that's reactive. Would prefer to keep the key fob altogether.

So why not do that? They don't need the fob once the car is running to move it. In theory if you left the car running they could then take the car to the service bay to do the work. Once they shut it off there will be no starting the car again until the fob is back in the car. In theory they wouldn't need the key from you until the work is done at which point the time from when you handed them your key to the time they pulled your car up would be minimal ensuring very little time for them to joy ride. Just a thought. Then again there might be cases in which multiple start ups or test drives may need to be done to ensure no leaks and such.

Some dealers have a window you can look through to watch your car being serviced. There's not a whole lot you can do about them joy riding it. Do the walk around with the tech before and after and take notice of miles on odo.

You really don't need to have anything serviced before 50k miles unless you track your car. The oil needs to be changed regularly though.

If you are crazy obsessive like me you can do the following things i have done with my Porsche Boxster

1. Get to know your mechanic (this takes time buy while this is happening)

2. Write down your exact miles/kms on your car soon as you drop it in

2.Wait at the dealer the entire time they are doing the service (which leads to)

3. Ask them to ride along for the test drive after finishing the service

4. If you can't be there due to work commitments etc and don't trust your mechanic you can always bring the car in for service with barely any fuel left and make a point of telling them "ops didnt have time to fill the car up" They will usually just take it around the block once and will minimise the crazy long joy rides i have seen happen so many times

-Ty

Shouldn't you find another dealer if you don't trust them enough to touch your car?

I don't think I've ever been to a dealer who didn't note the mileage and any existing damage when I brought in the car. There are enough dealers around that if you're afraid they're joyriding go to another dealer.

Some years ago, I took my late model Miata to the Mazda franchise for a minor warranty item. Manager absolutely insisted that for insurance reasons their car jockey had to drive it over to the bay for the work. Reluctantly I let him. He gave it to the kid who drove it over to the bay and wrecked it on the way. Cost them some serious money and a good customer. Cost the poor, though careless, kid his job.

yah, you gotta be careful... some of them porters dont know how to drive stick even.