Gtr Scam

[vspecIInur]

Nicely put Terry. Lots of loop holes right there!

[turboadam]

So when and how did the tranny go from driving with 1/2 the gears locked out to operating normally???

If it wasn't fixed, anyone with half a brain is going to notice it when driving it.

Something here doesn't quite smell right.

Maybe a case of sour grapes cos OP traded in thinking he had a $47k repair bill on the cards when no one would pay that to Nissan when the alternatives are so much cheaper? IDK.

Edited December 22, 2013 by turboadam

[C4a0s]

yeah scammers and irresponsible dealers shd be taken to task. turn a profit the legit way not through cheating people of their hard earned cash

[533 RYC]

Not too sure on the R35's, but its possible an up to date flash program by the dealer COULD have reset (temporarily) the PCM, until it sees a mechanical/electrical fault (if there was one in the first place), then it will re-learn & lock out gears as it did before.

Was the PCM flashed with the latest program during the diagnosis?

[MJR35]

Oliver, think its great that you are trying to ensure damage transparency of your R35 to potential future owners of your car . What i don't understand is why you didn't get it repaired before trading it at the dealer, I would assume the dealer Trade-in assessment would have tanked as a result of the crook gearbox. The Repair estimates of $47 K from Nissan to repair is a joke, You can buy a Brand New Genuine Nissan Gearbox for $14K USD (Excl GST) .

[Oli1710]

To clarify.

When I was driving I heard a horrible noise coming from the transmission (almost like a grinder against metal) as I down-geared into second. I was approaching an intersection at the time. A warning came up on the dashboard display. When turned onto the busy road I found there was no acceleration. the accelerated to 40 km/h and nothing more. two cars had to take evasive action not to hit me. I was very confused and startled. I tried to drive the car again and found I only had 1st, 3rd and 5th gerars. 2nd, 4th and 6th were locked out. I connected my cobb and tried to clear the fault but it couldn't clear it, so I had the car towed home on the back of a truck and subsequently the same to Nissan.

Nissan ran diagnostics for several days, exchanging emails to and from Japan. It was ultimately decided to drop the oil and remove the valve body for inspection. when the valve body was removed a metal piece the size of a thumb dropped out. this was the tip of a gear selector fork. the valve body was put back in and the oil replaced. The fault then cleared and the car seemed to drive fine, but Nissan was insistent that transmission required a "full rebuild." These words were used on the service document, a subsequent document after the oil was replaced, another document after I asked Nissan to inspect a noise on the car and an unsolicited letter sent to my house reminding me that my car's transmission required a "full rebuild." Nissan could not even tell me which shift fork was broken as the forks were too deep in the transmission and this could only be done by sending the transmission away and stripping it apart. Even after that they they could only tell me which fork was broken, but not replace/repair the fork. Their policy apparently is only to replace and not repair anything on the GTR transmission.

When the car was traded it was traded with a condition that I would allow the Ford dealer to have the car inspected by Nissan (the same Nissan dealer that stated in no less than four documents to me that the transmission required a rebuild). I had no issue with this and full disclosure of the fault was made. As such I took an enormous cut on the trade in price. The car drove perfectly fine and If I had sold it privately a buyer would be none the wiser and they could not identify the fault without spending thousands to have the transmission stripped. However, I'm not that kind of person and as I was thinking of selling the car anyway I though it would best be handled to take the cut, let the dealership fix what's required (I was told they could do it for $30,000 with a "group discount" - The Nissan and Ford dealer operate as one company - AHG Group) and be done with it.

I became suspicious when I saw the car advertised almost a week after I traded it. What caught my attention was the statement "launch control never used" in the advertisement. I had spent 10 minutes telling the Ford manager how I had used the launch control, how it felt to use it, how fast the car accelerated with the launch control, and which buttons to push to activate the launch control. Both the GTR Service manager and engineer were also aware I had used the launch control because they asked me when I presented the car with the fault and I told them I had, but the problem did not occur during a launch control. To any potential GTR owner, the statement "launch control never used" suggests that the transmission has not been abused. In any case, this statement was deceptive because it was knowingly false and unfounded. The report from Nissan that the trade in was subject to (which I obtained after I started my inquiries) made no mention of the transmission fault. The report was provided less than 24 hours after the trade in... I have four documents from the Nissan dealer stating the the transmission requires a "full rebuild" and Ford dealer has one document from the same Nissan dealer effectively stating "The car is perfectly fine". Does that sound right?

When I confronted the general manager of the Ford dealership with respect to the advertisement and their conduct his response was initially... "What do you care anyway what we did with the car?"

So...

1. Either my car didn't need a full rebuild and this was falsely represented to me, given the Nissan dealer provided a document to the Ford dealer stating there was nothing wrong with the car (After I took a huge hit on the trade in), or

2. It did require a full rebuild and the Ford dealer falsely represented to the general public that there was nothing wrong with the car by stating "the launch control was never used" and that the car had passed a 100 point mechanical and safety inspection... knowing very well that no inspection short of stripping the transmission would detect the fault.

Put yourself in a buyer's position... would you feel ripped off? Even worse, the person who now has the car might not know any of this and may be up for a lot of money... 18K, 47K... whatever... it's not their problem to fix. People work hard for that kind of money.

Edited December 26, 2013 by Oli1710

[C4a0s]

so they are trying to rip 2 ppl off... Oli1710 to take a huge trade in cut for a spoilt trans... and the new owner cos they didnt repair the fault...

[maclarenf1]

great that you trying to find the new owner. next time try to google the issue before talking a huge hit with trade in. even if you shipped the car to Melbourne and get racepace to repair it, would have cost a heck of a lot less..

Scenario 2 - Nissan / ford dealer sent the box to a reputable shop, got it repaid and sold it.

[BuuBox]

The fact that the Nissan dealer is directly involves makes it even more likely that they just fixed the transmission in my eyes. It gives them access to the required parts at a much reduced cost with effectively free labour, or they could even have put it through as a "goodwill" warranty claim... If they rebuilt or put a new 'box in, the "launch control not used" claim is defensible.

The response by the dealer isn't exactly a surprise either. What are they going to say... "We fixed the gearbox for a few grand and made $40k on your trade-in".

Hopefully the above is true for the sake of the new owner.

Out of interest, what did you trade for? An FPV GT?

Edited December 26, 2013 by BuuBox

[GTRsean]

Still the other half of the shift fork working in there so all good till that breaks...

[nobby]

Reading this I assume that Nissan Japan would be extremely happy to know how one of its dealership is possibly behaving.

Nissan Australia and Ford for that matter also.

One would think Nissan Australia would know who owns the car now.

Its nice your trying to let new owner know about vehicle.

Having trouble understanding "this day in age" when no-one seems to give 2 hoots about others.

sell off what's broken and presume others won't do the same.

What if in-fact they repaired the car!.

now since the repair, the recon box hasn't had launch control used on it,

it's twisting the truth but a fact all the same.

honestly there is a lot of ways of looking at this.

[turboadam]

I am sorry to say that Nissan Australia (let alone Nissan Japan) won't give a stuff how the dealer is behaving.

All they care about is units sold. How a dealer does that is the dealers business. I have tried making complaints to an importer (not Nissan) about a dealership before to no avail.

Edited December 31, 2013 by turboadam

[Adriano]

I just wish the car had been offered for sale at this discounted price on the forum, im assuming it got traded for around 65k

[mcmonte]

Updates?

[R33DRIVER]

Is the R35 is ADM GTR? Still under warranty at that time?

I think a lot of people have bad experience regarding car service and trade-in matters in most OZ car dealers. I experienced once the Toyotx manager lie for promises of work which not made and arrogantly accuse we are not reasonable! After numerous complaints and with friends (working in Toyotx) help to get the evidence and legal letter to scare him off! And at the end he just come to the office and said OK I was wrong! But no sorry have said! And end the matter! Because, the working environment protects people (workers) more than customers! That's why they don't afraid of loosing their job and no need to improve customer's relation!

I would have said if their working attitude and arrogant manner found in any car dealers in Hong Kong and Japan! They would have lost their job long ago!

But if I were the Black GTR owner I may have paid extra but not AUD$47,000.00 to buy and replace a new GR6 gearbox directly order from Japan and carry out installation by a well known garage mechanic and not money ripped off service centre! This may save more money than trade-in!

When I brought my R35! The owner said due to the GR6 gearbox may or will be DEAD in the coming years and he willing to deduct a sum of AUD$8,000.00 about half the price of a new GR6 gearbox as a sinking fund for my future replacement of new gearbox!

Getting a well know good and experience mechanic in hand first is the most important factor to be consider before buy any expensive cars! I have a Q7 3.0TDI and the car have problem, then I took it to a good mechanic garage for repair, he charged me AUD120.00 fixing the problem regarding the diesel fuel pump system broken down! The solution is to buy a new small capacitor replace by soldering works! And he give me a quote from Aud1 that replacement of the diesel system require AUD$6,500.00 excluding labour! So you know the big difference!

[Oli1710]

Update: To date I have found that the GTR was sold in NSW. The number plate was changed to: CMJ78H. If you own a black R35 GTR in NSW with registration plates CMJ-78H or you know the person that does, feel free to get in touch with me. I have documented evidence to prove that two dealerships (both members of the same dealership group) collaborated to cover up critical mechanical damage to the transmission to sell the car for market value without repairing the damage. I also have some other interesting history about the car that you may have been lied to about... As I was... (0467555220 - Oli)

[GTR-N1]

I believe I may have seen this parked at a Dulwich Hill carpark surrounded by Beach Rd, Hercules St, Marrickville Rd & Canterbury Rd.

If I see it again...

[OVA 300]

On ACA in 3,2,1.

[NXTIME]

Oli, I may have missed it, but how do you know that the gearbox wasn't replaced or repaired?

Dealership could easily have bought a new box and replaced it for under $10K then sold it.

[Oli1710]

I confronted the general manager of the dealership group about it and the Nissan dealership in question. Both went on the defensive. The general manager stated; "it's not misleading or deceptive conduct because we sold it to a wholesaler in NSW."

Is that comfort to the person who now owns it or any consumer that deals with scum that think like that? He missed the finer detail of the law... It's not my place to give legal advice here.