2002 POS Altima 2.5 SL

[Clmbn4]

A 2002 Pre-owned Piece Of Shit Nissan Altima was bought Feb 14th 04. now 6 months later, my car needs an engine.It was bought with 89,000 Miles and now has 95,000. When i bought the car it had a warranty,not to mention we bought an extended warranty to cover everything. and they told me that the car was in good shape. so i believed them. now, my car all of a sudden needs a motor.which they say the warranty doesn't cover.they want to charge me for the 4,000 motor and labor cost. They knew the car was using oil, thats why the first owner brought it in. not to mention there is a recall on the engine sensor and hanger pin and pre-catalyst. on my car, which they failed to tell me about. i found the recall part out on my own. they have finally agreed to pay for the motor and labor cost but i still have to pay a couple of hundred dollars. But i don't know for what.I put my sons life in danger just by driving 2 miles down the road to get him something to eat. Because the service engine light has been on for two weeks.Would any of you put up with what i am?and what should i do? They even said we can't trade in for another 7 months, because we haven't owned the car long enough, i say BS i can't drive it for another 7 months because if i did it would be broke down in at least 1 month. i have called there every day for the past 2 weeks, ever dsince the Service Engine Light came on. they are still giving me the run around. The commercial for Crown Pontiac Nissan says that 1000 people can't be wrong, Well i say that more than 1000 people can be wrong, actually we would be right, by not buying a Nissan. If you are one of those people, e-mail me your name, so i can put it on a list to take to crown pontiac nissan just to prove them wrong, and show them that we are right and get my car fixed. Please Help Me Out!

[spddracer]

You drove your car around for 2 weeks with the check engine light on ? The Cat recall depending on what the confirmation test comes up with may include replacing the engine . If it fails the confirmation test on the precat and the precat then needs to be inspected . If it is coming apart they are required to put a new engine in it . May want to read up on it . You really shouldnt drive your car with the CEL on for that long . The altima is a very nice car..

[twix1142]

CLmBn4:

Hey, i have the same exact problem with my 2002 Altima, i need a new engine too, the car consumes oil ever 300 miles now, the dealership told me i need a new engine, there's internal "engine failure" but they "dont know what is wrong with it"....and they want me to pay $5000 between the engine and labor, the new the this car consumed oil from day one, at 1500 miles i took the car in b/c it was low on oil and they told me "it came low on oil from factory"....which i think was a bunch of crap, now it all makes sense, im sure they knew these knew Altimas were consuming oil b/c they have a defective engine and def. cat converter, Please contact me at twix1142@yahoo.com.I'm trying to get together with other people with the same problem, some people have even had their car catch on fire due to this, so this is not safe and its not fair to the customer.

Lorena.

[k3smostwanted]

so...your car is under warantee and they dont want to pay for the one thing that the car should be under warantee for? the engine?

dude...thats nuts. the altima isnt a shitty car, you just got a shitty dealership. thats why nissan has the recalls. to make you, the consumer happy, but when the local dealership doesnt offer these recalls then there is nothing NISSAN can do. i cant figure out why they wouldnt want to do the recall. the dealership doesnt lose money. nissan pays for everything. if you ask me, they just are a bunch of lazy SOB's. call the next closest dealership and ask them for their opinion.

[twix1142]

Hey, i have the same exact problem with my 2002 Altima, i need a new engine too, the car consumes oil ever 300 miles now, the dealership told me i need a new engine, there's internal "engine failure" but they "dont know what is wrong with it"....and they want me to pay $5000 between the engine and labor, the new the this car consumed oil from day one, at 1500 miles i took the car in b/c it was low on oil and they told me "it came low on oil from factory"....which i think was a bunch of crap, now it all makes sense, im sure they knew these knew Altimas were consuming oil b/c they have a defective engine and def. cat converter, Please contact me at twix1142@yahoo.com.I'm trying to get together with other people with the same problem, some people have even had their car catch on fire due to this, so this is not safe and its not fair to the customer.

Lorena.

[ullose2]

why buy a newer car when there are sooo many cheap used cars

[actionprz]

We bought a 2002 Altima (brand new - purchased Sept. '02) for our daughter when she graduated from high school. She picked this car! I had bought a Datsun way back when and swore I'd never buy another - It was a lemon!!! I tried to talk her out of it - she now probably wishes she listened. The car had 29,000 miles on it when the engine light came on. The car went to the dealer and we were advised that it needed a new engine and a catalytic converter. Whatever happened "was very rare" he said. But the catalytic converter had something wrong with it (broke down) and the engine sucked in the material - which resulted in needing a new engine. It was covered under warranty. At the same time they noticed there was also a problem/leak with the power steering mechanism/fluid and they had to replace something else. A couple of weeks ago the car went in and a wheel bearing needed replacing. Today she is complaining again about the steering. Guess it better go in in a hurry - it's got 35,400 miles. Only 600 left. Better check into an extended warranty. I know we will NEVER buy a another NISSAN!!! Toyota's and Lexus' are what we prefer.

[joeB]

Honda and Toyota have problems too. Most Altimas are very reliable
and so are most Nissans.

[humbem]

The problem isn't with Nissan, but rather the maker of the catalytic converters. If the catalyst in the converters isn't properly manufactured the ceramic stuff will break apart and this gets sucked back into the engine. My old car had a similar problem, but this only arose after about 100,000 miles. It is for this reason that I get my oil tested after every third oil change (they can detect the materials used in the catalytic converter before any major damage occurs). Your dealer may be trying to get stick you with the bill by saying that the catalytic converter is part of the exhaust, not the motor, which is true. However, that does not change the fact that it destroyed the motor prematurely. It is true that they don't lose money by doing recall work, but they also make more money by making the customer pay directly. My advice, go to another Nissan dealer. Good luck with everything!

-Mike