Stone Chip Damage

I have a 2002 Max, 13500 km on the clock. It has been looked after and has never been taken on poor road surfaces. I noticed that I have stone chip damage on the rear doors and major paint removal on the rear wheel arch. When I ordered my Max from the dealer I asked for all the mud flaps, hood protector etc. and when it arrived I noticed that it didn't have any mud flaps on the front. The salesperson told me that this was because the new sill design negated the need for mud flaps on the front. Looking at the damage that has become VERY apparent over the last couple of months, it seems that the lack of front mud flaps is actually detremental to the car. When i took the car back to the dealer, he told me that this had been reported by a couple of other 2002 Max buyers and that they would contact Nissan on our behalf. I just got a call back from the dealer to say that Nissan will do nothing to remedy the situation and that I have to get the car repaired at my own expense! The dealer did offer to fit some after market mud flaps at their expense once the damage was repaired, I guess that will save me $50 but GEEZ you think a company like Nissan could get something as simple as this right and if not, put it right.
Now I realise I live in Alberta and we have a more gravel on the road than the guys south of the border and I guess that this may not occur in warmer climates but does anyone else have this damage beginning? If you are lucky and don't yet have any damage I suggest that you go out and buy some after market mud flaps to prevent this damage occurring in the future.
Other than this situation, I am very happy with the car and that makes it even more frustarting. Just when I thought Nissan where getting their act together, they just cut me off on this one. I guess I should have bought the Acura after all.

your right nissan did away with them flaps some were in the 2002 model year... why? who knows

they prob thought that they had done a good thing by tryin to build in some type of defelctor or watever for the tire wells, but looks like they r wrong. jfp61 how bad is the paint chiping?

The paint chips on the rear wheel arch are on the leading edge, about 6' long by 1/4" wide, all the paint has totally gone on one and not quite so bad on the other, under both rear doors on the new sill design, at the back towards the rear wheel arch where the sill begins to flare out there is a patch about 4" across that is just riddled with small chips and the bottom of the passenger door is not chipped but has hundreds of minor scratches that you can just see if you get on your knees. The rest of the car is in almost perfect condition, almost because there are a couple of stone chips on the hood but those are just standard chips, nothing out of the ordinary.

I just bought a new 2002 and the dealer wanted $129 on the sticker for front and rear mud flaps. Fortunately the one I bought didn't have them. I went to the parts counter after I bought the car and paid $42/pr and put them on myself. Very easy to do as the fronts already have the screws you need and the rears have the hole positions indented to drill into already. They are exact body color and look great. As to how effective they'll be, only time will tell.