CC
Miami,#2Author of original report
Thu, May 22, 2008
Well I have a shorth update. The car has been at the Nissan dealer for 2 days. I will get it back tomorrow 5/23/08. They told me they change some parts but they were not able to tell me the list of parts until they get the car back from the dealer. I will let you guys know tomorrow how it went. The first thing that I want to tell you guys is if you are having problems with CarMax call their customer relation main office in VA. They will try to work with you (at least I think they will my car is not fixed yet) their number is 1-800-519-1511. Ok I went to the CarMax in Miami Lakes to buy 2005 Nissan Xterra. They had to bring the car from another CarMax and they told me that the car was going to be there at 1:00pm the car end up getting there at 8:30pm. They told me before the transfer that the car had a full break service done to it and that it had no dents. Believing in them I went to buy the car that same night (DO NOT BUY A CAR AT NIGHT) I consider myself an ok car guy and I thought that if there was something wrong with the car (a crash) that I was going to be able to see it. Well I did find a couple of things wrong with the car that were not major things and that they told me they were going to fix. They also told me that I could leave the car there and they would fix it and I could come back and buy it another day. Thinking that I was working with a good company I decided to trust them and take the car that night. They gave me an appointment for the following Monday to fix the car. So I went to have a couple of things done to the car. One the car had spongy feeling on the breaks, The fenders did no lined up with the hood (I did not find traces of body work anywhere so I believed that it was from factory), and to fix an air leak that came through the driver's door when you drove like 70 to 80 MPH (not road noise but a noise like if your window was a bit open) so I took the car and after driving the car the whole weekend I found a couple of other problems. It also had a vibration at high speed and pulling to the right. I went to them and they told me that they did the balancing and rotation of the tires. They also clean the dust out of the break system. Aligned the fenders, but that they could not locate a door seal so they would do that the following Friday because I was going to install a TV in the car with them. On Friday a guy named Santiago told me that they were not going to replace the seal because it did not make any noise at 55 mph and they could only test the car at that speed. And that the noise was also a defect on that car and that Nissan knew about it. Then I told him to go for a ride on I75 was the speed limit is 70 and if you go slower than 80 they will kick off the road. He told me that they would not do that. So I asked for his manager A guy named Bill and he told me that he was going to test drive the car and get back to me. Then he came and told me that he was going to send the car to the Nissan dealer. (Which they never did because the miles on the car do not add up) The imaginary dealer did not find anything wrong with the door. So I took the car and found that the vibration had gone away while driving but it came back when I was braking and also the poling to the right was there. So I took it again and here is where it gets good. They told me that the break vibration was from the rear breaks that were old so they did them (I thought they were new) and that they checked the alignment and it was fine. They told me that the pulling to the right was a safety feature that Nissan build into the car so if I fall asleep at the wheel I will not crash against oncoming traffic. (I was LOL and Pissed off at the same time) And that there was nothing to fix. I took the car home and guess what? The vibration was still there. Even though I told them that it was the front breaks and they decided to do the rear brakes (better for me New Breaks in the rear) Before I took the car back I called Nissan and ask them about their super duper safety feature and they could not believe that the dealer told me such a thing. So I took the car again and this time I did a test drive. But not before telling them what Nissan told me. So he changed the story from a pull to a drift and that they were going to look at it. I got the car back and they did the front brakes (again I thought they were new) and told me that they checked the alignment again and this time it was off. So they corrected the alignment but they run out of adjustment so the car is still drifting to the right but that there is nothing they can do and they are not going to fix it anymore because it falls under the specs from Nissan. This was 5/14/08 so the next day I called their customer relations office 1-800-519-1511 and they told me that they were going to call the operations manager and get the problem resolved. I told them that I was going to need a loaner for the day and that I wanted a test drive. They told me that someone from the dealer was going to call me and they did on 5/16/08 they gave me an appointment for 5/20/08 and they are going to give me a loaner for the day (I do not expect the brakes to work on the loaner LOL) So far I have to say that it has been a horrible experience buying from CarMax. Their no hassle policy sucks and their customer service (unless you call corporate) sucks. I will never buy a car from them again and will not recommend them to anyone.