Opportunistic lending and less than perfect credit got me into a full sticker price Nissan Versa with a ridiculously high interest rate. Within 2 years (24,000 miles) the clutch is gone bad (didn't burn out just stopped working) and the car is unsafe to drive. I take it to the dealer because it is still under warranty and McCrea has a great reputation for their service. They inform me that clutches are not covered under the warranty and that I will need to pay them about 2,300$ to get it fixed! I have over 3 years left on my high interest loan. I am greatly disappointed as this is my families only means of transportation, I am a full time student/mom, I bought this car because it was supposed to be reliable. I have had owned Nissans in the past and I have always loved them. I was told by the sales staff that this was the safest car in its class. I envisioned having this car for years. I assured myself that the cost would be worth it to make sure my family had reliable and safe transportation. The clutch first started to fail randomly, than consistently over a period of the last few weeks. The car is unsafe to drive which became apparent when we almost got into an accident Christmas eve with the baby in the car. The car wouldn't pick up the gear in traffic on a steep hill. I ended up having my car towed back to the dealership for a service appointment a week later.
This is not the first time I have had to have work done on this car, at one point the lock on the trunk broke and on a separate occasion the exhaust heat shield came lose and was making a horrid noise. Both of those issues were covered by the warranty and have not re-occurred. the weather stripping in the trunk was on so lose it slid out of place and caused a major leak ruining my carpet, they added adhesive (why the factory did not use adhesive I will never know) Sadly McCrea Nissan was unable to help with the carpet, which is now ruined. That's allot of things to pop up in the first few years of a cars life.
Digging around online I am discovering that ALL of these issues are common with Versas from '08-'14 Premature clutch failure can happen as early as 10,000 miles and warranties do not cover clutches, with all of these resources online about this it's safe to conclude that Nissans are just not what they used to be, and sadly, Nissan is aware of the issues with the Versa, but is choosing to not to fix the problems. I contacted Nissan corporate and they were unable to help.
The car is now at another mechanic right down the street, where they are willing to do the same repair for half the price. When the other mechanic looked at the clutch he stated that there was no burnout and he also believes the part was defective. He reassured me that this was not my fault which made me feel a little better anyhow
I was planing on buying another Nissan in a few years after I graduate to accommodate our growing family, but now I wonder if my dream of car ownership without worry, may just not be possible in a Nissan. I have the fondest memories of the Nissans I have owned in the past and thought that by buying a new one I would get to enjoy if for at least a decade before anything major came up. This whole experience has been horribly disappointing
(I added an extra star to my original post based on the improved customer service when I picked up the car) read more