Motorists complained about problems with Nissan warranty service. Due to fear of being left without compensation for the cost of the work performed, dealers refuse to repair. What to do for drivers, experts explained
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A reader turned to the editors of Autonews.ru with a complaint about Nissan dealers who refused to repair his relative’s car under warranty. Dealers interviewed by the editors on condition of anonymity admitted that such a problem does exist.
Rust as a reason for failure
As the owner of the Nissan crossover told Autonews.ru, at the end of July 2023, he turned to a car dealership that had recently traded Nissan cars and is still on the list of official dealers, complaining about a non-working air conditioner. The Russian-assembled Nissan Terrano crossover was still under warranty at that moment.
The cause of the malfunction was established quickly: the cabin air temperature sensor failed. And the client was immediately offered to fix the problem, but for money.
At first, according to the driver, in the car dealership they found fault with the fact that the car did not pass the last maintenance at the official dealer. To this, the client replied that, according to the law, he is not obliged to be serviced by official Nissan dealers, moreover, maintenance of the air temperature sensor during this run is not provided at all. The driver also noted that the operation of the climate system could not be affected by the fact that the maintenance was not carried out at official dealers.
Nissan Terrano (Photo: Shutterstock)
Then the service master referred to the fact that traces of corrosion were visible on the sensor. However, even here he could not explain why this is not a warranty case, but the fault of the client. As a result, in a private conversation, the warranty master admitted that he could not agree to a free repair, since Nissan had left the Russian market, and work with AvtoVAZ had not yet been debugged. An audio recording of these words is at the disposal of Autonews.ru.
Finally, the client was advised to contact specifically the dealer from whom the car was purchased. However, the same thing happened there too: the warranty repair was denied, referring first to an unpassed MOT, and then to rust on the sensor.
Dealers interviewed by Autonews.ru admitted on condition of anonymity that there really is a problem with paying for warranty repairs on the part of the automaker in the case of Nissan and that the situation has been “long expected”. According to them, in each case, the issue is resolved with the client individually, but the dealer who agreed to a free repair really runs the risk that no one will compensate him for the costs.
Taking into account the hot weather prevailing in the metropolitan area, the client repaired the car on his own, buying the required sensor at a price three times lower than the dealer offered, and installing it himself. The amount of repairs as a result amounted to 3.5 thousand rubles.
There are no official Nissan dealers left
In March 2022, according to a letter sent to the Association of Russian Auto Dealers from Nissan Manufacturing Rus, the company continued to support the service and shipment of spare parts for Nissan cars in Russia. However, in 2023, Nissan left the Russian market: on February 7, 99% of the assets of the Nissan plant in St. Petersburg were transferred to AvtoVAZ for a symbolic €1. The Japanese company retained the right to buy back shares over the next six years, subject to approval by the Russian government.
AvtoVAZ assumed responsibility for the supply of spare parts to the Nissan dealer network. As explained in the Russian company, after signing the necessary agreements, AvtoVAZ organized the process of transferring the functions of warranty and after-sales service to Nissan customers under its management. To do this, the company used a similar experience with the Renault brand. On August 10, a request from Autonews.ru to Nissan’s global office was not answered at the time of publication of the note. The press service of AvtoVAZ advised to contact the hotline, leave a request there and promised to comment on the specific case after that.
Calling the hotline was not easy. There are two of them: actually Nissan and Lada. They refused to accept the complaint on the first phone, saying that such claims are accepted only in writing to the address of the representative office registered in St. Petersburg. It didn’t help solve the problem.
It was possible to get through to the Lada operator only after 30 minutes, but even there they said that they did not deal with the Nissan brand, they refused to accept the complaint and sent it back to the Nissan hotline.
What to do for motorists who were left without a guarantee
According to Alexander Kholodov, Deputy Chairman of the Commission for Security and Interaction with the PMC at the Public Chamber of Russia, now in Russia the owners of many foreign cars, not only Nissan, have indeed been deprived of the guarantee required by law. This happened due to a gap in the legislation, which turned out to be not designed for a massive exit from the market of representative offices of automakers.
By law, warranty repairs must be paid by the importer or local automaker, and the dealer in this case acts as an intermediary, the lawyer says. The dealer’s own warranty obligations arise only if he himself acts as an importer, for example, by bringing a batch of cars for parallel import.
Now that the representative office of the automaker has actually ceased to exist in Russia, there are two ways to achieve warranty repairs, and both are not simple, Kholodov notes.
Firstly, in the case of an expensive repair, you can try to take the car to the country of the Customs Union, where the brand maintains its presence, and demand a free repair there. But in this case, one must be prepared for the fact that in case of refusal, the trial will have to be conducted in a foreign country.
The second option is to sue in Russia. In this case, the court will send the materials to the address where the representative office was registered, and, without receiving a response, will rule in favor of the plaintiff and issue him a writ of execution.
“This paper will have to be kept until the brands return to Russia, and I am sure that sooner or later they will return. Then it will already be possible to come to them with this same writ of execution and demand compensation for repairs with interest for the past years, ”says Kholodov.
At the same time, the lawyer admits that the court directly with the dealer may be fruitless. Over the past year, many car dealerships have changed their legal entities and signs, switching to the remaining brands. So, both Nissan dealerships, where the reader applied, currently sell exclusively Chinese cars, signs with the name of the Japanese brand have been removed from them. Autonews.ru sent a request to car dealerships where the driver encountered such a problem, but did not receive a response.
No repair issues
Despite the difficulties with the warranty, repairing a foreign car in Russia is now relatively simple. This also applies to Nissan cars, says Ilya Plisov, member of the board of the Union of Car Services of Russia. According to him, most of the necessary spare parts are available in services and stores, and those that are missing can be ordered and received within a reasonable time.
At the same time, the expert states that due to the fact that official dealers have actually ceased to be official dealers and the requirements for originality of spare parts are no longer so relevant, the demand and supply of high-quality analogues have increased, that is, spare parts that are produced by well-known companies and correspond in quality to original ones, but are not formally considered Nissan branded parts.
According to Kholodov, in the case of a relatively inexpensive repair, this is possible and will be the best way out, since if the warranty is already denied, then there is no point in chasing original parts and you will have to resolve the issue at your own expense. At the same time, Plisov recalls that, according to the law, the service is still responsible for the repairs made, and if it was done poorly or using low-quality parts, then the court will side with the client.
2023-08-14 13:33:53
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