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Comments
I bought a new Volvo back in 1997. It had to be driven ~100 miles from another dealer in early NE spring, so it got dirty on the road. The selling dealer washed it by hand working all the grit into the soft paint (Volvo is notorious for it and actually recommends not waxing for at least 6 months after purchase).
Complained to the dealer, after a long exchange drove down at noon and showed him swirls in bright sunlight. He offered to have a guy "compact the paint with a heavy buffer", I refused and demanded a replacement car. He called it a buyer's remorse and declined. I wrote a complaint to Volvo. Must have been similar complaints because Volvo took back his license 6 months later. I kept the car for 8 more years; so much for the buyer's remorse.
Swirls are still there, although Maguire's product works quite well in removing most of them. But the whole ordeal is still a sad experience for me. I do not think I will ever buy a Volvo again.
When buying a Mercedes several years later I was very up front with the sales guy to deliver it with less than 20 miles on the odo and not to scratch the paint during the prep. He obliged, although there were still swirls on the black plastic parts on the D pillars of the SUV upon delivery. And also a cracked taillight cover.
Wonder what the Infiniti experience will be.
The P0's made the Goodyear feel like the tires on a car from the Flintstones. It was like riding on concrete donughts. The Pirelli's are firm yet supple and whisper quiet. A remarkable difference.
Got my car with 20 miles. The testing and QC certificate counted 8 miles and the rest were put on at the port and the dealer. No reason that any new car should have more than 20 unless it was a tester.
About the guy who didn't look at his car on delivery not once but twice--I say shame on you! Nobody is going to look out for your interests better than you!
Take some personal responsibility for your lack of attention. This is a $50000 car, damnit. What's wrong with you? You have nobody to blame but yourself.
$2k off MSRP for the color you want is a very competitive deal. Don't expect to do better--especially for a car delivered this month.
My M35x has 800 miles on it and it is fabulous. I just wish the M45 had and AWD option...
Take some personal responsibility for your lack of attention. This is a $50000 car, damnit. What's wrong with you? You have nobody to blame but yourself."
Yes & no.
The first car was purchased at night. Secondarily, it is rainy season here in Florida. Overcast & gray. Which is when the replacement was delivered. Until you get these vehicles under light or in the sun, you cannot see blemishes. Once you do they're impossible to miss. Especially on a black finish.
As for the mileage. You're correct. I should have checked it on the second vehicle. I made an assumption that because it was coming from the showroom floor that it would have less miles on it than the original car given I had complained about the miles on car #1. My bad. It had double the miles on it.
Regardless. Fault is not the issue here.
It's going back.
It is part of the dealers cost of doing business to provide tester vehicles and later sell then at a discount.
The Infiniti 4.5 liter V8 engine is known to consume oil on some vehicles. This is almost always the result of improper break-in. The break-in period is particularly important during the first few hundred miles as the pistons and rings get to know each other for the first time.
Test drives almost always involve two things that are terrible to do to a near zero mileage engine. 1) Flooring it. 2) High revs.
If you buy a vehicle that has been used for test drives you should get a discount.
My 2 cents.
If it's a new model, hot car, things are different. I never want to buy a first year car no matter how good it is.
At this point, I'll take third party residuals that show the M with higher residuals than the GS as a better indicator of resale, rather than a blanket statement saying that the GS will have higher resale. Lexus in general has good resale, yes. And Infiniti in the past has struggled with resale. But the G and the FX have slightly higher resale than their Lexus counterparts, and I see the new M continuing this trend.
This is perhaps an isolated case, but my point is that since this car is in tight supply, if it has to be traded from another dealer and they require you to sign up front or even leave a deposit, make sure to write down the expected condition of the vehicle (e.g. "max 25 mi.", "no interior nor exterior visible defect") in order to get your money back if these conditions are not met. That implies you will carefully inspect the car and look very closely because paint and window defects are very, very difficult to dispute once you left the dealer's lot.
Insist on low mileage or a big discount (below dealer cost with holdback).
Most dealer employees drive all their cars in a consequence free way.
A mighty subtle woo, bill. MIGHTY subtle. More than likely just easier to set up than on the driver's side.
You'd be out of line NOT to complain and insist upon "shiny new". If the dealership doesn't do it for you, go to the regional manager and if he doesn't, I'd go up the chain of command and even so far as the BBB and whoever regulates vehicular sales in your state. I'd threaten them with a lawsuit and even write a letter to the editor of the local papers. You bought new ... and are entitled to unblemished. :mad:
You couldn't be more wrong. Dealers must have cars to demo, and the cost of doing business is putting a few miles on them and selling them for a grand or so less than shiny off the truck. If you want to save those bucks, take the demo. But as the buyer (and I don't care at what price level, even a Yugo) you're entitled to shiny & new off the truck with no miles. If you don't ask, you likely won't get ... so insist. Maybe you have to wait a bit for the color/trim to be delivered ... so be it. :shades:
Conventional wisdom is on your side, and I agree. I would NEVER buy a first model year ... NEVER, until I drove the M and I wasn't going to wait. God made warrantees for a reason and I swallowed my bias and bit. From the first couple of months of experience on this board, no one's made a serious error with the acquisition of the new M-car. I'm waiting for a pin to drop, but thus far nothing and I would expect it to remain that way.
Yea I have been watching the M: Problems & Solutions Thread faithfully. So far it seems to be a remarkably trouble-free first year release. Still not ready to pull the trigger; so I'll still read and watch with "baited breath"
Funny you should mention swirls and Maguire's in the same sentence - for me anyway - and it's more 'painful' than funny actually.
M35x, blk. First black car.
Now I know that mits, chamois, and/or terry cloth are sure things when hand washing, but I happened across this Maguire's **gasp** "Soft Brush", and figured, "what the hell"......such an idiot.
Needless to say, swirls and scratches, big and small, ALL OVER THE CAR. Most very subtle, still more than just spider swirls though, and some - 3 on the hood to be exact - are well into the clear coat (something must have gotten into the brush because I applied MINIMAL pressure.)
I know Zaino is probably my best bet at minimizing, though I doubt eliminating the blemishes is even possible. I'm "gun shy" now, and no detailers use Zaino. Will a professional grade buffing get most of these out?
I know I pulled a jackass move, but other than that, what do you guys think? Any hope here?
I'm absolutely sick to my stomach.
I had some bad experience with a first year GM car in the mid 1980's which is why I have bought nothing but Japanese since all with flawless quality.
Also, there is no V8 Fuga in Japan. There are 2 engine choices for the Fuga. A 2.5 VQ V6 making 210 hp / 197 torque, and a 3.5 VQ V6 making 280 hp / 270 torque (same as M35).
You could try Zaino. The Z5 is for dark colors with swirls. I swear by Zaino's and will use nothing else and I have used them all. Takes some time, but the results are incredible. I just spent 6 hours last weekend on my wife's new Envoy. It went like this:
wash/clay bar/wash/Z2 (zfx)/Z6/Z2/Z6/Z2/Z6....
If you use it, you will know what this means. Basically. Wash, clay bar, wash then 3 coats of "wax" with gloss enhancer applied after each coat. This left a shine so deep and wet looking...was hard to look @ for fear of going blind. Now dirt drops off the finish.
I have had 5 black vehicles and yes they take effort to keep clean but nothing IMHO even comes close to how good they look. My new M will be black. As my friends tell me, I am a glutton for punishment.
I too have black paint and took it into our office building’s basement for a professional detailing after two weeks of driving. These guys see Porsches & Mercs day in and day out but made a point of telling me how great the paint quality was on the M when I picked it up.
Most of the time when I am driving the car, it puts me in a mode where I’m thinking of rocks and trees and smallish babbling streams but occasionally I will obsess over some perceived imperfection. There is a spot of leather the size of a half-dollar on the corner of the passenger seat that has deep creases and stands out against the near perfect finish of the rest of the seat. After glaring at the spot a few times I start wondering what part of the cow that piece of leather came from and whether the cow was happy and what type of surroundings it came from – whether or not there were rocks and trees and smallish babbling streams nearby
I too was concerned about the number of miles the car had when I purchased it. The salesman apparently had seen my type before and pulled out a document from the glove box which showed how many miles the car had when it was put on the ship. In my case the car had 11.5 miles documented but the odometer showed 12. The salesman explained that the extra half mile was from driving the car around the Port of Los Angeles after arrival. For those of you on the East Coast I would expect that you would be happy with anything less than 2,000 miles on the odometer.
I have to agree with others here. A new car like the M with more than 20-30 miles has probably been driven pretty hard. While the break-in is 1200 miles, those first few are the most critical.
Interestingly, if you search, you will find some reports that occasional very high rpms (not sustained) is actually good for engine break-in. I don't know who to believe.
As a side note: who sells Zaino polish. I have several classic cars & would like to try the products.
Back to Zaino, that is a popular Forums topic - check out the Zaino discussion for all you wanted to know and waaay more about it.
Anyone else having similar experiences? Anyone have any input? What gives?
good luck!
-thene
just my thought, i really dont know how they decide, if there even is a discussion on where to put the tank!
-thene
One condition I made on my sale was "no vehicle over 12 miles", basically do not bother calling me if the car does. With this said and with an ordered car , I am in the 60 to 90 day order window with 40 days down. The wait is tough but it will be worth the it. I also requested to not have any drilling performed for the front license plate bracket. You are the customer, expect the best and demand it accordingly !
Supposed to add 60hp....
Assuming it could be used with the 3.5, is there any reason why this couldn't be mated with the x model? 340hp + AWD would be sweeeet.
Rich, just as kits designed for the Supra worked on the IS and GS300, I dont see any reason why a 350Z supercharger or turbo kit wouldnt work on the M35.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. But wouldn't that risk invalidating the warranty? :confuse:
If something is put on the car that can be determined to have caused a failure, then the waranty would be voided (that is the usual line). If the turbo is put on the car and the brakes poop out -- I think it would be a stretch to accuse the turbo or super charger of making the car so powerful the brakes couldn't stop it without undue wear and tear.
Now if a piston is damaged, well the argument they could make MIGHT hold water.
When I have had mods done to my Audis, I have always had the dealer make the mod -- from chipping, to suspension mods to aftermarket wheels and tires (and even aftermarket brakes) -- I get it all done from the dealer and then, subsequent claims are always taken care of under warranty.
Of course the dealer may charge more to "chip it" or swap out the rotors, than you could have done elsewhere -- but I call the difference in cost "peace of mind."
But, may I be so brash as to suggest that if you want to add an aftermarket supercharger it might have been less costly to just go for the V8 in the first place?
I see, you wanted it for the X version -- you're right SWEEEET.
Is anyone else having the problem on these Edmund forums that the Emotorcons have quit displaying?
I work in that part of the industry - so I am always updated on the working of what the aftermarket world has going on.
I also know that Greddy has a turbo kit for the G35 same motor - and will probably do something for this car as well.
Just some thoughts,
Ohh...
There will be no problem with your car being AWD.
The Super Charger kit will fit just fine - and will rip all 4 tires in smoke as you smash the gas....
I agree that in the U.S.A. is doesn't make a lot of difference once you know where it is. I was told that in Germany many of the pumps are placed so it is most convenient to pull up with the pumps on the right and this makes some sense since most of the German cars have the filler on the right. Maybe someone there can comment on that. If there is a preference in Europe and no real reason to be on the left in the U.S.A., cars intended for both markets might best have the filler on the right.
My question is why has some inventive manufacturer not placed a filler on both sides of the car? It doesn't seem like it would cost much more to do so and it would be a great convenience.
Any way, does anyone find the radio to be out of balance? I did find the balance and it is in the middle however It seems to me that the driver lower door speaker is not operating as loud as the passenger side? Either its a setting or its broken?
Also, there were 2 green stickers the size of quarters on my door jam. I hate seeing them there so I asked what they were and why they were not removed during prep. Any idea what that was?. Now I have adhesive in the jam. Need to get some bug and tar remover to clean that up.
Car was delivered with 12 miles on it, so I was pleased.
Gas mileage, all in bumper to bumper is 11! I did reset it before leaving dealer, Yuck, i hope that gets better or I will need to add an auxilary gas tank in the trunk!
Anyone have any ideas?
XM receivers are compatible for installation on already built M's at the dealerships. Sirius receivers are not yet compatible and parts are just not available. If you have patience, and Sirius is your preferred provider, then you will have to wait. If not, have the XM installed.
I believe that you are supposed to vary the rpms to a great extent during breakin and avoid holding the rpms at a constant level for extended times during breakins; but I do not think you should redline it.