Getting to the bottom of car safety issue... at last
QI BOUGHT a new Nissan Pulsar automatic for £17,000 over a year ago.
I’ve had a safety issue in intermittently failing brakes, leading to potentially serious incidents, especially with children in the car. It happened twice, reversing down steep driveways.
I’ve been back to the dealer but for months, Nissan seemed to show a complete disregard for my concerns, saying they cannot find the fault. Nor would they take the car back – I first raised my worries when it was just two weeks old.
Customer service has been lacking – failing to respond to some letters, emails and phone calls. I don’t like this car and can’t afford to buy a new one. Laura P
ATHIS has been difficult for all concerned, not helped by either the dealer or Nissan which have given you various contradictory versions of the problem. One engineer told you there was a software update, another that there was no software to update.
You have been pushed from pillar to post as no single person has taken ownership of your problem.
In Nissan’s favour, it has lent you the manual version of the car for the past six months – this has been fine.
Nissan would not simply swap the cars – you thought an automatic would be simpler with children, now you are no longer sure – but it has now taken a fresh look at the problem.
It has replaced some brake parts as a precaution even though it could find no faults with the system.
It now concludes that the issue was due to incorrect usage of the starter button on the automatic version.
This led to warning lights on the dashboard, the first indication of your problem, and because – according to Nissan – you had turned the engine off, the foot brake would seem harder to operate.
Nissan says: “We have inspected the car several times to confirm it is safe and complies with all roadworthiness standards.
“A Nissan technician has observed her using the vehicle at her home, where she says the fault occurred.
“The technician noticed she incorrectly operated the car’s engine start button.
“By repeatedly pressing it, we believe the engine may inadvertently have been turned off.”
It would have been better for all concerned, if someone had reached that conclusion a year ago when you first bought the car.