Well
I'm in the very first stage of the lemon law thing.
First step is to notify Nissan that I intend to claim the vehicle as a lemon. Under Texas law, they now have one more opportunity to fix the issue. Since their fix is nothing more than a band-aid, (I've had it done 3 times already in 19k miles) we know it won't work.
The next step is that I send $35 and a written complaint against Nissan to TXDOT. I then gather all of my documentation of the repairs, there's a court date/hearing, and we go from there.
The requirements for lemon law in Texas (way more to be found- search google for Texas Lemon Law as I'm no attorney) are:
1. "4 times test" - vehicle has been in for a repair 4x within the first year or 12k miles
2. "30 days test" - vehicle has been in the shop for 30 days cumulative in the first year
3. "Safety test" - vehicle has been in the shop twice for a repair that poses a safety risk and still isn't repaired.
There's a great little handbook out there on the net- sorry I'm to lazy to post a link but if you search google it'll come right up.
I'm hoping that my initial letter to Nissan and subsequent meeting/ride with a rep will be enough to get them to put me in an '05. We'll see. If not, to the courts we go.
I'm claiming on the brakes, but my Armada has been in the shop easily 10x times for brakes, rattles, seatbelt problems, the seat latch, weird electronic issues, suspension problems, etc. I think I just got a bad one. I love the engine and tranny and I can see (even in my P.O.S.) the idea that Nissan was going for. I bought mine in February of '04, so I have an early build. It's unfortunate that they just didn't execute so well on the early ones. I drove an '05 last week and it was infinitely better than mine. I can't stress enough how much better it was- just unbelievable.
That said, it appears in my limited evaulation that maybe they've finally went where they wanted to go with the 2005 (and maybe even late 2004) builds.
I'll keep y'all posted.
