North Point Nissan in Little Rock, AR is convenient to my home. So I have always taken my Xterra there for servicing since I moved to Little Rock from Conway, AR about 5 years ago.
I bought my Xterra from Superior Nissan in Conway when I lived there and was very happy with their service department there. The employees in their service department seem very professional and honest.
The service department at North Point are just the opposite. I have too many complaints about them to list here, but my biggest complaint is their dishonesty. My latest example: My Xterra recently began stalling. It seemed as if it were running out of gas, so I changed the fuel pump and filter. When that didn't fix it, I checked the fire by grounding a screwdriver to a plug wire and discovered that at times it was not firing.
Not sure what to try next, I had it towed to North Point for a diagnostic and repair. After checking it out, the service manager called me and said that I needed a battery ($135 installed... He tried to convince me that was a good deal because it was less than the 3 batteries he has on his boat), a distributor ($415 for the part and $385 for labour based on $90/hr... Roughly 4 hrs) and a timing belt (around $500 installed). I explained that the timing belt had not slipped because at times it would run normally, then it would stall. I guess he thought I was an idiot when it comes to mechanics, because he tried to convince me that it could jump in and out of time. I am not a mechanic, but my dad is and I grew up working on cars, and I do know the basics.
Angry, I paid the diagnostic fee of $90 and had it towed back to my home. A friend of mine works with a guy who is trained as a mechanic and does some work on the side. He came to my house, diagnosed my problem (a bad distributor only) and repaired it in less than an hour (not the 4 hours that North Point suggested.
I paid $275 for the distributor at O'Reilly's and he charged $80 to install ($355 total compared to North Point's total of over $1400 for the battery, distributor and timing belt). The old battery on my Xterra that I was told had shorted out and would not take charge is still on my Xterra and still holding charge just fine.
I can tolerate stupidity more than I can dishonesty, but the service department at North Point are both stupid and dishonest.
As I stated earlier, this is just the latest incident that I have experienced with them. It is also the last. I am now driving to Superior Nissan in Conway for my servicing.
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