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Sedans Infiniti Q45 Infiniti Q45
965 messages, Last post on Nov 10, 2009 at 8:39 PM
You are in the Infiniti Q45 Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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I am hoping someone can look at this letter (hopefully most of it makes it through truncation) and let me know if they can think of alternatives. This is addressed to the Vice President for the Infiniti Division. Non-public names and prices have been masked. Dear Mr. McNabb: I am writing to you in hopes that you can find some solution to a serious issue with my almost-15 month old 2002 Infiniti Q45. My 2002 Q45's problem is the lack of a promised integrated cellular telephone that Infiniti was marketing as an available Q45 upgrade for over a year and was included as a "we owe" provision in my purchase contract. As I'm sure you know, the integrated telephone was supposed work with the 2002 Q45's voice recognition system and built-in LCD monitor. Mr. ZZZZZZ, of the Infiniti Division, had been working with me on this issue since May 2002 until he left his present position. I have to say how impressed I was with Mr. ZZZZZZ and his attempts to handle this situation, even if all the attempts were unsuccessful. He is certainly a credit to Nissan North America. I am now working Ms. YYYYYY who seems very willing to help. Unfortunately, no one has yet come up with any solution that is acceptable to the Infiniti Division and my dealer, West Houston Infiniti. My recollection is that I'm the only one, so far, to offer any suggestions about how to solve this problem. When I purchased the 2002 Q45 I had every intention of buying the integrated telephone since I had previously owned a car with an integrated telephone. The 2002 Q45 met all of my specifications for a new car once I was told that the integrated telephone could be added later. Therefore I was one of your early purchasers of the "new Q". I am regretting that decision more and more with each day. When Infiniti Division decided to withdraw the 2002 Q45's integrated telephone before it was released, Mr. ZZZZZZ and I began to discuss ways to solve my contractual problem. As I mentioned earlier, I had a written promise of an integrated telephone. We came up with many ideas on how to provide an integrated telephone solution for the 2002 Q45 or an equivalent "value add" to my present Q45. All of those solutions were either not technically possible or rejected by Infiniti/Nissan engineering. In the end, Mr. ZZZZZZ was unable to come up with any concrete offer concerning my present 2002 Q45. The only solution any of us could come up with was to have me purchase a 2003 Q45, when they become available, with the hope that a Wingcast-enabled integrated telephone would be offered in the new model year. While I am not willing to "reward" the Infiniti Division by buying another Q45 at full price, I was willing to contribute $S,000 towards the new purchase and my present 2002 Q45 as a trade-in. Mr. ZZZZZZ sent me a letter stating that the Infiniti Division was willing to add a $T,000 factory rebate towards the purchase price, bringing the total cash offer to $UU,000. Obviously, a 2003 Q45 solution would not work without the help of the dealer, West Houston Infiniti. When Mr. ZZZZZZ sent the factory rebate offer letter to me, I sent a registered letter to West Houston Infiniti's general manager and a copy to West Houston Infiniti's owner. I have attached another copy of the registered letter I sent to West Houston Infiniti on June 26, 2002, which was received by them on June 28, 2002. The background and dates for the integrated telephone problem are included in the copy of that letter, so I will not repeat them in this correspondence. I had hoped the letter would lead towards a settlement of our contractual problem. However, West Houston never responded directly to me. When they did respond, it was through Ms. YYYYYY, verbally. Today's letter was prompted when I learned, through Ms. YYYYYY, that West Houston Infiniti would like me to wait a few more months before they will decide if they are willing to help. That was equivalent to saying "no" to my offer and very disappointing. It is interesting that West Houston Infiniti would not help since their general manager has already verbally told me they cannot meet the conditions of the purchase contract, due to the Infiniti Division's breaking of your agreement with West Houston Infiniti to provide the integrated telephone. I can't count the number of times before April 2002 that West Houston Infiniti personnel told me not to worry about the integrated phone since it would be available soon. I want to emphasize that had I known that the Q45's integrated telephone was "vaporware", I would have certainly held-off on my Q45 purchase, if not purchased a Lexus LS430 instead (for which I had already placed a down-payment). My previous automobile, a 1997 Oldsmobile Aurora, was still in good to excellent shape and could have easily continued to function well until the latter part of 2001 and into 2002. As far as I'm concerned, Infiniti has the right to not offer a product or to spend development money on next year's car model instead of the previous year's commitments. I would then expect the Infiniti Division to settle any problems that are caused by that decision. I am really surprised to found out how poorly a luxury car company like the Infiniti Division and its dealer, West Houston Infiniti, have performed in finding a solution to this issue. Other luxury car manufacturers have integrated telephones, so I really can't understand why the Infiniti Division has had such a problem with a relatively simple data interface problem. While designing a computer interface takes a lot of time and development money, most of the time is spent designing the interface protocol and timing functions. In the case of the 2002 Q45, I was under the impression from what I read that most of this work had been already completed (see attached press releases). While you are attempting to find a solution within the Infiniti Division to this contractual problem, I'll try to find some helpful on-line sites to see how other luxury car owners have handled similar situations, if there are any. Hopefully between your work and my public investigations someone can come up with a plan to resolve this issue while I still want to be an Infiniti customer. Your dealer, West Houston Infiniti, may have boxed me into mediation and arbitration as my next step if you cannot find a solution. The bottom line is that I want what I was promised - a luxury automobile with an integrated telephone. At this point, I also would like to no longer do business with West Houston Infiniti. In addition to their rude lack of response, the last service on my 2002 Q45 only fixed 50% of the request repairs and was a day late. I hope this situation is not typical of the way your other customers are treated. I look forward to your reply. Please feel free to contact me at any time. With each day that passes, my "frustration leve |
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| ....how do you like the car? | |
Is that under the "besides that Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?" category?  There are things I like and some I don't but I'd prefer to wait until I settle my 15-month problem before elaborating further. Obviously my opinion of my dealership is something I really shouldn't comment on at this time. |
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The intergrated telephone was gonna be a part of the Wingcast Telematics package, it was gonna be standard feature on all 2003 Infinitis and all 2002 could gonna be retro-fitted with it. The company that was gonna do this for Nissan was Wingcast. Wingcast was created by Qualcomm and Ford but on June 3, 2002 they decided to close shop with it. This left Nissan without the option of providing the telematics package: phone, Internet, entertainment, navigation and safety services. So this is why you don't have the integrated telephone. I think Nissan might now go with GM's onStar service. |
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The pieces to the puzzle seem to be a bit more complicated than just the Wingcast debacle. Check the Cellport Systems web site at : http://www.cellport.com/ Unfortunately, there is no non-frames environment, so you'll have to select "News Room" and then "Press Releases".
If you check under October 15, 2001 you should find a very interesting press release, including comments from Infiniti. There is also an April 16, 2002 press release on their list that explains how Cellport Systems is divesting themselves from the auto business. There is also a piece to this, in early to mid 2001 that involves another major manufacturer. |
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Hello, What's the lowest drive away price anyone has paid (or knows about) for the fully loaded '02 Q (i.e. with the rear view camera, 18" wheels, sport suspension, etc.). Sticker was $60.xK as I recall. A price like 50-51K for this car would be a steal compared with, say, a 46K 530i. Thanks! |
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| Just purchased 2002 Q45 without a lot of extras for $47,000. Traded in a Lexus LS400. Couldn't see spending extra $8000+ for new LS430. Would have wanted the ride to be more "Lexus like". Maybe it's partially a function of the 17 inch tires vs the 16 inch on the LS430. Like the car very much with the exception of the annoying hesitation on initial acceleration. Service replaced the accelerator pedal..didn't help. Infiniti informed me they have a new "fix" just issued this month to eliminate the hesitation...ITB 02-040. If you're looking for a possible solution ask your service department to perform the above "fix". | |
| As of August 6, 2002, Cellport Systems and the Infiniti Division of Nissan North America are discussing how to proceed with the integrated cellphone issue. No decision on whether an integrated phone will be available to 2002 Q45 customers has been made. Once there is something more concrete I will append here. | |
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Today (8/8/02), I received an update from the represpresentative of the Infiniti Division who has been handling the customer side of the integrated cellphone issue for the 2002 Q45. The update provided was that Infiniti has decided that there is *no* option to provide an integrated cellphone for the 2002 Q45. No alternative solutions were provided and my dealer has been notified by the Infiniti Division of this decision. Should their decision change, I will be notified by the Infiniti Division. My last conversation with Cellport Systems, who made prototype units for Infiniti was on Tuesday (8/6/02). I was told by Cellport that they were ready to manufacture production units once Infiniti gave the go-ahead. Their prototypes adapters, besides responding to the expected Q45 voice commands, even put the Caller ID on the LCD monitor. Sorry to keep this append strickly to the facts, but that is probably best at this point. Andy |
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In my opinion the reason that Infinity doesn't sell well here is the company itself. I've owned one, had a terrible experience (although the dealer was very good) with Infinity and their parent company NISSAN Motors. As witnessed by the posts found herein the company could care less what the buyers needs and desires are (witness the discussion thread about integrated cell phones - hey NISSAN this is 2002, even entry level luxury cars from almost everyone has them!). This is probably because the company is so disconnected from the foreign markets that they sell into. Unlike Nissans domestic car division Infiniti local management has no voice or control over the local markets. That's why Infiniti is infinitely behind Mercedes, BMW, Lexus and even Jaguar in luxury car sales in America. I'll bet that Huyundi will beat out Infiniti in the US luxury car segment in a few years (they only need a car to do it). Did I mention that Infiniti is a poor investment? Or did I mention that they are the worst car manufacturer I've ever dealt with (I've bought and owned more than 72 cars in 30 years)! Did I mention that they suck? Based on the post from ALK3997 and his integrated cellphone experience it looks like these aren't isolated incidents. I bought my wifes' car (J30) on the east coast. Hey ALK3997 get an ambulance chasing attorney to represent you. What you have experienced sounds like something that is called fraud. The legal remedy provides for triple indemnification (3x) in the event of civil court conviction. When you consider loss of consortium, inherent design flaws and other losses you can probably make money (or at the very least have the entire purchase price refunded) on your car. Good riddance to Infiniti. We'll be Infinitily better off as a result. |
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