About three months ago my wife and I bought a new 2007 Nissan 350Z. It was our first new car and we were both eager to get it. Since neither of us know cars very well and we had no previous car shopping experience we probably assumed too much, which made us easy targets for hungry car salesmen and financiers. At any rate, the deal is done.

After spending almost $40,000, I expected our new car to be perfect or close to it, but it isn’t. Now that some of the newness has worn off I’m seeing all sorts of defects, predominantly with the body. The fenders and doors have uneven gaps between them; the hood flutters like the wings of a hummingbird at 60MPH or faster, and wind noise in the car is so loud we can hardly hear the radio when driving on the interstate.

The powers that be at the car dealership have told me I’m being too picky. It’s not that they can’t see the trouble when I point it out. Both service advisors that have test driven the Nissan admit the car is far from perfect and they would be unhappy also. But, instead of fixing the car the service manager is telling me that the complaints I have are characteristic of Z cars and there is nothing more under warranty that can be done to make them better.

Since this is a new car and we will probably have to drive it for quite some time, do you have any suggestions that I can use to leverage the dealership to take my complaints seriously and get this car fixed? Better yet, can I make them take it back under the Ohio lemon law? I hate to think car dealerships can blow new car owners off so easily when they have legitimate complaints.

Brandon
Marietta, Ohio

Read answer from Ohio “Super lawyer,” Ron Burdge