Worst Buying Experience Ever

I have purchased approximately 16 vehicles in my lifetime some new, some used. I was looking for a reliable four wheel drive vehicle because we live in a Snow Belt area near Barrie and I am often away for work in the city and wanted my wife to have a reliable vehicle. Initially we were looking at independent dealerships and decided to go to a “reputable” dealership to ensure the vehicle we purchased was reliable.
We went to Alta Nissan Richmond Hill and negotiated and purchased a 2005 Nissan Frontier used October 13, 2011 with 145086 kms on it. This was a parts vehicle for the dealership and we viewed all the service history on it and it looked initially like it would have been well maintained. We were told that the vehicle had one minor accident on the front end with a pylon and it was fixed and seen the documentation regarding it. And that is when our nightmare began. As part of the safety new tires were put on the vehicle however when we went to pick up the vehicle the alignment was never done on the vehicle when the new tires were put on. As most people know if the vehicle is out of alignment new tires will quickly become old. I had to take a sales person on a test drive to convince them the vehicle needed to be aligned; this was before we even left the dealership.
In bringing the vehicle home we noticed a “rumbling” when driving the truck around 60 km hour, and the problem got worse from there. In 2010 Nissan Canada almost a full two years before we purchased this truck issued a Warranty Notification pertaining to the radiator assembly and how it may crack and cause internal leakage of engine coolant and may leak into the transmission. Alta Nissan Richmond Hill would have been made aware of this initially then. When we purchased this vehicle from Alta Nissan we were never notified about this. As it turned out this was exactly what was wrong with the truck right from the start when we purchased from Alta Nissan Richmond Hill. Because our problem got worse we took our vehicle to a local transmission shop as we were never made aware of this warranty issue when we purchased the truck, and it did not make sense to bring back to Nissan because they are more expensive for repairs and I was already disappointed with them regarding the vehicle alignment. Only 9000kms in we brought to an independent technician he told us that there was leakage of engine coolant into the transmission and he flushed out the system several times and re-routed the hoses to prevent further damage. When the radiator assembly cracked it caused coolant to leak into the transmission. Once mixed with the transmission fluid this lethal combination kills the valves, seals and torque converter rendering your entire transmission useless..
After that we still had problems with the transmission and subsequently my wife was stranded on the side of the road two times with this vehicle. The radiator blew at 18000 kms from purchase and we also had to have that replaced as well spending just under $1000.00 at that point into dealing with this warranty notification issue at independent technicians. Because we were never made aware of the Warranty Notification from Nissan Canada. We finally became aware of this issue recently when Nissan Canada mailed out a Warranty Notification regarding this to our home. I contacted Alta Nissan Richmond Hill the following day as three times in the month prior we put our truck into drive and it would only rev and would not go into gear, we had ongoing transmission problems because of the fluid cross contamination. After receiving the letter in the mail we asked Alta Nissan Richmond Hill if they could address the warranty concern. We brought the truck in and they conveyed to me that we would have to pay up to the first $3000.00 dollars because of the kilometers on our vehicle. Even though this was a dealership vehicle for five years and almost a full two years before we purchased from Alta Nissan they are made aware of the issue, and the truck had transmission problems related to this from the time we purchased it, even with regular maintenance done on the vehicle they never addressed the warranty issue at Alta Nissan Richmond Hill. In addition we realized the the vehicle had rear end damage and the tailgate on the truck was replaced from a two wheel drive Nisan Frontier. The 2005 Nissan Frontier should have a 4x4 emblem on the tailgate ours did not and when you look close you can see where the damage occurred. Nissan Canada as well as Alta Nissan Richmond Hill is not willing to make this right, I want to make people aware of Nissan and this dealership and to think twice before purchasing any Nissan Vehicle. Grant Mcquaid