I called my local Nissan dealer (Motorline in Reading) and was told that it would need re-gassing, and that Nissan recommended re-gassing every 2 years. Anyway, they quoted me £70, and it's due to go in tomorrow morning. Motorline called me earlier today to confirm my appointment for tomorrow, and stated that they had mis-quoted me, it's actually £200!....so basically £100per year just to keep the AC going (more than I pay for Netflix).
The service engineer on the phone said that the re-gassing was not covered under the warranty, and neither would a stone chipped compressor (which I've read about on these forums), although he did say that a split pipe would be covered. My local (non-Nissan) garage has quoted me £35 for re-gassing, but they need to see the car first to ensure that what they use is compatible.
In the meantime, as I knew this was going to be an issue, I emailed Nissan directly, and the emails are still going back and forth (they seem to require a lot of details before you can get any info out of them), I'm hoping they can give me some better answers regarding what's covered and what's not.
But here are my thoughts so far:
- Re-gassing every 2 yrs is ridiculous
- £200 for re-gassing is redonkulous i.e. worse than ridiculous
- This "stone-chip" issue seems like a design issue to me, and should be covered
- I'm starting to think I should have stuck with Ford