Dick Smith Nissan of Columbia - Service Center

My 2002 Nissan Altima, 128K miles, broke down north of Columbia and showed all the signs of a bad head gasket. Not living in the area, I was at the mercy of having it towed and chose the closest Nissan d Columbia and showed all the signs of a bad head gasket. Not living in the area, I was at the mercy of having it towed and chose the closest Nissan dealership, thinking they would have the parts and expertise to fix my car. I explained all my vehicle's extensive preventative maintenance to James at the service center. The service center mechanics ran a compression test and from that alone determined the only fix was to put in a refurbished engine for $5,600 (more than the KBB of the car itself). When I asked them to perform the head gasket maintenance, they told me no. Are their mechanics incapable of doing this work, or are they just in the business of ripping off single women? I didn't appreciate being treated like a car idiot. Since they wouldn't help, I had to hire someone in Charleston to go pick up my car and tow it back...they were willing to replace the gasket as I asked. More

My father in law purchased a 2004 Mazda MPV from Dick Smith. He purchased the extended warranty and it's a good thing he did. The brakes failed and he almost wrecked at high speed on the highway. Luck Smith. He purchased the extended warranty and it's a good thing he did. The brakes failed and he almost wrecked at high speed on the highway. Luckily he's ok and had it towed to Dick Smith Nissan on Two Notch Road to have it repaired due to the warranty. This was New Year's Day. They kept the vehicle for nearly 3 weeks while diagnosing the issue. It was decided to be a master cylinder. They replaced it and then told him that he needed all new brake pads and rotors because his were burned up and there was metal on metal contact. For the low low price of just $880, they would replace them. Luckily I can do that work for him, and we obtained the OEM parts for just under $200. As an aside, the brake pads and rotors were fine, not in need of replacement. The pads were practically brand new and the rotors were pristine. Go figure, a service mechanic fixing things that aren't broken. A week later, the same thing happened on the highway, once again the brakes failed and he was lucky to avoid injury or worse. This was on February 6th. On the 13th, we had it towed back to Dick Smith Nissan. This is where Ryan told us that they were unable to diagnose the problem and would be sending it over to a Mazda dealer. Today, it finally got over to the Mazda dealer. 2 weeks later. We went to speak with Ryan and were given a run around. "We had to diagnose it first before we could send it to Mazda." Well, sure, but you said two weeks ago that you were sending it to Mazda, not that you needed to diagnose it first. There's the second lie. I confronted him on it and he got indignant. "We had to look at it first." he said. "Well you don't know what you're looking at, you admitted as much, why did it take you two weeks to look at it?" It takes time, I was told. We did this for about 5 minutes. Ryan is a poor representative of his company and of the auto-service industry altogether. It's people like this that lead the public to distrust all service professionals. I would not recommend buying a wheelbarrow from this company, let alone a vehicle. They clearly do not have your safety or your best interests at heart. By the way, both times I've visited Ryan at the service center, there were less than two cars in the service bay, with at least three mechanics standing around shooting the breeze. Ryan himself was sitting on a stool, piddling around. I think I know why it took two weeks to look at the van this time. Dick Smith should be ashamed. More

I had previously scheduled for Dick Smith Ford to remove my radio/cd player for me to personally ship it to be repaired to Richmond, VA. Dick Smith Ford did their part in removing and re-installing the radi my radio/cd player for me to personally ship it to be repaired to Richmond, VA. Dick Smith Ford did their part in removing and re-installing the radio without any problems. However, the company that repaired the radio/cd player failed to tell me that they had a bracket on the radio/cd player that needed to be removed before re-installing the unit. Joey Hingle had the person that re-installed the radio to talk with the technician in Richmond that repaired the unit and figured out the problem. This kept me from having to have the radio removed again and ship back to Richmond, VA to correct a minor problem that the repair company in Virginia created. Mr Hingle and the person that re-installed the radio were very kind in helping me resolved a potential problem. Thanks for the great help and having an excellent attitude! I always get great customer service when using Dick Smith Ford, and Pulliam Ford before that. More