Wanted to share it with everyone so they don't go through what I went
through. (Maybe the rest of you all know this already, but I thought
I'd share.)

I went--ironically and luckily--to a Nissan dealer today to see about an
item for my 2003 Altima and when I got back to the car, I put the key in
the ignition and--nothing. The car wouldn't start. Didn't even try to
turn over. Total silence. The electrical system immediately went on,
so I knew it wasn't a battery problem (and it should have been; I was
parked there a mere ten minutes, so even if I left my headlihts on it
should have made no difference) but the car wouldn't even try to start.

Well, I was sweating bullets already. This car is two weeks old and has
400 miles on it. It should not have any problems, let alone one this
apparent caliber.

I went back to the dealer and told them what happened. They said they'd
be happy to look at it, but I'd have to figure out how to get it from
the curb to the service center--half a block, but might as well be a
thousand miles if it can't start. They suggested I call a towing
service. My insurance will pay for towing, but I don't know who to call
or if they'll pay for *anyone* at all or just certain people. (Hmmm...a
good time to call them and find out.)

Then I persuaded the service manager to come over and take a quick look.
I was parked half a block from the showroom and he agreed, all the
while asking me obvious things: did you have an aftermarket alarm
installed? Are you sure you're not out of gas?

He couldn't start it either at first, and was truly puzzled. Then he
put his foot on the brake, slipped it out of Park and into Neutral, and
voila, it started perfectly.

Turns out the shifter doesn't always click firmly into Park, so you
might think it's in park even when it's not quite locked. The engine
won't start as a safety feature so's you don't fire up the car, slip
into Reverse when you think you're still in Park and rear-end another
car, or worse, a person.

I was so grateful that it was just this minor issue (and felt so lucky
that this happened near a car dealer and not in the middle of nowhere
with no one to ask) that it ddn't occur to me, but now I'm thinking,
What kind of safety feature is it that I can remove the key from the
ignition even though the shifter isn't locked in Park??

I'm pretty sure my old Altima wouldn't have let this happen. Certainly
I never ran into this problem with that car, or any other I've owned,
for that matter.

Any thoughts from others here?



John

--
If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have
integrity, nothing else matters. --Harvey Mackay

Maybe this gate-shifter thing is not such a good idea after all. This did
happen to my 93 altima a lot, I had to make sure its in park or jiggle it a
bit before I left the car since I would use remote start on it and it would
not work at times. I think just make sure you push it all the way up
everytime and if it persists you might need a new shifter. Check the TSB in
altimas.net i think there is one out on this issue.

Rich

P.s. heres the link http://www.altimas.net/tsb/ " 2002-2003 Altima Engine
will not crank in Park, but cranks in Neutral"

MyCoolToast wrote:
Thanks for the link. And pardon my ignorance, but what's a "gate shifter"?



John

--
God gave us the earth. We have dominion over the plants, the animals,
the trees. God said, 'Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It's yours.'
--Ann Coulter

I think a gate shifter is what we call the kind of shifter we have on the
altima 2002-2003. Used to be you had to press a button to switch from park
to drive and it's straight vertical. This feature used to be exlusively on
lux cars awhile back.

Rich

MyCoolToast wrote:
Okay, so why is it (the gate shifter) "better" or more desirable
(presumably they see it that way or it wouldn't have gone from luxury
cars to mainstream cars)? I never had any shifter problems with my old
fashioned "press the button and shift" shifter.



John

--
God gave us the earth. We have dominion over the plants, the animals,
the trees. God said, 'Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It's yours.'
--Ann Coulter

Chuck.K wrote:

Hmmm...I read somewhere the demographics for Altima drivers were
mid-late 30s, male, upwardly mobile, stylish and fairly good income.

Didn't say anything about assholes, however....



John

--
God gave us the earth. We have dominion over the plants, the animals,
the trees. God said, 'Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It's yours.'
--Ann Coulter

"John Grabowski" <jgrab (AT) earthlink (DOT) net> wrote

Chuck.K wrote:
Oh by the way, asshole (and I don't know why I'm answering you twice,
but what the hell) tell me what to do when the valet parks the car and
then can't start it to move it to park other cars? You think he's going
to read the manual? He's going to call a tow truck and sock me with the
bill! You act like it's perfectly normal for a car not to start when
it's in park. I'd like to see it happen to you.



John

--
If you don't hate Clinton and the people who labored to keep him in
office, you don't love your country. --Ann coulter, July 1999

Chuck.K wrote:
Well, I can afford something "nicer" (like a Maxima) and I bought the
Altima. Thought the Max was ugly as shit and not worth all the extra
$$. I don't really need all that "power" when I drive, like 99.9% of
the other people who buy one, in urban areas where there's no way in
hell you can do 0-60 in 6 seconds without totalling your car. And I
liked the Altima more than the competition (Camry, Accord, Taurus
[cough-cough], etc.)



John

--
If you don't hate Clinton and the people who labored to keep him in
office, you don't love your country. --Ann coulter, July 1999

Chuck.K wrote:
Not the one who parked my car last Sunday night.

And the garaga, the NISSAN garage, didn't figure it out either, at least
not initially. When I got home there was a call waiting for me on my
answering machine "We can't start you car!" When I called them back
they admitted they'd figured it out.



John

--
If you don't hate Clinton and the people who labored to keep him in
office, you don't love your country. --Ann coulter, July 1999