Thousands of Nissan Maxima owners were in the dark about the car’s easy-to-steal headlights because the company kept a tight lid on the problem, three New York men are charging in a new class-action lawsuit.
“They sold a car with a defective part and didn’t tell anybody about it,” said Seth Lesser, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “And it has caused a lot of anguish and loss to their car owners.”
The complaint, filed in Queens Supreme Court last week by men from Long Island, Queens and Manhattan, is the first action by Maxima owners in New York.
It follows a similar suit brought by the New Jersey attorney general against Nissan in early March.
The latest suit alleges that the automaker knew the headlights on 2002 and 2003 Maximas could be ripped off in under a minute using an ordinary screwdriver.
The plaintiffs say the company didn’t tell the car owners or their insurance carriers, who were left to foot the bill – as much as $6,000 in one case – for replacing the lamps.
Nissan did offer customers free “securing devices” last November.
John Schilling, a spokesman for Nissan North America, said the company could not comment on pending litigation.
But he said the automaker had undertaken several steps to combat the problem, including making the headlights easier to trace if stolen.