I have a 2004 Maxima SL (about 63,000 miles), with basically all options
except the moonroof.  Last week I found that when I tried to move the
driver's power seat forward, it moved on the right side, but not on the
left.  I couldn't see anything mechanical obstructing it.  I brought it into
the Nissan dealer, and they said they had seen problem with some cable or
something not feeding power to one of the motors on both Maximas and
Pathfinders.

They checked my vehicle, and this is what they found.  Unfortunately, they
explained to me that they had no way to replace just that cable, and so I
had to buy a complete "seat slide/motor kit" (PN 87451-5Z50A 427.86).  This
was going to cost over $400!!  And with the labor, tax, etc., the total bill
would come to well over $600!!

This seat problem was discovered the day I returned home after having
another repair with very disproportionate cost.  The turn signals and
headlights weren't working intermittently.  The repair required a $221
"Controller Unit" (PN 284B7-7Y02A).  I authorized this, and after
installation, they said they also needed to replace the "Switch Assembly"
(PN 25540-AM620), for an additional $99.96.  So it cost me $426 for a couple
of electronic glitches, which was infuriating enough.

I was outraged, as you might imagine, and asked him to do nothing yet about
the power seat problem.  I called Nissan Customer Service, and explained the
situation.  I explained all of this, indicating that I had been happily
using Nissan vehicles continuously since 1990 (had a 300ZX Twin Turbo for
quite a while!), and was generally pretty happy with their reliability, with
repairs being at a reasonable cost when necessary.  But the cost to fix a
couple of minor (to me) electrical functions, at over $1000 was simply
outrageous.  They basically refused to do anything about it, and didn't seem
to care when I indicated that this would likely be my last Nissan vehicle,
if this is the type of reliability and repair cost I can expect from Nissan.

Obviously, I needed to vent somewhat, but I'm also looking for any practical
suggestions about how I might get a cost-effective fix for the power seat
problem.  Any help appreciated.