To give you the overview: My Qashqai is three and half years old, so only 6 months out of warranty. Full service history with a Nissan dealership. last service only 6 months ago, and has done approx 42k miles.

About two weeks ago, an engine warning light came on (the oil pressure one - and yes you can probably tell, I'm no mechanic!). Rang the dealership, drove it up to them (making one hell of a racket and limped there). And there it stays with no work undertaken so far.

The dealership needs to strip down the engine to work out what has actually gone wrong, but says it is either the short block (will cost circa £5k) or a full block (wiil cost circa £8k). As you'll appreciate neither of these options are particularly attractive (considering the car is now worth £8-9k). The dealership aren't prepared to help me out given just out of warranty, so now in the hands of Nissan Customer services.

I had a number of protracted conversations with them and now been escalated to their management. In a nut shell, they will as a maximum put 40% towards this, but only once a diagnostic is undertaken (ie an engine strip down) which is £460 which I have to fully fund, and if at the end of that we don't agree on what happens next, it gets reassembled for another £460 at my expense.

My biggest worry / concern that I would like advice from others on is - as it seems something seriously mechanical has failed with the car, outside of my control, on a relatively young, looked after car - shouldn't Nissan be doing more? Economically, I don't think I can put more than £2k to this otherwise I may as well walk away - but I really dont want to as loved this car.