Steering Column problems of the 1999 Nissan Pathfinder

This is for Nissan Pathfinder voluntary safety recall campaign 1996-2004 Pathfinder in salt states left front strut housing corrosion campaign id # r1107 NHTSA # 11v-224. I dropped in Pathfinder in the dealership at the end of sept. 2011. The dealership told me that the car was unrepairable and leased a car to me. I have not got any information until March 27, 2012. Dealership called me said that car was fixed. Dealer told me that they did not think it was repairable, but Nissan wanted them to repair. Based on NHTSA safe recall compendium (a guide for the reporting, notification, and remedy of motor vehicle and motor vehicle equipment in accordance with title 49 of the united states code, chapter 301 and supporting federal regulations) prepared by the recall management division office of defects investigation national highway traffic safety administration u. S. Department of transportation, under ii recall remedy (page 10) that if the repair period exceed 60 days, manufacturer needs to replace the item with an identical or reasonably equivalent item or for a vehicle, refund its purchase price less a reasonable amount for depreciation. But now Nissan does not follow this rule and asked me to take the car back. I don't know which department will take care that Nissan is against the NHTSA rule?.

Our 1999 1/2 Nissan Pathfinder's steering column separated from the wheels causing the vehicle to crash into a curbing. We had the car towed to our mechanic and they did a temporary fix but stated that the vehicle was so rusted out on the driver side that it needed to be welded back together with a piece of sheet metal. We spoke to three different sheet metal shops and all said that they would not do it because of safety concerns. We believe this problem occurred due to excessive corrosion on the driver's side strut tower and led to our loosing our steering. This occurred in July 2009, at that time, we knew nothing of a recall involving this problem, I called Nissan and they said there was nothing they could do and there were no recalls. Due to the fact that the vehicle could not be repaired, we had to junk it. The car was only 10 years old at the time and always maintained. I feel we should get some reimbursement as the car should have been worth something, however, if the steering column is no longer attached and corrosion is so bad, we could not sell this vehicle to anyone. We would like some type of reimbursement.