all i can say is wow......this car may have TONS more mileage than i thought... just did a carfax and it has odometer fraud......been in accident....i am the 5th owner......man this sucks.....and another thing that boggles my mind is that the motor doesnt have the vin # on it....there is a yellowish marker written on it......does this mean it is a salvage motor?????

 

Yeah every junkyard marks their stuff in yellow marker usually or at least the three I've been to do.

 

it's not like your car was worth a lot, anyway.

most 3rd gens are worth a couple of thousand bucks. You should feel lucky that you have a newer motor. It might even be a JDM, which would suggest the engine has lower miles than the chassis.

At the point most of our cars are at, a thorough visual inspection is going to do more good than a CarFax.

 

Mine has a odometer warning. That a owner reported that it wasn't right. So I took it and matched it against my trucks... hit mile for mile exactly

 

A Carfax is worthless. they can only catch what they are told.
check these out: http://internetautomart.com/gallery/album01
that car has a clear carfax, and that's it's second accident on the same side.

as chris pointed out , a visual inspection will tell you much more than a carfax ever will

 

or my car may have over 200k on it......

 

jo0 got pwn3d!!!

 

How can you call a carfax worthless? It CAN and WILL catch things that someone may or may not be able to see. Don't discount it because you have the tech know how to catch something that your mother wouldn't see.

 

What really matters is how long you've had the car, what you've done to it, and how you maintain it.

 

carfax only knows what its told and alot of things aren't told to it.

if you're going to buy a car you'd be a fool not to have it inspected by someone who knows what to look for.

Carfax is for suckers who would rather blow $25 on carfax rather than $50 for a professional inspection

 

i got a free carfax!!!!!!!!

 

Hey where'd you get that free carfax? I need to run one if its free...I got my car on 9-17 and it'd be nice to run the history on it

 

I am still agreeing with internetautomart. A visual and mechanical inspection means way more than a carfax. A carfax can be helpful, especially with newer cars, but our cars are so old at this point that it is virtually worthless.

My car comes up totally clean on carfax and it has been in two wrecks I know of and it also has a newer (JDM) engine. I would still take my car in a second over 90 percent of the 3rd gens out there, even if mine had no mods.

Go ahead and look my car over as close as you want. It is immaculate inside and out. The only thing you can find is a little bit of paint overspray in the trunk area when you take out the carpeting. If you look closely, the front grill was repainted without the black and no red in the emblem.

 

Ageed....My car was involved in a accident over the summer at a yard sale i was helping a friend out with...The friends father-in-law pulled up in his new $250,000 rv and took out my driver door,tire,fender,front clip...The whole affair was settled that day with a handshake and a check from him for my damages...No ,no report.....A lot of accidents are settled this way....

Do not trust carfax....

 

both valid points...

carfax can show things like rolled back odometers, number of owners, major accidents reported, commercial use, etc..

but on a car this old, most of that stuff is insignificant UNLESS someone is trying to sell a 'low mileage' car for a premium price. that's where carfax comes into play and an inspector may not find evidence. you can roll these odos back with zero visible damage, and if the engine bay is clean and the car looks in decent shape, nobody will be able to tell. that's where carfax is good.

You can also trace down cars with laundered titles... (registered in, say illinois all its life, then suddenly goes to florida for short time( usually a couple months or a year), then goes back to illinois or somewhere else across the country for sale. that's classic signs of a washed title, because you can title a totalled or flooded car through florida with no markings on the title. register it in yet another state and the car looks perfectly clean.... UNTIL you check the carfax data.


you would be a fool to spend $10+ grand on a car that you didn't look at both carfax and a good mechanic.. but for a 12+ yr old Maxima that's worth $3-4k at most, then your best bet is to not look at mileage and go purely on condition and a good mechanic's report.

 

matt wins with his post! i would have typed that but im lazy.

 

lol I still wanna know if there's any reported accidents, odo rollback, how many owners and if it was a lemon. I already got my car visually inspected by my g/f's father and another mechanic before buying the car, yes they both have been in the business for 30+ years. Just you so you , I agree with most of all you guys but hey if I can get it for free somehow why not check the history (or the recorded history)

 

In this case....having a carfax on a 10+ year old car is near worthless....especially if you already have the car. I guess its worth it if it helps you sleep at night, but otherwise, unless you have something break and want to know why, its a waste of money if you buy a report...


! Go White Sox WOOT WOOT !

 

YEA CAN U TELL WHO GAVE IT TO U!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Yea tell us, where you got he free carfax!!!!!!!!.........PM ME...?

 

there is a sticky in the gen. discussion. there are more forums than 3rd gen!!!

 

I got 204000 miles and its running the same it always has. As long as you keep it lubed up it will be fine. Always change the tranny fluid every 60,000 miles or so. I need to change mine but what ever.

 

no concours no care








actually it's rather funny. I'm going through and organizing all the reciepts on the Durango right now. Having one of these > * (custom built from the factory )
http://s92599732.onlinehome.us/image...ngosticker.jpg

 

Don't tell me you bought a Durango, Shawn.

 

My Dad, almost 8 years ago now

but if he ever decides to sell it I'll buy it just to keep it in the family

 

Carfax just got more important to all of us down south. There will be a lot of flood damage cars for sale from Katrina and Rita.

 

While I'll agree and say that yes, Carfax dosent catch everything, it is a valuable tool for someone hunting for a used car. After my NX was totaled and I was on the hunt for a new / used car, could not afford to get a POS and, due to a smashed hip I couldn't waste time and pain looking at cars I was not more sure of. By spending the 25$ on Carfax, getting a month worth of unlimited use I weeded out literally 40% of cars right off the bat! Salvage titles, Taxi titles, cars that were from a rental agency, cars with flood damage, ect, ect, you get the idea. Sure I did go look at a Mitsu Eclipse that had a clear Carfax, but when I got there the entire pass. side was crushed, but hey I reported that to carfax when I got home. No one else will get a clear carfax of that one. In conclusion---- Carfax, not perfect, but with gas at 3$ a gallon, it's great for weeding out the masses.

 

I used to buy cars from insurance auto auction, and let me tell you, even a lot of dealers (like VW & BMW, that I know for sure, don't ever buy a car from those 2 without mechanics inspection, not in WA anyways) buy wrecked, or otherwise totaled cars, to sell them afterwards. Carfax is helpfull, there is a lot of stuff you can find out about a car, but there is no way they can know everything, specially on the older car, so have a trustworthy mechanic expect it for you. I traded in my SHO, about 9 years ago, for a Conquest in a perfect condition to a dealer. I never bought a car from a dealer before, and never will again. I checked the whole thing with a magnet, plus I had a friend who is a body man with me as well, there was nothing to tell me that the car has been wrecked before. What do you know, about six months later, I get hit in the rear quarter, that's the only way I could tell that the car has been wrecked in the same spot before. I've taken cars that were totalled and fixed, to the State Potrol Inspection before, and they wouldn't believe me that the car has been wrecked, told me it was stolen, or something, almost got arrested. The car can be fixed, so you could never tell it's been wrecked, that;s why you do both, the Carfax, and the mechanic's inspection, preferably, with someone who does both, the mechanical stuff, and the body work. Also, check for things like, paint on the robber trim around windows, that stuff is real hard to mask, and look underneath the carpet in the trunk for the rear end demage. Look at the radiator support, especially farrer down, and check all the gaps, like the hood to the fenders, plus make sure and open all the doors, there could be all kinds of s..t hiding down there. Also, there could be a sticker, once you open the driver's door, right where the manufacturer's tag is at, it would tell you if your odometer has been worked at, or has been replaced. These tags are illigal to remove. If there is something funny with the way your odometer is working, like a niddle that's shaking too much, or something, it could be a sign that somebody f..ked with it as well.Goodluck!

 

Well I guess not only vanskaterfreek got jipped on his car but I just checked my history and guess what!

Good News -- Vehicle qualifies for the CARFAX Buyback Guarantee!

but then I scrolled down and and saw that it failed the emissions test like 4 times Last time tested was May 2005 and it failed. I think I know what that smoke is now..the one I been seeing when I floor it at highway speed.

 

so buy a new cat. it's a freakin 12 year old car!

 

I do not agree with your logic.













buy 2

 

It's hard to put it better than CyMax did! If you are hunting for a car and want to buy a good old one, than bad Carfax is your friend. Good Carfax has no value at all - you still have to go look at the car and if you are not a skilled mechanic, get the second opinion. My Carfax was so funny that I got money back: it told me I was the first owner (of a 7 yo car!).

 

not true i live in florida and have "rebuilt" titles before. if the car has a marked title from another state it will have one here (secondary brand woudl say REBUILT). so even if the car was in a flood or wrecked or whatever and still has a clean title because insurance never got a hold of it any state would issue a clean title. and in florida before you can even get issued a new title and the car was an out of state car they come out with you to do a vin check and if the car is wrecked you would be up ***** creek because they wont register junk. i think it is alabama or kentucky that you can actually take a dirty title there and itll coem out clean.

 

I ran a carfax on my 91 SE after I bought it since carfax was free somehow at the time, i was quite surprised.
The car started out as a lease car, then sold at 38k to the 2nd owner. He/she then sold it at 98k to the person I bought it from, and now I own it since 138k. The best part was that there is no accidents and its carfax certified, like that means anything being 14 years old.

 

Sometimes you can get a clean title by just switching it onto a different persons name. I had it happen to me twice. 1st time it was a car I bought from the Insurance Auto Auction. I took it thru the state potrol inspection etc., etc., and got a rebult title. But when my friend bought the car from me and registered it, his title came clean. And the 2nd time I bought a Corado from California with a Salvage title, when I registered it in Washington State, my title came clean. It doesn't happen every time, though. But useally it does, at least in WA.

 

I forgot to mention, it's been about 7 years since I've dealed with this whole thing, so it might've changed.

 

You see, I would buy a cat but it has a freakin new exhaust.

Are there any other things I can change to fix the emissions?

 

If you bought a new exaust, shouldn't your new exauast have had one? Or did the prev owner test pipe it, then you replaced that whole section y pipe back? If its a standered cat back it wouldnt make a diffrence.

~Alex

 

Try cleaning the egr valve....

 

what part of the test is it failing?