http://www.beaterreview.com/?p=30

now stop me if youve heard this one

 

lol they got the description of the stock shifter bang-on... "rubbery". stupid locator bushing

but i think what turns me off of saying it's a great beater is:

vg (all) - timing belt and shoddy injectors
vg auto - suicidal transmission
ve - VTCs and premium gas and knock sensor

that's why i think it's a good beater car for those who are somewhat handy with a wrench and can keep up with the maintenance.. but for those who just want to turn the key and drive every day i think 95 maxima is probably gonna be a better beater car. I've had bad luck with the similar-era Camry so don't get one of those.

 

im on my second tranny lol

 

thats Jatco trannies for ya

 

altough mine in my car seems to be fine and the fluid looks good. it does jerk a little between 1st and 2nd gear when cold but once it wamrs up its a champ. Will see though i guess.

 

My VE is a beater until spring when it becomes my project car...but right now it got to do Winter duty while my 02 Max hibernates. The VE is ridiculous I know this because I have driven every generation of Maxima there is.
The 02 is for the girlies, but my VE is for my testosterone...aaaargh!!!!

 

Ya I don't know about beater - the 3rd gen is a pretty costly car to keep on the road. Considering the piping will need to be replaced soon on most, that job alone will send it to the JY.

I will say though that of all the 'normal' people I know that had the 3rd gen in their family, they all say it was thier favourite car, that's now long gone, and they ran them into the ground. In Canada it's mainly the corosion...but from what I hear from people - they always 'remembered the Maxima'.

 

i thought mine made a good beater. i did'nt consider it a beater but i put about 50k on her.
all that needed to be done was waterpump seal. a brake hose (my fault), radiator (my fault again). inner tie-rod (normal wear and tear). a couple injectors.
and i beat on that car.

ve was the same way...cept the 50psi in cylinder 5.
other than that they were nice cars.

oh yea and they're safe!! that 3 stars is bull****.
and according to motor trend it got 4 stars on side and frontal collision on both sides.

 

92 hows the reliability of your Q45 VS 3rd Gen GXE? As far as I know they discontinued it in Canada a number of yrs ago, but I see used ones pop up in the used ads. Are parts dealer only?

 

'93: which pipes are you talking about? mine has over 250k miles on it, and aside from the gas tank vent, and a couple of vac lines, I haven't needed to replace any.

and down here, there isn't rust, unless somebody did something stupid, like left it in a mud hole, or something. (pretty sure the PO on my 91 was stupid, tho.. got rust in the spare well. still not sure the best way to fix that). but nothing like up north (see John's (ColumbianMax) thread about his rust repair.., ugh...)

 

3rd gens arent really beaters here, good condition ones are actually sought after and i think i'm the only one in the whole city that has a modded one, unless someones hiding theirs in their garage. most have been sitting on peoples property and are in the junkyard, and theres a couple i constantly see, a clean white one driven by a old guy and a fair condition one by some early 30's woman. only modded ones ive seen here are a out of Province one with a giant carbon fibre wing and a clean white one at the junkyard with tinted windows and Momo rims (which arent even really mods)

ultimate beaters here are Cavaliers, Civics, Grand Ams, Mustangs, Corolla and Tercel

 

I think it's a decent beater car, especially if you have to haul more than two people (including driver).

All of the 5-speeds are pretty reliable and except for rare occasions, VTCs on the VEs are not going to leave you stranded. My only concern would be a VG auto tranny. Timing belts are normal for almost all import cars, so that shouldn't be a downfall on a VG engine. They are great.

I would think one of the drawbacks might be MPG. Most of these get 20-25 mpg on average and if I really wanted a DD/Beater/work car, I would get a Sentra or a Civic that got 30+. When it comes to mpg, I am still fond of my old 95 200sx that got over 40 mpg on the freeway. AC, PW, PDL, not a bad car, just no real back seat.

 

I have my 92 VE Auto since 3years+ now and i havnt had any major break down yet (hope wont be). I had to replace alty a week ago exactly after 3 years and 2 months and 27 days i think its not a big deal wen u r lazy to put shield cover under the alty and all the dust, water, snow and watnot going in the alty and it still survives 3 years. I replaced the starter i think probably 6 months ago or after 2.5 years thats it. No vtc clack no tranny prob nothing oh and it gives me very gud gas mileage too as being a V6. So i think its the best car to keep and i wanted to make it my project car but since i have found VE5 i m thinkng of changing my mind unless if someone buys my VE5 cuz cant keep so many cars but ya 3rd gen FTW!!!

 

Fuel, Brake, Vent pipe (which I didn't bother to re-connect). It's probably only a rust area thing though, like up here where there's tons of salt to accelerate the rust. I still see ALOT of 3rd gens on the road here in Toronto. At least one per driving trip.

I tried coating my lines with Barimol grease, so let's see if that helps in the spring when I check my new lines.

 

rust is a b1tch, my 3rd gen had bad wheel well rust. theres no words to express my FKING HAX0R hate of the mud guard thingies that come on 3rd gens. my 3rd gens wheel well rust started because of those things, drivers side front fender had a huge patch of surface rust, rear drivers had internal eaten through parts, passenger front only had a bit of surface, passenger rear had nasty eaten through crap allover that required new metal to be made up

the bottom corners of where the rear passenger doors are were bad like most 3rd gens too, spend most of last June and half of July fixing it all. one of the worst things to fix, those of you who live where you dont get rust be thankful.

 

Someone find be a better cheaper 3L V6 4DSC and I'll consider it a beater. (I love the 3rd gen commericals)

 

toyota camry 4cyl is non-interference. belt breaks, oh well, put a new one on and the motor is unharmed. on a vg, belt breaks, it dies. and most people looking for beaters don't want to have to screw with stuff like that.. or they'll do the belt but reuse the old tensioner which will seize and throw the belt as well.

 

True - if it's a beater no way will most pay for the belt job. Mechanics quote quite high for the VG belt change. Usually they'll insist on doing the water pump too.

 

the only one i can find is the dream in italy one?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7_Vw...CA42E5&index=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_HO0...A42E5&index=34

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDxWn...eature=related

 

I love my Maximas... they dont hold their value like the Accord and Camrys do but they sure beat them in just every category, in fact I dont think those two were even Nissan's targeted competition. The MPGs arent that much lower from those two and it has far more torque.

caped, don't even get me started with those POS camrys, I just may burst a blood vessel. I'm already missing a chunk from my hand as it is lol

These cars are very easy to get cheap from people that dont know anything about cars. Car could have a misfire which is very common and just low ball the crap out of the seller I'm sorry, they're not cars; they're Maximas.

So far I'm rocking my 1993 Maxima GXE & my 1995 GXE, my gf owns a 1989 SE (which her dad currently uses) and she will be driving my 1997 SE which I picked up with a hydro-locked engine last year.

Everyone thinks its cute that we each have a 3rd gen and a 4th gen. Now that's love!

 

lmao ive seen all of them before but i still love the 180 at the end of the 3rd commercial

 

Lmao i was thinking the same thing when i saw those commercials I am envious tho of how clean and straight those brand new maximas were..

 

i love old commercials too, new ones are ****. now they just rip on how theyre better than other companies (Kia especially is bad for that even though i know they will ALWAYS suck) and have their car swiveling on a platform or something. Z31, Maxima, and especially Skyline commercials will always be the best. Search Japanese Skyline commercials and you'll see what i mean

 

i like the "Major Motion!" ones

 

Omg, I love that commercial.

I think the 3rd gens are some of the most reliable cars ever made. Minus the crappy VG autotragic.

 

That R34 one will always be my favorite, but i like R32 Skyline the best. this commercials kinda cheesy but hell it was 20 years ago and far better than todays commercials

 

Do you all have 4 door R34s in Canada? I been wanting to get one.

 

Holy crap that was weird

Theres no more excitement in todays commercials.

 

we cant get R34 yet because of the 15 year rule, in 2013 they will be available for import. there is a 4dr model though. Most people here have GTR R32, but some have 2dr GTS-T and 4dr GTS-T. ive seen some R33 and very few R31

what i want is a 4dr GTS-T with a RB26DETT swap from a GTR, theres one for sale here for fairly cheap with low mileage. i'm just used to driving a 4dr and prefer the RWD of GTS-T as opposed to AWD GT-R

http://edmonton.kijiji.ca/c-cars-veh...AdIdZ174388617

and theres always cheap GTS-T floating around

http://edmonton.kijiji.ca/c-cars-veh...AdIdZ162803210

R33 GTS-T

http://edmonton.kijiji.ca/c-cars-veh...AdIdZ172890791

the big boys

http://edmonton.kijiji.ca/c-cars-veh...AdIdZ171902201

my cousins friend has a GTR that looks exactly the same as the one above, he blew the engine from taking out the AWD fuse and doing a huge RWD burnout. he should be done rebuilding the engine by now. what sucks is he was going to take me in it and haul @ss but there went the engine lol

 

You can stop drive wheels from turning by simply removing a fuse?

 

Theres hope yet in 4 years. Now I here in order for me to drive it back down here I have to do some work with the emissions.

Then again I can buy there with a simple disability trailer here since it won't run and fix the disability once I reach home. From my garage I can alter to US admissions.

 

for some reason the 4 door R34 looks better to me.


Anyways back to the thread.

 

yep, just pull a fuse pretty much. not sure if its really good for it but alot of people do it

 

Sweet, Im gonna go try that on my 330xi right now!

 

sweet, put it up on youtube!

 

"how to disable your AWD system in New York in December - NEW on YouTUBE!"

 

lmao not the best thing to do with a AWD car in winter

i used to know but i think the R32 was the only Skyline that you could do the fuse removal with

 

Psh, for some reason I always felt more stable with my 3rd gen in the snow, and my tires were in worse condition. I think that every steering and suspension component is so worn on the 330, that the slightest imperfection in the road causes massive wheel pull.

 

fk i saw a JDM 1st gen Toyota Aristo this morning, almost jizzed on the spot. those things are gorgeous 4dr JDM RWD goodness