my neighbor has a 95 GXE max, 145K, his wife drove it, white/tan leather, im thinkin i can get it less than 3000$, he said it never had any problems, except for a TSB with some belt or pulley, i have seen the car for the last 9 years and i dont think it has even been in an accident, i'd get it as a good "beater" i just sold my I30 and am having withdrawl affects, the accord i bought to make money on so dont make fun bec if you could make 1500 on cars you bought from an auction you'd do it tooo THANKS!!!

 

A ten year old max with no problems ever? Thats a lie.

 

well he did have to put tires and brakes on it a few times?! i said it was wife driven and she is a pansie

 

A 95 Max with those many miles, I'll tell you what to expect because I went thru the same things. Although my maxima never broke down on me, checking my car constantly thru routine maintenance made me aware of what's going to go pretty soon.

Here are a few things to look out for and ask the guy:

1) plug O ring and valve cover gaskets - you can tell by either checking around the valve cover areas for sweats or leaks or you can pull the plugs and check to see if there's oil getting to them.

2) CV and rack & pinion boots - with that many miles, those boots are old, worn, and brittle. They will go anytime soon.

3) various key sensors - check for codes from the ecu, especially the 0304 knock sensor ghost code. O2 sensors can be very expensive to replace, there are 3 of them.

4) various transmission issues - clutch, t/o bearings, etc. Check the transmission fluid. There's no dipstick on manual transmissions. You have to undo the fill plug and put your finger in there to see the color of the transmission fluid and smell. If there is a burnt smell, something is up with the tranny.

5) EGR - a lot of orgers here have various EGR issues, ie: bad valve, control solenoids, etc. Check the forum stickies.

6) struts - those things are probably shot already.

7) spark plug coils - another expensive item, check the ECU for misfire codes

There's a lot more to look out for I'm sure some will add to the list. This is a 10 year old car, I have a 95 SE 5-speed myself. These things are wear and tear parts and at 10 years, a lot of things are worn out. Unless the car is garaged most of the time. Just the repairs above can add at least a grand to the selling price of this car but you'll have a lot of headaches if you go this route unless you are very familiar with Maximas and you have been reading the stickies and how-to threads. But then again there's the factor of being mechanically incline.

 

Mines got 234,000 KM's its a 1994 and still going hard

No majors, just your typical expected items like CV boots etc

 

GXe's dont come with leather so it ight be aftermarket leather in there.

 

Dr. MAx, thanks a lot for the info, very informative. I had an I30, so i know the car pretty well, btw its an Automatic. I'll check it out myself with a fine tooth comb, i know he was very good on maintence, and he'd do what the dealer said. I'll pull the plugs, and ghost codes, and check under the car. my I30 had similar issues, rack and pinion boots. but never made any noise, are those crucial? and the car was garaged every night

 

Unless they had it from the factory put in?
i have a 95 gxe, but it has 56k, just changed the Axels everything else is kosher!

 

I would say it is crucial. Why? Check out this thread, it happened while I was out of town on spring break. Good thing my buddy, who lives out there, was around and I was able to do the repairs inside his garage. I had to rent a gear puller to remove the tie rods.

 

damn well that does explain that thud sound i would hear from time to time, son of a , expensive parts?

 

I caught mine kinda early. When I got the boots out, I noticed some brown spots on the balljoint end of the left tie rod. I cleaned it up and put a lot of gear grease (that red smelly stuff by Valvoline - good stuff) in there. Also if you keep driving with torn boots, road debri can get in the passenger side of the steering rack. That's where pinion rotates on the rack when you turn the steering wheel. If debris get in there, eventually the system will fail and you will need a new rack and pinion system. They are expensive and a major PITA to replace. I looked in there to see what needs to be done if you have to replace it. It's not pretty. The boots cost $13 per side. It's a small invenstment towards saving yourself from major repair bills later on.

I woudn't have caught this had I not been checking my car regularly.

 

No problems? are the hood struts are still doing their job? lol

 

Mine has been telling me that its about to go but I have a pair of small vice grips on hand and ready to spring into action once they do go.

 

Is it the year of the car that causes more problems or is it the high mileage independent of the year? I just got my 99 with 102 k (NJ highway miles on 1 owner serviced by Nissan) and it seems to be running prefectly. Is there anything I should look out for or can prevent?

 

I used the vice grips for about 6 months until I bought some Strong Arm struts for $20 a piece....I figured out mine where blown, when my hood slammed down on my wrist and broke it!

 

If he can get the car for less than $3000 and only has to put a $1000 into it, what's wrong with that. It sounds like the car, garage kept and maintained routinely, just needs some routine replacement parts at 145K and will run for years thereafter.

 

GXe's dont come with leather so it ight be aftermarket leather in there. - Kevin

GXE didn't come with leather standard, but it most certainly can be official Nissan leather seats. Have your never heard of options? It's not like you CAN'T get leather seats on a GXE, it's just an option.

My old 94 GXE had leather seats, climate control and power moonroof, seats (both), windows and just about everything else because my father ordered it that way. That car ran perfect for 125,000+ miles with no problems except oil/fluid/plugs/belts etc. changes. Maxima's are great cars if they're treated right. The trans didn't go out until after 150,000.

I say go for it on the attempted purchase. You don't get many opportunities to buy a car that you know the history on for it's whole life span, especially if you can get it for less than 3 grand.

 

I have a 96 with 144k and mine are still great. Only things ive had to replace was starter, alternator, and front axles. Also the o2 sensors but the dealership replaced them for free since my car had a recall on them. Other than that everything still works like a charm.

 

I think It's a good buy for a beater. I dont think your neighboor would try to screw you since your so close to each other.

 

Ouch! The hood on mine will only come down during very cold mornings. It doesn't do that when its warm out. But I know its going to go sooner or later. It had slammed down onto my head a few times but the under-hood padding saved me each time.

 

hood ***** are a very cheap and worth while investment....35$ for the pair, easy to install

 

I can get me a K&N filter for that price.

 

love that sound!