Hey, guys, this is my first post on the forum, and I was wondering if you could possibly help me out.
I'm thinking of buying a 95 Maxima SE, with the standard transmission. Only problem is that it has an insane 192,000 miles on it. Now I know the engines are reliable, and I assume the trans is the same, but with 192K on it, SOMETHING has to be going wrong. Could somebody give me a heads up as to what to look for when I go to (possibly) buy this car, or are there too many miles on it?
For $3995.00 it seems like a steal, even with the miles, it's fully loaded, factory Bose, w/ Black on Black leather..mm mm, tempting, especially I'm going from a 93 Ford Taurus (blech!), and even if I have to (pay to) rebuild the engine, I've found rebuilt motors for a decent price.
Well, that was a helluva post, so if anyone actually bothered to read it , I'd appreciate some feedback.
Thanks, all,

Zack

 

Pay a bit more for less worries about engine rebuild. I'm sure you can find a 95 max with only like 80k for about 5000 salvage perhaps.. i dunno.. just my opinion

 

get the max you wont regret it
ive got a 96 max se with 132 000 runs prefect no noise fully loaded havent had anyproblems bought it with 128

 

You say pay a bit more for less engine worries, and then suggest buying a salvage title? Heh...

I think if you're looking to spend $4000-$5000 on a maxi, that its really not going to get very much newer/low mileage than the one above. At that mileage, you have to take into consideration other things than the engine/transmission. Basically, all the little things, and all the "medium" things. If you were seriously interested in it, I'd definitely get an inspection done on it by an independent mechanic before going any further.

 

i agree with gtr. thats too many miles man. if you really have to get it make him a stinking offer and save money for repairs or something. he prob wants to get rid of it bad and if he goes to a used car dealer he wont get much anyway.

 

That is a hell of lot of miles, but unless the car had been used as a taxi or courier service (easy to check at carfax.com), it has to be almost all highway miles, which are very easy on the drivetrain. And as you pointed out, MaxSpeedFreak could probably get away with paying a lot less than the asking price. I just bought my '96 GXE automatic w/78K miles for less than $8K, so $4K seems pretty steep for a car with almost 200K miles.

 

I bought my 95 SE 7 months ago, with 178k miles, and aside from minor repairs and routine maintenance, I have had no problems whatsoever. get it checked out by a good mechanic and get it unless it burns oil or has poor compression. You will NOT be disappointed. Mine burns no oil, and I drive it like I stole it everyday, she loves it and it never so much as flinches. If it were an auto, it would be another story, but the 5 spd is good to go. Buy this one, and save the $$$ you save for mods and maintenance, Just my $.02, hope it helps.

Lee

 

I have a '95 and it has 71K on it. But 4K is a little bit too much for that car. That is just way too many miles. Just thought i'd give my opinion.

 

In this case, I have an advantage of knowing this guy with the body shop so I know I can trust him on salvage titled cars.

I agree about buying a salvage title car under certain circumstances. I know a guy with a body shop that buys cars that are both blue or clean title and salvage titles. He particularly likes to buy salvage because they go for a lot cheaper even with the same amount of damage as a clean title. I bought my Max from him but it was a bank repo so it is clean, no damage. He just sold an salvage title 97 I30t(auto)-44K to a friend for $9100 (clean retails for $16K-17K). I saw it before it was fixed and it only needed new hood, driver fender, front bumper(stuff under it too) and radiator. Salvage titled cars can be ok if fixed correctly.

Where do yo live? Maybe my buddy can hook you up.

 

I thought salvage titles issued from damage meant the costs to repair the car were greater than what the car booked at, and that the only other circumstance a salvage was issued was for theft (under certain stipulations)?

 

That's what I thought too. I went along with my friend to an auction about 6 months ago and saw a lot of lightly damaged cars as salvage and heavily damaged cars as clean. I was told by one of the auction officals that it was up to the insurance company to issue a salvage title.

The big flood that hit Houston 3 months ago, people and dealers were selling water damaged cars as clean titles. How is that? Say you had about 4 inches of water in your car, the insurance would offer you like 50-75% value of your car because they feel it should not be totaled out. So there is no need to re-issue a title. Great for the owners because they take the money, clean the car out and sell it for full retail. A lot of buyers got screwed.

 

Your sig novel has it backwards in the beginning. The air flowing faster over the top of a wing reduces the pressure there, causing lift. While this is a small part of why speed creates lift in cars, its not the same. Lift under a car mainly comes from all that air being crammed under there and getting "suck" on the lumpy bottom of the car. The faster you go, more air gets crammed. This air still has nowhere to go. So when you carm more air into the same place...it tries to push the car up...off of the road. This is why a properly deigned front air dam or smoothing the bottom of the car can reduce lift a bunch.

Have a nice day

 

I think that is too many miles i agree tat u should pay a little more and get a better max.