i bought my brand-new fully loaded 2001 se about 1.5 years ago for $23,500 from a nissan dealership. only 17 miles on the odometer when i drove it home. every option available on the 2001 se.

 

here's a 00 blk/blk 5spd,lthr, heated, 45M on ebay. in NY! contact him to go check it out.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...&category=6400

i also noticed the 99 max used in Fast&furious for sale.

 

Dude, dealers use lots of sources to determine prices including NADA books (not the prices published on the web) not to mention what people are willing to pay. The NADA prices I quoted came from a dealer subscription book for the Southeast I believe. There is even a publication called "Black Book". In fact I have the black book prices for the AE which run about $17.4 for "xtra clean" which should be equivalent to wholesale price. I also have access to Manheim's auction site which shows all sale data at Manheim Auto Auctions across the country--and they're the largest. An AE hasn't gone through Manheim since February and here are the latest sale data they are reporting as of today 6/7/2003:

DATE Location Price Mileage Color Trans
01/21/2003 CHICAGO $ 15,700 46,351 GRAY A
02/05/2003 DALLAS $ 19,100 16,055 STERLING A
01/29/2003 DAYTONA $ 17,600 28,180 SUPER BL A
01/22/2003 RIVRSIDE $ 16,800 19,197 BLACK A
01/22/2003 RIVRSIDE $ 17,000 24,338 SILVER 5
01/22/2003 RIVRSIDE $ 16,800 32,569 BLACK A

Note these are actual sales. So you see even at an auction, dealers paid between $15.7 to $19.1 back in late Jan early Feb. Even if you knock off a full 10% for depreciation over the last 4 months using this data you'll get an average price at auction of $15.5 to $16. Given that any dealer is automatically going to mark up $2-$4 on a used car I think a retail asking value in the range of $17-$20 would be expected depending on the vehicle's mileage and condition. And, as I mentioned before value is largely based on what people are willing to pay.

And I wasn't knocking the 3.5L--I agree its an awesome engine. But for me, the engine wasn't as important as other aestetic factors. Sure I'd love to have a 3.5L but, I like the AE package better.

 

If you're interested, here's the latest auction sales. These are just averages of all vehicle sales across the country so it includes all types all options. Most SEs that go thru the auction don't have leather and all the options.

01,NISSAN,MAXIMA,4D SEDAN SE
Market Analysis
--------JUN 06,03 April --March --Dec. ---June 2002
Avg Price $13,983 $14,338 $14,451 $14,993 $16,426
Avg Miles 29,809 28,894 31,480 24,619 24,943

02,NISSAN,MAXIMA,4D SEDAN SE
Market Analysis
--------JUN 06,03 April --March --Dec. ---June 2002
Avg Price $15,163 $15,090 $14,954 $16,011 $16,054
Avg Miles 24,745 24,132 23,835 20,176 19,240

 

I couldn't agree more with you. Here in Northern New Jersey I could get a brand new 2003 Nissan Maxima SE (Base) for $20,000. Or an SE with a Moonroof for $20,900. And on top of that you get 1.9% APR for 60 months

 

Well that's how much you would pay. I won't drive a base model and loaded ones are difficult to find in any model year. Options are the most important thing to me. Its all about what you want versus what is available and what you are willing to pay. We obviously think differently about it. That's one problem when we're talking about a car with a pretty big swing in options and prices.