Well, the local Acura dealer has this '03 GLE, loaded with no navi, with 18K on the clock, for $21,995. I have to call the used car guy tomorrow to see about deals and my trade in. heres the deal. i owe $8500 on my AV6. trade in on my car is abou $6900 (KBB) and private party sale is about $8500. i have about $3000 worth of add ons that I can sell with it, as maybe a down payment.

KBB has the max listed at $23,575 for that year. the car also looks liek someone whacked the rear bumper against something, cuz its spider cracked, but other than that its great. what do you guys think? what would you do? there is nothing wrong with my AV6 yet, its got 112 on the clock, original tranny, in near perfect condition, but its just gettin up there in years, and my warranty is close to ending, i dont wanna push it.

so opinions/experiences/etc etc. im gonna talk to this guy later, maybe if its good, and i can get a good deal, i will put a small deposit down and try and sell my car.

i worked out on the loan calculator, if i can get 5% interest, and talk the guy down to 20 even for the car, dropping 3 large on the car will get me $320 a month...not bad at all. but thats for 5 years...4 years gets me $390....im anxious, because this maxima is one of the 3 colors i want...graphite with black leather, loaded.

maybe i can use that spider crack on the bumper for leverage, i dunno.

 

If you're really buying it, I would say offer them no more than 18-19 K

 

Price is way too high.

 

price is too high. Also if your coming from a V6Accord, you will be happier with an SE maxima and the nice 6speed stick.....(or can you get the 6sp on the GLE?)...

But if reliability/overall quality is your goal, stick with the accord. The max is a much better performer, but not quite the high level of fit and finish that Honda owners are used to (and I came out of a 92 Accord coupe....)

The VQ is much nicer than the Accord V6 IMO....just get a stick.

 

Only SE is available with a stick.

 

well, as sad as it is to say, i dont know how to drive stick, but i would really prefer automatic anyway. im thinkin about getting an extended warranty to cover it, cuz i know they arent "honda reliable", but my honda has 112,000 miles on it. my warranty is up in 7.

i might have been swayed to this side by stevtec and his honda-crushing torque figures that the VQ motors are pushing out. im gonna test drive the car tomorrow, but what do you guys think i should tell the guy i wanna pay? i mean, say i want an extended warranty, what should my OTD price on that be? im gonna use that bumper issue to my advantage too.

my only concern is that KBB says that car is worth 23500, and the dealer will just tell me they cant drop to my $19k with warranty price.

 

Buying that extended warranty is a leverage point. They make HUGE $$$$$ on extened warranties. But the Maxima resale ain't so good so I think that you can get a much better price than 21K. You can buy private party for a lot cheaper and then go to the dealer and buy an extended warranty.

Personally, with a car that is only a year old, I feel that private party is pretty safe. As long as the car is still under the 3yrs 36K warranty, you can go to any nissan dealership and buy the extended warranty.

 

When you test drive the car (by yourself hopefully), go thru the glove compartment, etc. and try to find in any service books etc who was the original owner.....call the owner and ask how much they got on trade, then offer the dealer 500 bucks over that ...otherwise walk.
If you cannot find privious owner, find out which Nissan dealer it was sold as....write down VIN, go to that Nissan dealer, be nice to service manager and maybe you will be able to get previous owner info...or if they don't give it up, ask them to call the owner for you and talke to them..... 18-20k is WAY to much.

 

wait, can you really buy an extended warranty from nissan? that is really the ONLY reason i am tryin to find a car at a dealer. i can get a loan from a bank im sure. if you can confirm that i can get an extended warranty from them, youll make me a happy man

 

You can buy an extended warranty from any car manufacturer

 

thanks guys. i was gonna rush into this particular car, but I think i would be better off selling my AV6 first, seeing what I have to work with and THEN going after the maxima. this one wont be the only graphite on black max there is out there

 

that price is alright for an 03 gle with 18k.. After owning both honda and nissan, if I were you I would rather trade in for an acura TL type S! You will be much happier in the end.

 

Price is too high; stealerships use the KBB since the price is higher than NADA; many banks/credit unions use the NADA when deciding on the loan value. If your interested in the car first see if you can get the stealer to use the NADA value.

 

Well, since the consensus is that the price is too high, im probably gonna hold off all together on this one, especially since i just found out about that extended warranty thing. im gonna see what kinda cash i can get for my accord and all the parts first, and see what kinda loan i can get through a bank at a decent interest rate. thanks guys, im glad i posted here first instead of just running in there half cocked!

 

KCMC: thats a little too much you owe on a car with 112K miles. It may seem like you may have a cash flow problem. You don't seem to have a real need for a new car, especially w/remaining wtty on it. If I were you, I would worry about the debt first. Once you buy a Maxima, you will be in a bigger hole financially.

 

There you people go again trying to drive down the value of your own cars and you're the same ones who're going to b!tch and moan when you go to trade it in.

 

y2kmax, i definitley dont have a cash flow issue, but i could always stand to use some more, haha. im considering this because i just paid off 2 credit cards and a computer loan, so i freed up some cash there, as well as the notorious problems the accord v6 has with its tranny, i dont want to be screwed when i am just out of warranty.

the reason what i owe is so high in relation to my mileage is simple...i got screwed. i paid too much for this accord that i just bought barely 2 years ago, with too many miles on it. its just a case of not enough research or effort on my part, and im paying for it now.

i will get close to the warranty running out with my av6, i manage to go about 5-700 miles a week somehow, so im just concerned, with my original transmission on a car plagued with tranny problems, i dont want a $4000 repair 6 months out of warranty, ya know?

 

wait, so did you have any issues w/tranny in your car? Just the speculation about the problem alone is not worth you being 3 grand upside down on your Accord @ moment of trade-in, $1.5K dealer profit on a used Maxima, AND 3 grand depreciation on that Maxima the 1st year. Also, who said the new tranny on Accord is $4 grand? It more sounds like you just want to join the dark side of VQ, and this is more "emotional" than practical.

 

no, i havent had any tranny issues, but im tryin to do preventative maintenance. i know parts and labor on the 98-99 guys is somewhere around the 3-4K range, and we are not included in the recall/whatever it is. the more i think about it, the less i am considering a trade, unless they give me the buyout price ($7600) which i seriously doubt. i DO want to join the dark side, haha, but my main concern is the accord tranny out of warranty. it scares me more that there arent really any symptoms...just one day the tranny could just go. for the next 7000 miles im ok, but after that worries me.

 

ok whats the likelyhood of your cars tranny to fail? 1 in 300? Oh what the hell, once you've been introduced to VQ there's no reasoning with you. Just get the damn Maxima lol

 

haha, no thanks man, i really appreciate your information. if you check out the accord forum and see the tranny death problems, im not over reacting at all. i do kinda have it stuck in my head that i want the maxima and all its VQ glory, but i will go over the numbers 100 times this time around, to make sure i can do it, and it wont not be worth it.

 

I was thinkin' the same thing...

 

i completely agree with irish although i do not have an 02 or an 03 go with the max...

 

nissans do have good reliability, i have my 92 240sx and it has 190k on it, and it can still smoke cars. my buddies 93 maxima, and it has over 130k on it, in my experiences the nissans do have good qulality/reliability

 

Maximas are very reliable cars. Speaking from experience, I've owned 3 Maxes, 92, 97 and 03. My 03 is a GLE with 8k miles now. I bought my 03 in Oct 02 for $26.5k (MSRP was slightly over $30k), before tax and tags. My fully loaded 03 GLE (w/o nav) rides quietly and it is quite luxurious, and I highly recommend 03 GLEs, as a whole.

The used 03 for $22k with 18k miles seems a bit high in price. That is always the case if you buy from dealers, as they need to make a profit. Believe if or not, dealers may end up making more money on selling used cars than new cars because everyone knows how much is MSRP and invoice for new cars.

 

Okay look I'm drunk and don't feel like reading anything but your thread title. My friend got a 2002 Accord the same time I got my 2002 maxima back in 2002. He had leather and I did not and the thing costed him 3K more, it was way slower and just sucked in general. Get the max and loose the Accord.

 

Man save your money buy a hybrid and feed your damn kids!!!