Started car, shut off and didn't idle - gave it gas and was fine
 

2001 I30 200k Miles

This old lady likely needs a lot of catchup maintenance, but its our backup car right now, so I'm trying to keep costs to a minimum.

It's been about a week since I started the car and this morning, I turned the key and it sounded like it started but then shut off and showed the normal warning lights. I did it again and same thing. The next time I gave it some gas and then everything after that seemed fine.

My co-worker is convinced its a bad EGR valve. I'm still a pretty newbie here.

What do you guys think? Any common failures that might be related?

Thanks!!

Is it only an issue at startup? Does it run fine otherwise, or does it hesitate at all?

I only noticed it at startup. The car is high mileage and makes other noises and such, but seemed to drive fine on my 35 minute commute this morning.

Is my understanding correct that the 01 to 03s do not have an EGR Valve?

Could it be a bad Engine Coolant Temperature Sensor?

You'll need to drive it more to find out the root cause. Driving it once a week or so will not help you diagnose the problem. We need more symptom information to off of, otherwise we'll be applying a shotgun approach with a lot of parts that you probably don't need.

Correct, EGR was in place up to about halfway through the production of 2k models. My 2k has one, but others, produced later on in the production year do not have it. Any Maxima/Infiniti thereafter does not have an EGR valve.

Very doubtful. Normal things to check relate to air, spark, and fuel. It could be as simple as your air filter box not tightly sealed or your throttle body needs cleaning, or a clogging fuel filter.