Before purchasing this Maxima...
 

Hey guys, I’m new to the site. I’m thinking of purchasing a 2003 Nissan Maxima SE off of a friend of mine. He’s owned it for the past two years and he purchased it from the original owner. The original owner was very meticulous as was he. The car is in near immaculate shape and runs and drives great! It has 164,000 miles on it. Clean title with no rust (NC car). He wants $3,800 for it and won’t take any less. Is it worth that? I kinda feel like it’s on the high side but I wanted y’all to confirm. Thanks!

Ask him how much oil it burns and watch his face twitch LOL. Good chance she's drinking.

You'd have to immediately gut cats or install headers lest you waste 3800 doll hairs.

Haha I actually did ask him that over text and his reply was “not much”. 🤔

Just my 2 cents... KBB lists the price for this car between $2500 - $2800 for good to very good condition. $3800 sounds a little high to me. I purchased an '02 GLE with 93K back in '15 for $2900. If it were me, I'd only pay up to $2.5 - $3K for a car that will be 15 years old and has that much mileage on it.

in southern california a maxima with 160K plus miles is 12-2000 tops. the car does look decent, but it is in no way worth over 3 grand, no way
at 3800.00 it's just comedy

let him ask 3800.00 shouldn't take long :laugh:

personally I beleive a car like this with those miles is do for a trans rebuild not to mention timing chains and tensioners

this my 03 with 130K miles paid a grand for it the shocks and struts were very loose


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/maxima....a9058731b5.jpg

Any more deals like that you got? I'm all in....pm me if you see more deals like that....I'm in Michigan and that price means...CRAP...rust galore, etc.

if you drop the trannie i'd go ahead and do the RMS too.
It leaks like a ***** on mine. 2001 3.0

Your friend has what looks like a really nice clean well taken care of Maxima. Although the price seems high for its given miles. Ask your friend for the nice "friend" price and get it mechanically inspected at a good shop so you have a better idea what your in for.

Chains/tensions don't fail (but precats do). Autos are luck of the draw, but there's nothing wrong the 6 speed if synchros are fine.
This is a 3k car easy anywhere in the rust belt (NC is close enough for people to come south/east). If it were loaded and hlsd, he could get full price from someone like an org member. For your crack head, worthless state's price, I'd buy it and swap engine/tranny.
A dealership would demand well over 5 grand, here.

I'm seeing a pattern in your posts...you don't know **** about maximas. That 4,500 dollar 7th gen (if tranny was actually replaced) just has a used one in it of unknown mileage. Hint: They swapped it to sell, b/c CVTs are **** and will cost over 2k for a rebuild. It's getting dumped before the used one fails.

This is a 3k car easy anywhere in the rust belt (NC is close enough for people to come south/east). If it were loaded and hlsd, he could get full price from someone like an org member. For your crack head, worthless state's price, I'd buy it and swap engine/tranny.
A dealership would demand well over 5 grand, here.

This is true.

Jesus, if there’s a clean 6spd with no rust in WI, guarantee someone has it for over $3000, and that’s even with 130k+

You're seeing patterns in my posts ? you must be pyschic, I have 10 posts here and two are in this thread.

Chains/tensionsers don't fail ?? I don't recall mentioning anything about them failing.

Would it be a safe bet that the tensioners on these cars may experience wear @ 164K miles, can the chains stretch and get loose ???

are these engines/cars know to have noisy timing chains??? In my experience, most sound like a marbles in a coffee can on cold start and thats long before 164K miles

Do the manual transmissions in these cars have a tendancy to leak gear oil
do to worn carrier bearings, cases and axles seals

What I know about these cars after driving them for 42 years and owning one or more from each generation is VAST I have also owned and driven a Z car
from every generation and my Daily is a VQ powered 350z

Are Legends psychic, clearly they must be

Does 3500 posts on the forum make you Legend, perhaps in your own mind

OP you can read about VQ engines and maxima timing chain and ternsioner wear

on google

you can also bone up on maxima gear oil leaks

I've owned two 5th gens with combined milage over 450k. I've never had any leak or non maintenance failure except for the icv. I think you only hear about failures because most people originally jump on forums to solve problems. Everyone I know has never had any real issues with the 5th gen except rust. There is a lot of Maxima's around here. I'm just saying that people without problems don't get on here and constantly talk about how perfect their car runs.

The 6th gens have a lot of timing chain issues. They changed the tensioner design for the 04+ cars and they were crap. It's almost unheard of for an 02/03 to have anything more than a slight rattle on a cold start. That's from the tensioner not pumping up fast enough. After that it's fine.

Same with the manual trannys. The early 6-MT cars would get a "3rg gear crunch" at fast high RPM shifts. They fixed it in the 6th gen tranny with a better syncro design. It's a very easy swap if the crunch gets bad. Good time to upgrade to HLSD too. Other than that they're mostly trouble free. I've rarely heard of one leaking and mine is bone dry with over 200,000 miles. My 300,000 mile auto doesn't leak a drop either.

Also buying higher mileage car id recommend getting the Blackstone oil analysis.

In two cars I've maintained from the year 2001 both had a smell of fuel in the oil at approx. 140000 miles.
Replacing certain injectors or all fixed the issue.

As far as oil burning would you have to pulll the timing chain, rollers and valves then replace stem seals?
​​​​​If excessive oil is leaking into the cylinders it could also cause a backfire?
So if you pull the plugs, the appearance will should tell you that?

9/10 times, the reason these cars burn oil is from chewed piston rings from a precat failing. The valve seals should remain intact as long they were not screwed with. To replace the piston rings would be an in depth job and require a lot of time and money.

Tylerw89,
Nice looking car. Mine is an 02 and also a manual. The guys here are putting out some good cautionary advice. I bought this car in 04 for about 17k. The maintenance has all been routine with the exception of an ECU that failed and caused confusion for several mechanics and the dealer. I have done the majority of the maintenance on my own with the help of some service manuals and the folks on this site. I am now in the process of gathering quotes to get some developing rust on the driver's side rear wheel well sorted.

I do not believe the seller will give you a hard time if you mention some of these potential problems and the price required to resolve them. Another edge that you have is that the pool of buyers that can drive a manual is limited. There is another thread going that outlines the struggles of an owner selling one of these vehicles in manual. Give him a number and let him sleep on it. The best negotiating tools are your legs. Once he knows you are walking away from the deal he'll work with you.


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/maxima....c6e710b34a.jpg

There's 2 things going against you, one it's a manual. Me I'd run personally, the F's the point of driving a manual grocery getter, but that's me. However there are plenty of people tearing up the Internet to find this car right now, which is why he thinks he can ask top dollar for it. At this point it's not about the value of the car, it's about what you think you're going to spend after you take ownership. The way I look at it, are the brakes good, tires new, runs good, cold AC, newish battery, and hopefully some components replaced like the starter, clutch, radiator...something to let you know there's a few parts newer on the ride.

Then second thing killing you is this thread. You're buddy will likely stumble across it soon enough. The way I see it, BB the car is worth maybe $2000, he wants $3800. If you can get him down to around $3000 you're both still in good shape. (of course depending on the car being in great running condition)

I just looked over the pictures, why does it have mismatched tires in the rear? 2 different treads. That's hillbilly. Anyone willing to do that likely cut corners elsewhere. Fug that, get him down around $2800 for that hillbilly ghetto sh!T.

Its a really nice looking car and the guy seemed to take good care of it but I wouldn't pay more than $3k for it.