My friend has always wanted a 4th gen Maxima. He has been saving for almost a year and he has $6000 plus a 94 Intrepid for a trade in. I doubt the dealer would give him more than $1,000 for the Intrepid because it has 150,000 miles on it. So lets say he has $7000 to spend.

He wants a automatic Maxima with under 100,000 miles, 97-99. No 95 or 96's he doesent like the design. The perfect car for him would be a automatic 97 SE, black with black leather. Those are rare I doubt he would find one under his budgit.

Ive been looking around on autotrader and other local used car books, and I cant find alot of 97-99 Maximas with under 100,000 miles for under $7000. I found some but they are in bad condition, and the ones that are nice are like around $10,000. Would it be safe to buy a Maxima with over 100,000 miles, are they relaible past that?

Any suggestions for our search for a Maxima?

autotrader.com http://www.craigslist.org/about/cities.html and cars.com Maxima's can easily go over 200k miles with only getting the tranny rebuilt. My maxima has 236k still original enginal and second tranny.

If he can't find a car within his budget then I would suggest he increase his budget.
Rather than buy a car that he has to sink a bunch of money into because of its mileage and lack of maintenance, he would be better off finding a well maintained, low-mileage car and beg, borrow or steal the money he needs to make up the difference.

It will pay dividends in the long run - short-term pain for long-term gain, otherwise he'll nickel and dime himself to death.

And what's wrong with a 95. I like my grille a lot more than the 97s. The only thing they have over the 95s, is bigger OEM wheels and a power passenger seat.

I like my cup holder, lol!

Do him a favor and tell him to get a 95 GXE 5Spd with no options. The $5g's he has left over will get him some nice mods or would be plenty to convert the front and rear to 4.5 gen.

Yeah, I told him to buy a little older one so he saves money. And with the left over money he could buy mods or make repares if any are needed.

The money is a major factor but I'm also referring to the options that the car comes with that really aren't that great. The stock leather isn't that great and custom leather is cool. $800 of that $5K he saved could go into leather. Sunroofs weigh a lot, leak, reduce structural integrity and raise the COG. Autos suck. I think the Bose is great but most people upgrade the sound anyway. GXE's are inherantly lighter and therefore faster, and handle better.

do him a favor and tell him to use that 6k as a down payment for something nicer and newer. he could have and number or cars from the early 2000's. he could even use it for a used z or something. 4th gens are getting to a point that they have out lived thier usefulness.

My 95SE has not outlived its usefulness. It has cost peanuts to maintain and I'm still thrilled to be behind the wheel. Thats why I have a daily driver that I don't care what happens to. Ten or 20 years down the road it will still have fewer miles on it than a lot of 4th Gens do today and will not have outlived its usefulness.

I got my black on black 1997 Maxima SE with 94k for 6800 and I think I overpaid by about 500 dollars. So what he's looking for isn't impossible at all.

tell your friend to buy my 97SE Black on Black with everything but the CD changer.
143K, everything works, not a single squeak.


Nick.

How much are you asking for it? Do you have a link to a For-Sale page with information and pictures of the car?

its not "officialy" for sale yet, i still need to repalace inner tie rods and get it aligned, and cleaned up.
Iam asking $5500 OBO.

please visit my cardomain page for pics.

Nick.