Looking at buying a high mileage 2001 i30t
The car has just less than 192,000 miles. Clean and normal wear and tear. Is owned by a 35 year mechanic.
What I know:
Its silver with black interior. Listed for $1,500. He will not go below $1,200. We have a verbal agreement. Buy or run? Thoughts? |
Mechanics usually drive a car til it is too expensive to maintain. They know when to get out of it. He pretty much replaced the whole front end of that car. That would scare me. I know rust is a killer in your area, but I personally wouldn't be comfortable with buying a visibly rusted car.
Trans solenoids can get gummy if not maintained. Definitely pay attention to that tranny. Drive it from cold start for at least 15 minutes. Preferably on a hot day. 5th gens have a semi-harsh 1-2 kick when cold if there are problems. After about 5-10 mins, give it a good go and watch for any slip. I always personally budget a car should get me by on $1,000/yr plus insurance and fuel, but try to include maintenance. If you think you can get about 2 years out of it, I would go for it. Beyond 200k, I would say there's a 15-25% chance of critical failure. Beyond 250k, 50% or more because of the NJ environment. But there are plenty out there you can finance in the $4500-$5000 range with 70k miles and probably much nicer shape. Play the waiting game. https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-...modelCode1=I30 ^^^ Example^^^ 105,000 miles LESS for $4500. If you drive 15,000 miles a year, it would take you SEVEN years just to get to the same mileage. If you follow my thought of keeping the cost of a car to about $1000/yr, that's $7,000 by the time you hit the same mileage. Decision trees and spreadsheets are my best friend. Check out this spreadsheet I used to finally decide to turn in our VW earlier this year. The VW was our expensive family car that I was going to commute with. Low to mid 40MPG. The extra fuel costs of driving our newest "gas-guzzling" I35 would take 23 YEARS to burn through the $13,000 price difference. 5 years from now, I could buy another I35 for $4000 and still have a 15-year supply of cash for fuel before I even hit the original cost of the VW. Even if I took the lawsuit payout and kept the VW, it would still take 11 years to pay off the fuel cost difference. So we sold it back to VW. I35 had 79,000 miles and VW had 56,000 miles. Try to think of a way to draft up something like that based on the car's value, life expectancy of the vehicle, and the expected reliability and repair costs. https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/maxima....cd2b0f3583.jpg Think long-term and choose wisely. Go in peace, my son. Lol fuel cost spreadsheet |
Thank you for the guidance. I've made similar spreadsheets. I log everything, including all of my fill ups and every dime that I put into my cars. Glad to see that I'm not the only one :)
This specific car will pretty much be a beater until I decide which new car I want to buy. I also have a much lower mileage 96 Maxima 5 speed that is currently not running. I generally keep these cars for maybe 8 months to a year and sell them off for what I paid for them. Once I get the 96 running, I will sell one of the two cars and keep one as a beater. The guy who has the car doesn't need a car for a while so he is selling off his two cars. In fact, he sold one is keeping this one until the second week of August, so I have a couple of weeks to decide. Seems like a stand up guy. The car has no abnormal underbody rust. It was coated when bought new. Body has some scratches and the rust spot on the fender is not all that big. He pretty much replaced everything that needed to be done for the mileage, but yes, the transmission is a bit concerning to me. This is why I dislike automatics. Is $1200 over paying assuming a good transmission? |
So I was able to drive the car today. Items of note:
The car would need nothing. It doesn't lose any oil... but seems that the transmission and steering noise are a bit concerning to me. My conclusion, he listed for $1500, he wants $1200. To my its an $700 to $900 car at most. I think i'm going to run because the guy was nice and I don't want to lowball him. I'm sure someone who doesn't know what to look for will pay him what he wants for it. |
Yep, as you started listing all that stuff you noticed, I was thinking "Never more that $1k" out the door for something like that. Good choice and good luck finding another one.
I would never touch anything with rotted floorboards (except my old '73 challenger I got for $3500). Anything less than 15 years shouldnt have rot or else it just wasn't taken care of. But I know you guys got salt like mad up there. |
Originally Posted by mydecember1985
(Post 9153757)
Yep, as you started listing all that stuff you noticed, I was thinking "Never more that $1k" out the door for something like that. Good choice and good luck finding another one.
I would never touch anything with rotted floorboards (except my old '73 challenger I got for $3500). Anything less than 15 years shouldnt have rot or else it just wasn't taken care of. But I know you guys got salt like mad up there. Most Nissans up here have rotted floor boards and/or rad supports :( |
Did you ever find Something? Not easy in that $1k-1500 buck range that is a whole car and runs.
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Originally Posted by MRANT212
(Post 9158665)
Did you ever find Something? Not easy in that $1k-1500 buck range that is a whole car and runs.
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Great car the Q50... many happy sMiles!
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Originally Posted by MRANT212
(Post 9158759)
Great car the Q50... many happy sMiles!
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I wouldn't go for it. Too much replaced for the year, owned by a mechanic says enough own its own regarding cost of ownership. If I went about it again i would buy a Q.
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Of course the car was owned by the mechanic. He couldn't legally sell it otherwise. He probably didn't own it that long, though. Just long enough to patch it up and sell it.
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